Greetings everyone and and a warm welcome to all my new subscribers this month. The last month of Autumn has gone by in a whirl of falling leaves and an
exuberant blooming of roses. On a beautiful Sunday morning I enjoyed picking and arranging chrysanthemums and roses for the Mothers' Day celebrations at Sages Cottage Farm (pictured above). The misty garden was festooned in dew-covered spider webs which became invisible when the sun come out brightly. |
I thought the yellow leaves of the pomegranate tree were a highlight against the blue sky, and the geese seemed to agree! In a matter of days the Japanese Maple lost all of its leaves and they were quickly raked up and taken to the compost pile. It is always a joy to find a space to plant new roses, so I was delighted to be given a neglected corner of the garden to spruce up. The Wormwood hedge (pictured below) was full of dead wood and falling out of the
ground. It quickly surrendered, and interestingly the soil underneath had few roots and was easy to dig over as I added in some compost and Seamungus pellets. Even though we were very near the end of the potted rose season, I was able to acquire five beautiful David Austin rose bushes, and get them into the ground just in time for Mother's Day. And four out of the five have had some lovely blooms on them. Pictured below is Dame Judi Dench with its ruffled apricot-orange petals, and a green button eye, which is hard to see in this photo, but will be fun to capture at a later date! It has a light-medium tea fragrance with a fresh note of cucumber and just a hint of kiwifruit. The Lady Gardener has large quartered rosette blooms of a pure apricot colour which are paler towards the outer petals. This rose also has a tea fragrance with hints of cedar and vanilla. The rose was named for Plant Heritage, a charity group who aim to protect Britain’s garden plant diversity. Jude the Obscure named after the character in the Thomas Hardy novel of the same name has a globular bloom form in pale yellow, and the fragrance of a sweet white wine with a hint of guava. Gertrude Jekyll has perfect scrolled buds which open to large, rosette-shaped flowers of bright glowing pink with the quintessential Old Rose fragrance. It is named after Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) the British horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, and wrote over 1000 articles for magazines such as
Country Life. The final rose, Emily Brontë, hasn't flowered yet, but here is a picture of it on the label of the rose. It is described as 'an exceptionally beautiful rose, the distinctive blooms are very neat and rather flat. Each bloom is a lovely soft pink, with a subtle apricot hue, the smaller central petals deepening to rich apricot and surrounding a button eye, which opens to reveal deep-set stamens. The strong Tea fragrance becomes more
Old Rose, with delicious hints of lemon and grapefruit.' The rose was named for the Brontë Society to celebrate the bicentenary of the Emily Brontë’s birth. Emily suffered from poor health and only lived to thirty years. She is best known for her only novel, Wuthering Heights, a rather dark tale, which makes it fitting that this
rose can be grown in partial sunlight. As I send this out on the eve of Winter, I just want to take a moment to celebrate the special gifts that Autumn brings. I hope you enjoy
this selection of Autumn-inspired paintings I have curated for you, beginning with Closing Autumn by American painter, Willard Metcalf (1858-1925).
Autumn Leaves by American modernist artist, Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986).
Golden Autumn by Isaac Levitan (1860-1900), a classical Russian landscape painter who advanced the genre of the "mood landscape".
Birken am Moorgraben
by German Impressionist painter, Hans am Ende (1864–1918).
I hope you enjoyed taking a little
break with me. Until next time,
Love and
roses,
Michelle
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My Latest Novel: Upsizing
A story of living large in later life, showing us that it's never too late to follow your dreams. The soft cover book is 214 pages long and costs $20 (Australian Dollars) per copy via the button below with free shipping worldwide. Also available from online book sellers.
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My First Novel: Rose Garden Reverie
A story of transformation set in a rose garden with rose care tips throughout the seasons. The soft cover book is 110 pages long and costs $20 (Australian Dollars) per copy via the button below with free shipping worldwide. Also available from online book sellers.
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May the beauty of nature inspire you everyday
Michelle Endersby Art
www.michelleendersbyart.com
phone: 0400 473 173
[email protected]
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