Hi Ingrid, yup it's time for some distraction! Your garden is always a pleasure to see. How I wish we could walk around each other's gardens together.

Here is William R Smith (oops!), who has suddenly put on a huge growth spurt. I know he's one of your favourites.

And here's a 'Peach' wallflower. You can see my tiny box plants to the right. I planted them last year, and they're really getting a go on now.

Trish

Well Ingrid, I'm new to gardenweb so your garden is not 'old hat' to me! I love seeing it! Gardening soothes my soul and is my salvation from doom and gloom, so I'm glad it is the same for you too. Your garden is lovely and it would give me absolute joy to tend to such beauty! Wonderful job!

Most of mine are red, which I know you don't prefer, so instead I thought I would post a photo of Susan Williams Ellis. a photo of my favorite pink double azalea and a photo of my lonely Duchess of Edinburgh clematis bloom. When the bloom opens it looks very similar to Susan Williams Ellis!

Beautiful... I always enjoy the photos of your garden. Wish I had some pics to share, just getting started with roses and mine are all babies. Maybe next year...

I never get tired of seeing your wonderful garden Ingrid. The great thing that unites everyone on this forum is our love of our roses. Here are a few of mine.

Trish, that is a dreamy shot of William; I'm flattered you remember he's a favorite. I have a young one that will soon be transplanted to Tea Rose Row. His predecessor did not survive there, but I'll turn myself inside out to make sure this one makes it. Good luck with your little box plants.

Cori, your rose is simply beautiful. So is the azalea, which is something we don't see much of here. I never see clematis either, but in the dry hills where I live people don't seem to garden much at all.

rhoder, I'll be looking for some roses from your garden next year. It's satisfying just to see the little roses put in growth, even before they bloom.

boncrow, you posted at the same time as I did, so I'm just now admiring your lovely roses. Your Duchesse de Brabant has so many more petals than mine and looks absolutely gorgeous. I wonder if mine doesn't get enough sun. I might also try fertilizer, anything to make it look like yours.

Ingrid, your garden is always beautiful and much appreciated! The roses have been my solace this week and seeing these lovelies has helped. Thank you!

Ingrid, I hope the bit about the ammo is a joke, though my sister did just that, in her case because of a household member showing symptoms of mental illness. Enjoy your roses. Take not thought for tomorrow. There's something to that effect in the New Testament, and I think it's good advice. I get negative obsessive thoughts myself and find it's quite a battle to free myself from them, but working in my garden is a perennial joy and always helpful.

I don't have any photos for you, but how about a word picture of my cyclamen? There are patches of these under the persimmon tree in front of the house. Hardy cyclamen look like florists' cyclamen, in delicate shades of pink; they start popping up from the bare dry ground in early September, thinly at first, then in increasing numbers. They grow from corms (I think they're called); these increase in size over the years, and the cyclamen seed, too, and spread the colony further. After a few weeks the foliage starts to appear: the leaves are elegantly shaped and are marbled, the pattern of marbling varying from plant to plant. I'm lucky that one of my original corms had silvery leaves; they're lovely, and you can tell the offspring of this particular plant because they have silvery leaves too. As of today, November 13th, the cyclamen are still going strong. The little patches of soft pink and green and silvery gray are now ornamented by the orange and gold leaves dropped by the persimmon they grow under. The weather is cooler and moister than when the cyclamen began their flowering, and on cool gray days and on sunny golden autumn days the cyclamen are the freshest, most hopeful plants imaginable. The foliage will last all winter, then everything will subside to rest when it starts to warm up for spring.

On a practical note, this species is Cyclamen hederifolia or C. napolitanum, the hardiest and most commonly available of the hardy cyclaman. Its beauty aside, it's an excellent garden plant where adapted: it doesn't get disease and pests don't eat it; it lasts forever, increasing over time; it seeds itself around but isn't invasive.

I've been wanting to spout off about cyclamen, but I hope this helps.

Melissa

Ingrid, this was the first time my Duchesse has had that many petals but I hope it continues, it seemed like when the weather cooled down from being in the 100's to the high 80's is when she produced more petals in her blooms.

I love seeing rose garden photos. I know I would never get tired of looking at my own garden, lol. Please post more. Helen

Thank you for your kind words Ingrid. Azaleas grow quite well here in shady or partially shady spots. Maybe it's their shallow roots, along with the mature trees that have contributed organic matter to mix with the clay soil. There are a lot of pine, spruce and redwood trees around so I'm sure that helps. I find they need much less water than many roses, but they are in much shadier spots so that could also be why.

I don't see very many clematis around here though. They're so fickle here. Which is why I only have one. I let it weave between bushes in the shade, don't really give it special attention and at times forget about it because it doesn't really flourish, but it also sticks around and doesn't seem to demand too much in the place where I have it. When it blooms it is quite pretty though. Here is the lonely, singular bloom opened up. It's weaving around an azalea bush.

I find that the Rose Susan Williams Ellis and this clematis have a similar look to their bloom form.

I enjoy seeing your wonderful garden. Thank you so much for posting photos!

It's always a joy to visit your garden, Ingrid! Thank you for starting a photo thread. I am enjoying everyone's images this morning. If I can find a way to post photos using my lame technological tools, I'll jump in, too. Carol

I'm with you Ingrid. Your photos are exquisite as always, as is your garden. We will never get tired of them.

A welcome change from current events, thank you... and all looking rather good from everyone... certainly a feast for my eyes right now...

I think I know how you feel...and I don't have nearly the blooms you have. I never tire of your photos. Please keep posting. They give me hope for my own garden.

Some blooms on the orchids, but not the roses.Guy de Maupassant, Bolero, Abraham Darby have miserable looking blooms that I won't even show.

The last of 'Munstead Wood.'

The first and last of 'Freedom' which I rooted from the roses given to me by my honey on Valentine's Day. I'm not sure why it is so dark, since it was a classic red in the vase. It's been at this stage for more than a week now.

Well, how about some orchids? I wish you could smell them.

Brassavola Little Stars smells like Easter Lilies x 100.

I think this is Blc. Raye Holmes 'Newberry' which is a strong typical orchid fragrance. After being open a month, it just faded.

Neofinetia falcata smells like those orange creamsicles I got when I was a kid.

Looking at all of the roses, makes my heart sing...

Like so many, I/we needed that... thank you all :) Special thank you to Ingrid for starting this thread.

:) Happy Sunday!

noseometer, I didn't realise orchids could be so perfumed, or could look like 'Little Star' - very cute.

Cori Ann, your photo made me smile! Pretty posies, and I like the pewter? jug peeking out.

It's stainless steel with a hammered copper coating. :) It's my fashionable way of dealing with drought. It's one of my water warm-up pitchers. :)

Titian - oh yes, Little Stars gets so fragrant when the sun goes down, that sometimes I almost have to leave the room, or just luxuriate in it for a few minutes, then leave. One spray of Neofinetia falcata fills the room as well, and always makes me search the refrigerator/freezer for something sweet. When they both bloom together .... Wow.

Ingrid, I don't often post here, but I always love seeing your beautiful garden, full of roses I can never grow ;-). Sorry you are feeling down. Hardly any roses in bloom any more to 'give' you, but here is the biggest and most beautiful bloom my young Munstead Wood ever produced. It was enormous, and quite flat and intricate. The colour was much deeper than in the picture.

Heritage is not quite ready to give up after a few freezing nights, though the end is coming. This was last Monday:

Melissa, here is my one little C. hederifolium. I also have C. coum for the spring, but both are rather iffy here. I always try again, because I absolutely love them. Wish they would grow in sheets here. Saw that in Holland.

Noseometer, you have Neofinetia falcata!!! I had that when we lived in Korea for 10 years. It is called 'Wind Orchid' there. So beautiful and elegant with those long spurs.

Here's to you, Ingrid. Awakening, Viking Queen and Blossomtime today in reverse order I see.

Thank you, each and every one of you, for your words and wonderful pictures. The sense of warmth and community they gave me are just as precious, if not more so, than the roses and other interesting plants and sweet kitty that you shared. I feel so fortunate to have your wonderful companionship here.

Ingrid, you are tougher than you know.

That you see the kind of results you do in your climate where no one nearby has any sort of flower garden is a tribute to your dedication. I hope you can enjoy these cool months and your precious animals who visit and take shelter there. Moods are like weather, th e y come and they go. You, like your garden, will endure.

Keep the pictures coming, we love them.

kitty, you are a ray of sunshine. Also, it rained again last night!

Your garden always looks great to me, Ingrid. And isn't this rain wonderful. I got all my winter veggie seeds planted just in time. Lisa