Celebration of Roses

FTLComm - Tisdale - Sunday, July 14, 2002

The average fussy home gardener needs to see this page. We all want our yard to look great but it is also nice if it doesn't take a lot of work. Petunias are so often the choice of so many since they a simple to grow and flower for much of the summer but this is an alternative worth considering. This yard in the South part of Tisdale has been enhanced entirely with the use of rose bushes. Keep in mind that roses are a shrub, you plant them once, give them a modest amount of care and a little water and they will reward you with totally glamourous flowers and aroma.

This home owner has a modest little flower bed around the unsightly power pole in the front lawn, he has added a bolder, a blue spruce and some washed rock to create a perfect low maintenance home for a set of Rose bushes. The setting is not only very attractive but it is also a great balance to the lawn and distinguishes this yard among its neighbours. Though the Roses dominate the flower bed and along the West walk beside the house there are some other shrubs and some peonies which are also perennials. I really like the idea of this yard being ready

to start each year all on its own, no planting just a little cleanup and pruning and the year will flourish another year. Both the pink and red flowers look a smell delicious. I find flowers like these very hard to photograph with a digital camera. Film is able to capture the subtle shades of a bloom but the CCD in a digital camera is overwhelmed with the saturated concentration of colour.

This view of the beautiful brick and surface treated driveway and walk is remarkably enhanced by the shower of Roses along the house. Low maintenance, simple elegance and durability are all on the side of planting a perennial like these hardy roses, beats the heck out of petunias any day.