Decision and Blooms

Been up at night wrecking my brain with garden ideas for the rental house. I have a journal I keep in my bed (my husband is already living in Minnesota, so the journal lives in his spot with a stack of magazines and books), and as I'm falling asleep I sketch ideas. One key decision keeps me from finalizing a design for my new garden beds: plant in waves of color or contrast?

The roses are the main component in color choice- and I work from there. Eiether I plant all my similra hued roses in cluster creating the effect of drifts of color through the garden, or plant them all close to complementary colors creating a chaotic effect of masses of color from a distance.

Every night the differen ideas win, and every morning I change my mind.

This morning I'm focused on the drifts of color idea. I see 3-4 purplish roses from a distance (including Heirloom, Purple Passion), next to 3-4 yellows (including Golden Celebration, Carefree Sunshine), next to 3-4 reds (including Proud Land, Scarlet Knight, Europeana...) and so on. With one big mass of all the sunset-hued roses I have (including Dream Come True, Playboy, Disneyland, Chicago Peace, Christopher Marlowe, Morden Fireglow, and more... ). Wow, I have a lot of sunset-hued roses. Haha!

Part of the fun of gardening is playing with these ideas, and I feel lucky to get to pick every thing up and move it around in a whole new position... in a whole new yard.

Meanwhile, my Clivia is blooming. This is from my grandmother's garden in southern California, and spends winters in it's big blue pot in my basement under the shoplights. When the blooms come (March/April) it moves upstairs and lives in my dining room window.

Happy Gardening!