Devon - you have such a way with words! I'm drooling over that garden you describe already. Your description is so visual I can just picture this gorgeous garden.

Aprille

I suspect that the celebration of Valentine's Day got a big push from the florist's trade. I don't know whether it was serendipity or deep art that landed the holiday of romance and red roses in the wintriest, most flower-starved time of the year.

Devon in California can better nourish such a fantasy as he presented than I in my bleak February Italian garden. My attention has recently been caught by hellebores. We planted a couple of orientalis hybrids late last winter, and they came through the summer and are now blooming handsomely, as is the native H. foetidus. We just planted two more garden hellebores. Also in bloom are violets and miniature irises, sarcacocca, with visually insignificant but fragrant flowers, and Daphne odora. To sum up my own feelings, I don't want red roses in February, but I do need flowers this time of year, badly, and so am discovering and planting all the delicate flowers of winter.

So, to each his or her own image of Valentine's Day. Devon, thanks for describing yours, and I hope you have a beautiful and romantic celebration, full of flowers and fragrance.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Melissa

I love your fantasy Devon. Valentine colors are my favorites, pink and red together.
One of my gardens is called the Temple of Love. There is a beautiful metal domed structure with a staue of Aphrodite in the middle and a host of cherubs here and there. There a story attached to it. I first saw the structure along time ago at a place 4 hours from here. I wanted it badly. Michael thought it was too ridiculously over the top. We talked about(argued a bit) it for months afterward in a joking way. We refered to it as the Temple of Love. Then one day Michael just said"I guess we'll just have to drive out there and pick it up" That dear man. He set it up for me and I created the Temple of Love Garden around it(our last name is Temple) Michael loves this garden. It's all white and yellow though not pink and red.

Devon---you are so precious-----can I adopt you ???

Pam I remember when Michael bought that arbor for you your garden is so romantic---I too love pink and red together.

I love the red in my Dublin Bay rose but sadly it needs more sun---however in our little town of Yardley there is a small rose garden and the Dublin Bay is delicious--
My son has an arbor with DB at his Perennial Farm and his cutomers love it.

Happy Valentines Day everyone.

Florence

When I was in elementary school there was a house we walked by on the way to school that had wrought-iron work of hearts with metal cut-outs of Cupids. It was the coolest thing, and very well done. Everyone called it the Valentine house. I happened to drive by there a few years ago and the iron work was still there and it still looked great.

Hoovb, it's so funny you should mention wrought-iron hearts.
The gazebo implied, in the garden I talk about, is made of
wrought-iron in my mind with scrolled hearts all around.
That was my original fantasy of it, anyway and I should have
included those details in the original concept. But what a
cool memory to have about your childhood! It's great that
the house has not changed, too.

I immediately thought of Pam's Mendocino Red Rose Ridge, when thinking of a Valentine-type garden. It's the most romantic garden I've ever seen.

Mine never has that look, at any time - not my style, I guess. And right now, it's pretty drab. A few blooms on Comtesse du Cayla and Phyllis Bide, and daffodils just about ready to bloom - and some pansies and daphne and cyclamen to brighten things up, here and there. My Valentine's Day garden will have to be in my heart and imagination, thanks to your description, Devon, and the memories of gardens that I've visited.

Although I've got to admit, every day in my garden is Valentine's Day when I look at all of the things that my DH built and installed for me. He put up arches, built raised beds, and laboriously installed walkways. The man dug out a giant rose (farewell, Cl. The Fairy, you vicious beast) for me last Sunday. Who needs flowers, chocolates or greeting cards when all around the garden are reminders of his loving help?
Anita

Anita,

The most touching memory I have of Valentine's Day is one when I was in the local supermarket and saw the men in the checkout line--this was in the evening right after work--each prosaic, workaday figure holding a bouquet of flowers to take to his sweety. THIS is what it's all about.

In spite of my laments about our garden in February, today it's tolerably sunny and warm, and my husband is working on a pergola in our shade garden, one of the numberless projects he has done for me. The pergola is to keep 'Treasure Trove' off our heads as we descend the path: we obviously planted this rose in the perfect spot, as it is completely happy while we do absolutely nothing to take care of it. But it's impossible to train up the locust tree as we had planned, as our ladders are too short, the slope too steep, and our bones too brittle; so he's putting together a rebar-and-wood pergola that 'Treasure Trove' can sprawl over while we walk beneath. The pergola, plain though it is, has magically transformed its area into a GARDEN--it's amazing what can be accomplished by a structure--and meanwhile I'm with my husband, enjoying his company, investigating the late-winter woodland, checking and mulching our plants, and feeling that this really is our day of love.

Melissa

A great big Thank You to everyone who commented here.
I wish you romantic garden inspiration and the most pretty
of roses, to bloom in your gardens.

Thanks to,

Aprille,
Melissa,
Pamela,
Florence,
Hoovb,
and Anita

All The Best,

Devon

And yes, Pamela's garden, is a garden of romantic abandon.
It must be inspired by Cupid himself.

If you have such a garden with a statue of Cupid and all, shouldn't you also have a planting nearby of the 1942 AARS winner Heart's Desire? I used to grow it years ago. It is a red hybrid tea with an unstable color, but the fragrance of this rose was really nice. I think it would be appropriate in a Valentine's garden.