Very lovely flowers you have!

Thank you Konrad! It's been over three years in the making. I'd like to add more fruit bearing plants, this forum is quite helpful.

I love your roses. They are beautiful! I don't have many. I bought a beautiful "Chocolate" supposedly "Hardy" rose one year and when I got home, I researched how "hardy" it was. Zone 5. :(. That winter, I did all kinds of things to try and keep it protected, but obviously it wasn't enough, it did not survive the winter. I did buy a Winnipeg Parks one last summer and it survived. So, I'm happy. But, I LOVE the color of your Morden Sunrise!

Here's my favourite flowerbed at it's peak this summer. This bed was entirely revamped last summer, to provide more color and texture for a longer period of time. I really achieved what I was working towards and am extremely happy with the results:

Here is another pic of Morden Sunrise, as the blooms get older they become a nice pale yellow.

Thanks, prairie_northrose. It worked out very close to what I'd planned, but there's still a bit of tweaking to do. I was studying it the other day, making mental notes to move this over there to fill in that spot, move that over here. After years of being on gardening forums, I now realize that it's normal to always be tweaking things like that.

I did bury my Chocolate rose as per the cold climate rules, and I piled sand up along the stem late fall to protect it even higher, and I put a stool over top the plant to use as a breathable frame so I could put more protection around the whole plant. And I piled snow, lots of snow, around it for more insulation. Still, it didn't survive. We do get winters that normally dip into the -30's C. and sometimes -40's especially with the wind chill factor. Oh well. I do have three different types of roses in my yard now... just not the beautiful ones that I'd like. And I have that little beetle like thing that eats my rose buds, so... I should avoid buying any more. I'll just have to view them from afar, as I'm checking out every one else's posts. I'm on four different gardening forums each summer, so I see a lot of beautiful roses... well, pictures of roses. ;)

You all have lovely flowerbeds!

Yes, beautiful inspirational photos the two of you have posted :)

Here's a few photos from my place.

Lovely! Is that a Hydrangea in the last pic? What type?

Yes, the bottom photo is of a 'Fire Light' hydrangea. Canadian Tire had lots of them earlier in the season and so did some of the greenhouses.

I am glad to know it is normal to be moving plants plants around and tweaking things!

Twors, I like your placement of surrounding the hydrangea with annuals! It is a clever way to fill in the space while the bush is establishing. We planted 'Limelight', 'Little Lamb' and 'Quickfire' this year but the bed looks a bit sparse, perhaps some temporary annuals around everything might be my answer, instead of constantly moving perennials....

Are those pink flowers phlox? I have seen quite a bit of phlox blooming everywhere lately and it is quite inspiring!

Prairie_northrose, thank you so much for the fantastic photos!!! Your roses are absolutely gorgeous!!! So very inspiring.... I need to plant more roses in my next yard! :-)

Thanks ostrich! Some of the new roses are so compact, it is so easy to collect them. The end of season sales are hard to resist, Superstore and Canadian Tire had many things down to a dollar last week. How are your hydrangeas doing?

Twors, I also really like your pruned spruce. I was thinking of perhaps pruning a cottoneaster or a carragana into something fun one day.

Perhaps an elephant.

PNR, yes that's a phlox ... 'Anastasia', a new one I had gotten from Veseys last year, a very bright color that really catches one's eye! I've had the topiary spruce for many years, it was one of those must have plants to bring along with me from the farm.

Very nice, you have a the space to show case which helps too!