petals

Oh what a storm

I really don’t know how the majority of my roses and flowers manage to stay mostly intact with all the rain and storms we’ve had this summer.

We just had a big rain and hail storm and yes there are petals littering the ground around my flower beds, but there are still a lot of flowers on my plants.

I guess I’ll just count myself lucky and cross my fingers as we’re expecting more storms!

I took that photo while I was safely inside my enclosed back porch. It’s through the screen so it’s not as clear as it could be, but it’s not that bad. The vertical streaks are rain and hail. For some reason it never looks like it’s raining as hard in my backyard as it does in the front!

The hail was literally bouncing off the ground and making large splashes!

Speaking of hail … I managed to capture one as it fell:

That while blurred blob in the red circle is a piece of hail. I’d say for the most part that the hail was approximately the size of M&M’s but that one looks bigger .. maybe grape size?

We’ve had more hail with our storms this summer than I can ever remember having! We’re lucky that the hail in this area has been rather small. Some areas (even other parts of Toronto) seem to get even larger hail – like golf ball size and as a result there’s been a lot of damage to cars and other objects this summer thanks to the massively sized hail!

I love how you can actually see the hail “trails” in this picture as it falls to the ground and lands on the grass.

Have you had strange weather in your area this summer too?

Showy first bloom – Climbing Westerland Rose

by Tricia

Join

I’m nuts about roses. I certainly have enough of them growing in my garden to support that statement! I have 60+ rose bushes!

Other than caring for roses and looking at their lovely blooms the next best thing for me is taking pictures of them. Especially ones like the photo above. Isn’t that rose just delicious?

This is one of my new roses. Remember I lost several roses last winter (2006/2007)? It was a cold winter here, but we had very little snow cover that year so the roses and some of my other plants took a beating and some of them had far too much winter damage to survive.

So ….

I replaced the dead roses with five new ones. The rose above is called Climbing Westerland. I planted it around the end of June last year and to the best of my knowledge it didn’t bloom last year at all. Surely I couldn’t have missed huge tangerine blooms like that?

I’m certain I couldn’t have … so lets say these are it’s first blooms for me. What a show!

The blooms are quite large, semi double, fragrant and simply gorgeous.

I certainly like my new rose friend. Do you?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information. GTS participants remember to check in at As the Garden Grows each week so that we’ll know you made a new post!

Flowers of Spring

by Tricia

Join

My garden is still blanketed in a heavy coat of snow. There’s perhaps two or two and a half feet of snow across my whole backyard including the garden beds. I’m actually happy about that.

Why? Well most winters around here it snows a little bit and then it warms up, the snow melts, then it gets really cold and my poor little plants are left to bare the cold naked without any cover. Well baring any leaves that we might have piled onto the beds in the fall.

Now underneath all that snow my plants are hibernating. They’re insulated from the freezing winter winds.

I’m sure it won’t last much longer. We’re bound to get some warmer weather soon and with luck it will just keep warming up.

Some of the first flowers to emerge when the snow melts away will be the Crocus’. They’re beautiful spring flowers. I love how they open in the sun and as the afternoon goes by and the sun loses it’s strength each flower slowly closes until it’s petals touch. Crocus blooms will last for about five or so days, opening and closing each day.

As much as I hate all the snow we have I know it’s there for a reason. It’s protecting my garden. Soon though, it will be time for those first flowers of spring.

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information. GTS participants remember to check in at As the Garden Grows each week so that we’ll know you made a new post!

Showy first bloom – Climbing Westerland Rose

Meta

Connect with me