Roses are a reflection of life

You know roses are a reflection of life and they are like a poem, a rose can say so much without saying much at all. The feeling silky soft rose petal fresh evokes tenderness; the fragrant aroma of a new pink spring brings refreshment; the bright colors of red, pink, peach, purple, orange, yellow and white roses remind us of the dazzling beauty of creation; and get pricked by a thorn causes pain.

Columbine or Aquilegia Flowers

The flowers and leaves of columbines have a dainty, airy quality. Several of flowers have long spurs, and they come in every color, including bicolor in which the inner row of petals is one color, the outer petals (sepals) and the spurs another. Heights also vary. Most bloom in mind to late spring. Aquilegia Canadensis “Common Columbine” is yellow and red and grows one or two feet. A caerulea (Colorado or Rocky Mountain columbine) is blue and white and grows up to three feet tall. Both are Native American wild flowers. A chrysantha is yellow, two to three feet. A vulgaris is shades of blue and rose and grows up to three feet. A flabel lata (Japanese fan columbine) is as short as six inches although sometimes as tall as 1 ½ feet with bluish leaves; available varieties are usually white or blue and white. In addition there’re many hybrids; “McKana” and “Dragon Fly” hybrids in mixed shades are medium height; “Biedermeier” strain are mixed and shorter. “Snow Queen” is white; “Crimson Star” is red; “Maxi Star” is yellow. In general the species are Zone four, while the bybrids Zone Five. 

How to Grow Columbine or Aquilegia

Columbines normally do well in either full sun or part shade. They only transplant well when small, and are sometimes short lived, but have a strong tendency to self-sow, and volunteer seedlings can be moved to the desired location. All need well drained soil. Leaf miners, which make white tunnels in the leaves, do considerable harm in some gardens, but when the tunnels are merely unsightly they’re best ignored. 

How to Grow Snapdragon (Antirrhinum Majus)

Snapdragons are perennials grown as half hardy annuals. Flowers grow on spikes of varying heights, from six inches to four feet. Rocket varieties are tall, sentinel are somewhat shorter Floral Carpet is very low but spreads widely. Colors can be pink, red, yellow, orange, purple, rust and white. There is always a place for their strong, vertical accents in the flower garden, and I find they bloom long after frost has cut down many other plants. As a bonus they’re a long lasting cut flower, so plant extras. 

Well, if you want to grow this flower, then sow seeds indoors at least six weeks before the last frost, and transplant to the garden six to eight inches apart, as soon as you have some vigorous seedlings about four inches tall. They are cool weather plants that can be sown in August in warm climates for fall blooms, or in winter for early spring bloom. They like fertile, slightly alkaline soil. Pinch at four inches for bushier plants and more flower spikes. Cutting the flowers helps them to keep blooming. They will often self sow. 

Light salmon-apricot, petals translucent and centered with a small gold burst of stamens

Light salmon-apricot, petals translucent and centered with a small gold burst of stamens.  You can see similar blooms waving in the blue sky; they and all the green-gold leaves are suffused with midday brilliance.  This is "Ambridge Rose", flowering on a little rose-tree above the steps to my cousin's garden where I took the photograph, memory of delightful weather and plants that are bouquets of roses.

This rose fits in well with our English Old Rose Hybrids,

This rose fits in well with our English Old Rose Hybrids, even though it has a little of the Leander group in its genetic make-up. This shows up in its rather shiny foliage. It is a superb rose with flowers of an unfading, strong yellow. Their formation is most pleasing, having a neat outer ring of petals enclosing an informal group of petals within. The growth is low and naturally rounded, making it an ideal rose for a position towards the front of the border. There is a rich fragrance with strong lemon tints at first, becoming sweeter and stronger with age.

THE WILD ANEMONE-ROSE

It will bloom in May-June and I will show it to you at the seaside. Its fine scent is out of the world and I fall in love every year to its unique beauty. It has been originally in the 18.century found and called the Japanese Rose or Anemone (rosa rugosa - of corrugated leafs) and is now common in Europe but at its best only here at the wild Atlantic coastline withstanding storms and salt spray in the dunes.