I've got "Sally Holmes" rose envy. One of my favorite roses, Sally Holmes is a great country rose charmer and it's flowers remind me of multiple bridal bouquets bursting with happiness. I have a climbing Sally Holmes rose which I adore, but I have never seen a Sally Holmes rose as happy as the one my girl friend has planted auspiciously in her front yard on a low split rail fence.

Sally Holmes rose was originally bred in England, and brought to this country in 1976. It has many attributes besides its good looks. It is prized for it's vigor, long bloom season, fragrance, and stout disease resistance. Its pale white-creamy flowers are tightly packed in clusters with deep green foliage, creating a romantic look. It is a shrub rose, but can be trained as a climber.

Sally Holmes roses do well in Zones 5-9. They like full sun. The average size of this rose is 6-8' high by 4-6' wide.

This delightful rose works well in the garden with planted companions such as hydrangea, viburnums, junipers, ornamental grasses, and generally most perennials. Wherever you plant a Sally Holmes rose, I'm sure you will be delighted.

Please share if you have a Sally Holmes rose in your garden. Please comment on how you have planted your Sally Holmes rose in your garden.

VintageGardenGal Tidbit Thyme...

Attention Chicken Lovers! Spruce up your chicken coop for VintageGardenGal's Annual Chicken Coop Photo Contest. Send in your photos this month to bonnie@vintagegardengal.com

Just when the heat of late spring is too much for my annual sweet peas and they start to fade, my perennial sweet pea, Lathyrus latifolus, seems to kick in and surprise me with it's "oh so delicate" orchid-shaped blooms. Looks are deceiving, however, there is nothing delicate about this sweet pea perennial plant. It is a workhorse as beautiful screen for you in your garden, natural banks, roadside fences, and hard to plant areas.

Hardy to Zone 3, it is more drought tolerant than annual sweet peas. It likes sun, and will bloom more profusely with plenty of sun. Perennial Sweet Pea comes back year after year, easily self-sowing and can reach 9 to 12 feet high. It blooms late spring to summer.

Perennial sweet pea flowers are quite different from it's annual sweet pea cousins, too. They have no fragrance. Their flower palette is very feminine, blooming in shell pink, white, and mauve colors only. The perennial sweet pea flower is a diminutive 1" size, smaller and less wavy ruffle, from the sweet pea flowers you are most likely familiar with.

Each flower is a perfect tiny orchid shape, aligned in a straight row of spray on its vine. Perennial sweet peas are great as cut flowers in arrangements as a small bouquet, or using the entire dramatic vine with its spray of  sweet pea blooms.

It has history, too. It is an heirloom vine, which Thomas Jefferson grew, enjoyed, and called "everlasting pea"  in his day. Modern day, Sweet Pea Queen, Renee Shepard, of Renee's Garden has the Perennial Sweet Pea seeds available to purchase on her website.

In celebration of  all moms on their special day,  Happy Mother's Day!

Blueberries are one of the easiest and rewarding fruits to grow in your garden. Blueberry bushes look great in your landscape. Blueberries are so good for you, and tasty. In a previous post, Feed Your Blueberry Bushes Coffee Grinds I write about my blueberry bushes.

A recap on blueberry basics. Blueberries like sun, water, and good drainage. They do best with two different varieties planted near each other. Grow blueberries that are best for your climate. Some of the varieties that do well in Southern California are O'Neal, Misty, and Sunshine. They are acid-loving plants that thrive with added cottonseed meal, or like I do, coffee grinds to their soil at regular intervals. It is easier in Southern California to grow blueberry bushes in wine half barrels. Grow varieties with different harvests times for a longer blueberry season. Harvest your blueberries when they turn blue, and are sweet to your taste. Blueberries are so good for you, full of antioxidants. Blueberries can be used in sweets and savories.

I have the biggest thrill harvesting my blueberries from "bush to table." My blueberries are such a treat. I use them in many ways, but one of my favorites is to make weekend Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes. I found Martha Stewart's recipe years ago, and it is hard to beat, Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes. Enjoy!

Please share if you grow blueberries. Please share your favorite recipe using your home-grown blueberries.

VintageGardenGal Tidbit Thyme...

Attention Chicken Lovers! Spruce up your chicken coop for VintageGardenGal's Annual Chicken Coop Photo Contest. Send in your photos this coming May!

Encinitas Garden Festival is Saturday, April 30, 2011. For more detailed information and tickets, please visit Encinitas Garden Festival.

A friend of mine gave me a cutting of what I know now is Fremontodendron, Fremontia, or Flannel Bush. I planted it in a corner of my garden against my brown woodland stucco wall, and basically forgotten about it until now. However, this spring-blooming evergreen shrub with its brilliant yellow starfish-shaped flowers, won't allow this plant to be a wallflower anymore.

The Flannel Bush is a native shrub to California and some parts of Arizona, within optimum Zones 4-24. It is a shrub, but can be shaped into a small tree by pruning its lower branches. It is a fast-growing plant, which can reach up to 20' tall and 12' wide. It naturally has an irregular shape, so it benefits by pinching young growth to encourage new branching and shaping by pruning unruly long shoots.

The Flannel Bush likes full sun, and no additional water. It thrives with the average annual rainfall it receives in its native habitat. It is extremely drought tolerant. It has shallow roots, which means young plants may need to be staked. It can be a short lived shrub, and some fellow gardeners consider it a bit finicky to grow. It is a low maintenance shrub.

If you have yellow in your garden color palette, or need a spark of yellow at times in your garden, you might want to plant a Flannel Bush. Plant it, leave it be, and wait for its wonderful spring awakening with its dark green foliage and rich lemon yellow flowers. This is what is blooming in my garden right now.

Please share if you have a Flannel Bush in your garden. Please comment on your experience growing a Flannel Bush.

VintageGardenGal Tidbit Thyme...

Attention Chicken Lovers! Spruce up your chicken coop for VintageGardenGal's Annual Chicken Coop Photo Contest. Send in your photos this coming May!

Encinitas Garden Festival is Saturday, April 30, 2011. For more detailed information and tickets, please visit Encinitas Garden Festival.

Sweet peas flowers are usually trimmed at their stem base for a tight bouquet of elegant color and perfume. This style can loosely be described as the "Biedermeier" style, a European hand-tied style tightly structured flower arrangement in a circular pattern. See my recent post, First Bouquet of Sweet Peas.  Author, Debra Lee Baldwin, graciously commented from that post, "Did you know that the fragrance of sweet peas has never been duplicated chemically?" Something that I did not know, and makes sweet peas all that special.

For another style using sweet peas, try cutting your sweet peas in long boughs, in other words try cutting and using your entire sweet pea vine. It is an entirely different look for sweet peas, similar to a dramatic "tossle" of some one's beautiful long mane. Cutting sweet peas in this manner, you have a larger bouquet, whimsical sweet pea tendrils, the fragrance and color of romantic sweet pea flowers, and the wonderful texture and color of the sweet pea vine itself.

In the above photo, I have used a mid-century flower stand rusted container with height, and character. These un-named sweet peas, their seeds a gift from a garden club sharing table, are a combination of white and ivory sweet peas, elegant and romantic. This type of cut arrangement will last and provide enjoyment for at least a week.

Please comment if you have made flower arrangements using sweet peas in this style. Please share your favorite sweet pea to grow.

VintageGardenGal Tidbit Thyme...

Attention Chicken Lovers! Spruce up your chicken coop for VintageGardenGal's Annual Chicken Coop Photo Contest. Send in your photos this coming May!

Encinitas Garden Festival is Saturday, April 30, 2011. For more detailed information and tickets, please visit Encinitas Garden Festival.

What is blooming in my garden now. My Ceanothus, or California's wild lilac. Sometimes it is hard to find pretty  shades of blue colors for your garden. Usually blooming in late winter or early spring, the Ceanothus heralds "spring is coming."  This drought tolerant California native is delightful. I always look forward to its profuse blue blooms in my garden each year.

Ceanothus, an evergreen shrub, comes in many varieties, shapes, and blue color flower spikes. Some Ceanothus varieties are low and spreading, others are shrubby and bushy, and like my Ceanothus Ray Hartman, some have a tendency to grow upright and can be groomed into small trees. Flower colors range from pale blues to deep dark violet blues. There is even a Ceanothus with white blooms. Each variety has its own unique color. Their spike-blooms are showy and long-lived.

Ceanothus are very easy to care for and generally low maintenance shrubs. Ceanothus like full sun, and very little water. Avoid when planting Ceanothus, drip irrigation, summer water, and soil amendments. As a California native they prefer to be dry, and rely on our natural rainfall. Prune discreetly after their bloom time.

Don't be afraid to get "Blue in the Garden," think of  the dramatic Ceanothus. They thrive in zones 5-9, 14-24. You won't be disappointed. Please share if you have Ceanothus in your garden. Please comment on your favorite Ceanothus.

VintageGardenGal Tidbit Thyme....

On Friday, March 18 at 4:00 p.m., national partners (Plant A Row for the Hungry, Garden Writers Association, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, Keep America Beautiful, National Gardening Association and Franklin Park Conservatory) will join Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in the dedication of a series of reading, learning and community gardens in East Los Angeles. The installation event is part of the recently launched GRO1000 gardening and green spaces initiative and helps to kick off Keep Los Angeles Beautiful's Great American Cleanup.

This garden event will be held at the Proyecto Pastoral Community Center in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of East Los Angeles, 135 North Mission Road, Los Angeles. Approximately 200 area students, as well as members of the Guadalupe Homeless Project, will join Mayor Villaraigosa and GRO1000 national and local partners in the garden installation and dedication. One deserving student at the event will also be presented with the national Give Back To Gro Youth Gardener Award.

GRO1000 is a partnership committed to the establishment of 1,000 community gardens and green spaces over the next seven years throughout the United States and abroad. The initiative seeks to broaden the opportunities for individuals and communities to experience the benefits of community gardening and access to green spaces.

Additionally, community organizations interested in participating in GRO1000, by installing their own community garden, edible garden or green space, are able to apply for a GRO1000 Grassroots Grant by visiting http://www.thescottsmiraclegrocompany.com/GRO1000. Projects should include the involvement of neighborhood residents and foster a sense of community spirit. Interested organizations have until March 31, at midnight EST, to apply.

Yesterday, I cut and gathered this wonderful bouquet of sweet peas out of my garden. The first beautiful bouquet of sweet peas for this year. If you plant sweet peas each year, chances are you are going to have early sweet peas, even in February. It has been a few years since I had my hands on the original seed packet, but I think these are the Heirloom Sweet Pea, Painted Lady, from Renee's Garden. Renee loves sweet peas, and has researched and compiled quite an assortment of sweet peas to indulge in.

Painted Lady sweet peas dates back to 1737. Wow! It is an early bloomer, and tolerates heat well. I love the pink and cream bi-color, and its scent is mesmerizing. I had to bring them in to enjoy. Cutting sweet peas for bouquets encourages more blooms. The more the merrier!

Please share if you grow sweet peas each year. Please share some of your favorite varieties.

VintageGardenGal Tidbit Thyme.... Special Garden Speakers Coming to San Diego soon!

The Village Garden Club of La Jolla is pleased to present Paula Pryke, world renown floral designer from London, will speak and share her fabulous floral creations and latest books. Thursday, April 7, 2011 at 1:30pm. For reservations and more information visit Meet the Masters 2011, Paula Pryke.

Jeffrey Bale, Portland-based world renown landscape architect, speaking on "The Pleasure Garden" on Monday, April 11, 2011, 7pm. For tickets and more information visit, Special Speaker Event, Jeffrey Bale hosted by the San Diego Horticultural Society.

I was able to landscape in front of our home quickly, simply because I was inspired by a perfect $10.00, five gallon "Little Gem" magnolia tree. I have always loved magnolia trees. When I saw this "Little Gem" magnolia tree, I thought  I could create something different and focal using espaliered magnolia trees. From this one special tree, I drew inspiration for a color scheme, complementary plants, and garden style.

When inspiration strikes you, act on it quickly. You can get inspiration from just about anything and anywhere. It can be an object, a color, a setting, a single tree, or even a beautiful phrase of words. You just need to be open to it.

"Little Gem" magnolia trees have beautiful green leaves on their top side and a distinct brown-bronze color on their underside. Ah...garden inspiration, chocolate or bronze color, wtih a smidge of blue-purple color, and a hint of deep wine-cranberry pink color. From this palette, I looked for plants that had these colors, that were low to medium height, drought tolerant once established, and were basically in the Mediterranean style. The following is a list of plants I used in my design.

Chocolate Color Plants Magnolia Tree "Little Gem" New Zealand Flax, Platt's Black Summer Chocolate Mimosa Tree Bugleweed Bronze Ajuga Reptans Red Fountain Grass Red Hook Sedge Pittosporum Harley Botanica (Bronze Structure)

Blue-Purple Flowering Plants Rosemary Tuscan Blue Rosemary Huntington Carpet Duranta Sweet Memory Nemesia "Blue Lagoon" Bugleweed Bronze Ajuga Reptans (Blue Flower Spikes) Ceanothus Concha

Pink Flowering Plants Redbud Tree Lavender Twist Muhly Grass Mallow Barley Boysenberry

I might have waited until spring to landscape in front of our home, but inspiration hit, sparking this planting. The fall season is perfect for planting, and establishing plants over the rainy winter. Most of these plants were on sale which was an added bonus.

Resources: Armstrong Garden. Evergreen Nursery, and Home Depot.

Please share if you have been struck by an inspiration that prompted something new in your garden. Please comment on some of your garden inspirations.

VintageGardenGal Tidbit Thyme... From Our Coop to Yours, Happy Thanksgiving!