The extra warm weather has inspired the rose bushes to explode with color.
It's a frenzy of blooming madness.
Time to collect them, dry them, make rose water and…
Tie them up in bundles to use later.
I have squeezed 3 blog posts worth of photos here to share today.
So many pics, here we go…
Rose season brings the crazy rose lady out in me.
Mostly because I can't stand to see any go to waste.
I love to hang them to dry because they are so pretty under bell jars and in curio cabinets year round.
Our garden has been such a haven whilst we have both been sick.
And the warmth, oh such nice warmth.
When it gets very warm, you have to move fast so the roses are not so spent that they will fall apart when they dry.
But you also want a chance to enjoy them.
Luckily, pruning is your friend, and will only yield a boat load more.
Right before I got really sick, I went around the garden and collected a large tin of all colors of roses.
They were breathtaking.
I am convinced that roses are the best thing for my garden.
After years of trying every sort of plant, I have come to believe that the rose bushes are the most forgiving, and withstand the most.
The lavender ones are incredibly fragrant.
Breezes and petals…
I racked my brain trying to think if there was anyone I could deliver these too.
As I felt rather greedy keeping them all for myself.
I did enjoy them so.
And there are still oodles more today.
The days have been so beautiful and healing.
With that magical spring light in the late afternoon covering everything in a dusty romantic haze.
Feels almost like a dreamy mirage.
I realized I didn't have it in me to do all the pruning because of my cold, so I got some help from Mister Lovee when the neon coral roses exploded…
Yesterday afternoon felt quite like the secret garden…
I was snapping photos, when all of a sudden, a little fur turned up 🙂
Anyone up for a game of try to take the bear away from me?
I love the shady afternoons in our front garden.
Such a nice place to be at 6 p.m.
The pups come back to life after sleeping the warm day away…
Hanging around in their garden.
Mister Lovee was a great help…
Pruning and hauling away.
Taking a break…
Being patient as I collected almost all the flowers he was pruning off the bush so tall.
Bundling.
These neon coral roses turn the most beautiful berry pink to red when they dry.
I collected ever so many…
Then I picked that huge bunch up in my arms, as Mister Lovee laughed at my antics.
With the fake Miss America wave 🙂
We stood under the arbor, and I tossed petals up in the air around us.
I reminded him how, the first time I ever came here 12 years ago, happened to be around this time.
Late April.
I was bewitched by these very roses, which he let me collect in a bug bucket.
I then made paths of petals everywhere.
I thought this was one of the most beautiful places I had ever been.
Secluded, birds chirping madly, beautiful, simple, humble, lovely.
I remember feeling so very young and free and quite fairy like.
My heart full.
Then we both coughed and coughed (sicklings), and teared up over the memories.
I never left.
Who would have thought?
That this would be my sanctuary for good?
Mister Lovee would always say, you belong here.
You belong here.
I did.
I do.
It was a feeling.
A knowing.
I had never felt more at home anywhere in my whole life.
This little void I carried around with me for as long as I could remember being alive, filled up when I found my way here.
To Mister Lovee and this place.
Over the years, I have added dozens more rose bushes.
And loved every minute of my time at this little pad of earth in the desert mountains.
Collecting and drying roses…
Season after season after seaon…
With many more to come.
I hope.
🙂
We are in the lasts of our colds, yay!
Happy Happy Spring!
Is it warming up where you are?
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE ALL THOSE ROSES. It is so true we have such a short blooming season….”gather ye rosebuds while ye may”. LOL
xo
Jo
Oh how Beautiful your Garden looks!! Roses are my favorite flower…I can almost smell the amazing fragrance from your photos! Thanks so much for sharing this lovely bounty from your home🖤
xoxo
Dena
So glad you are feeling better, Vanessa. Your story about first coming to your home is so very similar to mine. I found my love and my home here on the farm 11 years ago….and felt the same as you…like for the first time in my life I was complete. This was where my heart belonged….and will stay until it beats its very last beat…
Beautiful. And what a nice beginning for you and Mr. Lovee.
Still c-c-c-cold but there are tiny little flowers.
You have PURPLE ROSES?
For reals?
Your roses are magnificent!!!!
My roses won’t be blooming for at least another month.
I just love roses in the garden too.
Your photos are beautiful! I just love those lavender ones! Our spring flowers (tulips, hyacinth, daffodils) are finally starting to bloom. The trees are finally budding. A little late this year. It was in the 70s today! :0) Back to the 50s in a few days though. :0( Glad you guys are feeling better. Miles looks like one of the garden statues!
Thanks for sharing your bounty with us!
How I wish I could have such a garden…we don’t have much of a yard…and I use it to plant food…I am glad you are feeling better…yes I still lurk your wonderful blog..;)
The loveliest of love stories. The roses are magnificent and the colors are incredible.
So nice to see everyone is saying good bye to their under-the-weatherness. Matty is looking good and rather regal…yay !
Lovely post 🖤
What a magnificent garden with gorgeous roses. I can smell them, too.
I always thought it was difficult to grow roses and that they are prone
to disease. I don’t have much land, but I might be able to find room for one or two rose bushes. There you go inspiring me again! Glad you’re getting better.
OmGosh in the 90’s here to day…it is a little early for such a warm up . We have it all week then i saw 70’s for next week. Thank goodness!! Roses are surprisingly easy to grow (Ms. ex-Garden Center employee talking here..lol) The biggest things you have to remember is they do not like ‘wet feet’….Don’t get me wrong they love water but they need to be watered then allow the ground to dry between waterings so you don’t need to water them nearly as much as you might think , make sure they have good drainage… And when you prune prune by the end of February at the latest(TX}…. and if its a climbing rosebush and something needs pruning wait until after it blooms or you will cut off all your blooms…..That is the wisdom that was given to me and now i pass to you…lol…..I had a lot of luck growing them in TX but i haven’t tried here….Your roses are gorgeous V however you take care of them YOU are doing something right!Hugs! deb
Deb, we pruned our roses after the last frost this year, and it got hot so
quick they went bonkers growing like mad fast, and blooming fast. Eeeeks!
I hope I get one more wave of blooms after taking all of these. That big
coral bush and the big cupcake pink rose bush are over 35 years old, can you
believe it? Roses are so much easier to care for than I ever knew.
And they dont seem to mind getting battered in the Arizona heat that
much. Of course, they dont gift many roses when its that hot.
Mister Lovee hails from the east and midwest, so he has taught me much about
gardens etc. But he also had to learn a few things when he moved here in
the late 70s.
Well, I have sprinklers etc going, and I am doing my chores very late since
I was still not 100% this morning. Chores chores chores 😉 The Veg
garden is a hot mess- any tips on how to keep weeds down?
Blog: http://www.aFancifulTwist.com
Website: http://www.VanessaValencia.com
In a message dated 4/29/2013 6:41:24 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
for a minute i thought my name was your blog title…rosey bonser..i had to read it twice ~_~ i love your floral blooms, they are maginficent. before my mother in law passed away 13 years ago we gifted her a purple rose called ‘love potion’, it had the most magnificent perfume i have ever smelt. recently i encouraged my sister to plant one in her garden and we get great joy out of picking the blooms and marvelling over the fragrance and the shape of the petals…stunning. hope that you recover swiftly and you can sleep under the stars soon. xxxrosa bonanza 🙂
Ooooo… It’s like The Secret Garden for sure! =D
I’m glad you guys are almost better. ^-^ A little more time in the garden should fix you up all the way…
Those are some of the most beautiful roses ever… I have not-so-secret dreams of having a rose garden someday… happy sigh…
XOXO
Ahhh all those pictures of your roses are like soothing magic on my soul. I am weary today and bogged down in work and the mundane. Just for a few minutes you helped me escape. 🙂
I’m glad roses are the most forgiving, because I can’t seem to get anything else to work for me. Even half the roses don’t make it here in this clay soil. I’m going to try more this year, though!
I do have a few tips to help with weeds… 🙂 . I will assume you would rather not use chemicals…right?? Unfortunately the tips i have for are probably too late to incorporate this year….So…next year…stay on top the weeds… I know you are sick now but if you are better next spring ..don’t let the weeds get a jump on you and definitely do not let them get so tall they go to seed….then you might have lost the battle…Just never let them get firmly entrenched…even it that means you set aside specific time to weed every day… Okay thats one tip…Another tip..and this takes a little prior planning…Cover the garden with plastic before you plant some people use newspaper…cardboard…when the plants underneath are dead till up the ground wet it…your trying to weed seeds to germinate…when you see some good weed coverage again (but before they flower and produce seeds of their own)cover it with the plastic again and kill them again…keep repeating until you see no more weeds coming up…. If this doesn’t take care of ALL your weeds it will at least greatly reduce the weeds you have to deal with……Hope this helped a little…and i made sense to you.. LOL! Hugs! deb
my idea of heaven is your garden <3
Deb,
I have some newspaper down – the weeds are not huge yet, but there are
millions of sprouts – and i have been pulling them on hands and knees and am
just done 😉 EEEKS!
Blog: http://www.aFancifulTwist.com
Website: http://www.VanessaValencia.com
In a message dated 4/30/2013 6:48:26 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
Awe Kelly……… I will always remind myself of that when I am out
there…. thank you…..
Blog: http://www.aFancifulTwist.com
Website: http://www.VanessaValencia.com
In a message dated 4/30/2013 7:39:27 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
Beautiful roses- oh my gosh!
Wishing you both a speedy recovery!
Could it be?:
http://www.cdc.gov/fungal/coccidioidomycosis/
Roses, roses, roses…so divinely beautiful!
My mother gifted me with a cutting last year of my favorite rose she had in her front garden. I think it is ‘Love’ or ‘Peace’ the one that is a light pale yellow that blushes to a coral pink. It reminds me of ‘Burmese’ glass which is a frosty yellow hue with a pink blush at the fluted edges. I once went into an antique store in Long Beach, CA and an elderly lady must have had hundreds of pieces of ‘Burmese’ glass ware. It was her own private collection and my grandmother and I thought the steps that led from the shop were part of the rest of the shop but it was her private residence and she said ‘Oh! No! No! This is my house!’ and shooed us out….but at least we caught a glimpse of her wonderland of Burmese glass ware. She must have owned half of what is in the world! Anyway, whoever created that glassware must have been inspired by that very special rose.
thanks so much for sharing your amazing flowers with us sweetie! what a nice way to go off to dreamland 🙂
oh I finally planted my first rose bush lol well second actually..the banks roses need no help from me though..so I am truly a beginner with this one,…and after seeing this, I plan to plant more and hope they will be fragrant. hugs!
xoxo
Deb
We are better thank you!! Just the common cold, thank goodness
😉
Blog: http://www.aFancifulTwist.com
Website: http://www.VanessaValencia.com
In a message dated 4/30/2013 8:37:35 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
I was riding my horse coming in to town,
Across the desert with sun coming down.
Oh, how thirsty, I needed a rest,
When rose scent filled my breathing chest.
Was it a mirage that filled my eyes,
A bloomin rose garden of enormus size.
And there a sign and a lil’ white cafe,
said ‘Selling drinks and Sweets to people by way’.
How my stomache rummmbled and tickled my sides,
I had to go in so I quickened my horses stride.
I sat at a table that was round and square,
As a girl appeared with cake in her hair.
The frosting matched her frosty lipstick,
She sang and danced and took my order quick.
And just as I stirred the sugar in my tea,
Cakes started floating all around me.
A cake parade with roses all around,
“May 1st is here” was the resonating sound.
Happy May Day – pinch myself its true!
Cowgirls and roses during tea time too.
XO Pinksterita
PInksterita!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my heart!! I want to be there
toooo!!! xoxox
Blog: http://www.aFancifulTwist.com
Website: http://www.VanessaValencia.com
In a message dated 5/1/2013 8:45:25 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
You are my favorite photographer of all times. It’s your eye, your subjects, your heart. I know that feeling of “knowing”. It is a most wonderful thing. A Holy thing. I do not believe that I have ever seen a more beautiful rose garden than yours. **sigh** Brought to mind a sweet memory of the early years in my Old Home when the Brawny Man was going to the nursery and asked what color rose bush I wanted, and I replied anything but yellow (no longevity in this sun), and he came home with a yellow rose bush with gigantic flowers that smelled like BEER! We forever called it the Beer Rose. **happy smiles** Deb
P.S. Regarding the weeds, vinegar in a spray bottle will kill most weeds here in the desert. Just put the sprayer on a stream spray and not too close to your plants.
What a blessing! It really makes you glad to be alive and living the life you’ve chosen. Lovely roses…happy times! And yes, it’s warm here in Florida!
Ah yeah, Florida = hot already and we’ve had a ton of rain in the past two days. I welcome it though because my gardens are in desperate need, especially my baby Don Juan rose bushes. I hope they get as beautiful as yours. I’m in LOVE with the lavender colored roses…so beautiful.
Next time they flower that much, you should take a bunch of bouquets to a nursing home or a hospital for either the maternity or the childrens ward. Everyone loves seeing something like that. You’d make their day.
as walk through your garden…….amazing. I don’t think I could cut them though!
val, this is so funny…. for about 8 years, Mister Lovee and I would fight
every time it came time to prune the spent roses. And he would promise me
that, more would grow, and the bounty would last longer. Even after the
last frost, for the major before spring pruning, I would FREAK out, and say, no
no no, you are cutting them too much.
So, 2 years ago or so, I became in charge. And I found out he was
right – that was the only way I came to be able to bear the pruning, trimming,
and dead heading times…..
Isnt life funny like that?
And in return, I got more 🙂
Life lessons or something like that they say, I am hard headed 😉
Blog: http://www.aFancifulTwist.com
Website: http://www.VanessaValencia.com
In a message dated 5/1/2013 2:49:56 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
Oh Vanessa, I was never into roses at all until I saw these photos! I’ve always been much more inclined towards edible landscapes, native species… but your roses… OH YOUR ROSES ARE FAN-TA-BU-LOUS!
LOVE.
And what a marvelously enchanted way to get better!
I think you may just have ignited a little fire for roses, my dear. tsk tsk! 😉 I don’t know if my NorthEastern garden will put up with them?
And since you’ve asked… Spring HAS finally come to us! We went from hail to tank top weather, virtually literally, overnight. Today’s high was 23 (74.5 Fahrenheit) while just a 3 days ago it was only 44 Fahrenheit.
It has done WONDERS for my soul, the warmth on my cheeks, sunscreen on my kids, a day building bean, pea, and nasturtium trellises with a friend here on my little piece of heaven. Just wonderful!
I hope you’ve had a very merry May Day!
(In passing, I wasn’t able to login with my twitter account from Firefox, Safari, or Chrome)
So absolutely lovely! My daughter had bought me a lavender rose bush like the one you have, and it did have the most amazing smell of any rose ever. Such a beautiful place you live, Thank You for sharing your magic garden with us. Now I want roses… 🙂 Xo
I so wished I lived close to you. I love to spend the day in your garden. Sigh.
It is finally getting warm here. I love the smell of spring when the apple blossoms bloom. It is heavenly.
Oh my goodness!!! I have changed my mind completely about roses after seeing this. 😉 They actually have never been a favorite flower…until now. This is dreamy, something out of a storybook. I love it!
Haven’t stopped by in a while, Vanessa, but always a pleasure.
xoxo’s
Gorgeous and magical!
Me, me, deliver them to me!
I feel like I think I remember how amazing your garden is, but then every year when you post pictures it seems even more breathtaking than the year before!
Amazing Miss V, you live in such paradise! xxxLaurie
Dearest Vanessa…this is almost too gorgeous to handle….you have a piece of heaven on earth, that is for sure….breathtakingly beautiful…
I am so sorry to hear that you have both been sick…but on the mend I hope!? If that is not a most healing place, I don’t know what is…
Bless you, lovely one…
xoxo
You sweetie! I love how our roses have gone crazy this year. It’s been more humid than usual, so they come and go in bursts. Have you noticed how lavendar roses (we don’t have those) smell peppery? I love that!!
We are both lucky girls.
xo
I wish we had humidity here!! 😉 It is like negative humidity,
hahaha! Although, I do LOVE dry heat better than humid heat. But I
love cool humid days that feel like California. I have smelled peppery
roses, we have some deep red ones as such. For some reason my lavender
ones smell so crazy perfume sweet and intense it gives you a little head jolt
when you sniff. I wonder which ones are the peppery ones? Roses are
so terribly interesting to me… Love, V
Blog: http://www.aFancifulTwist.com
Website: http://www.VanessaValencia.com
In a message dated 5/8/2013 10:08:39 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
Such a sweet little story! Now I want to begin a search for another rose bush. I need to find some wood chips to pile 3 inches in hopes to keep weeds down. They can not be pulled, they go all the way to China… lol. Turning over the soil and weeding does no good. I watch a homesteader on YT and she swears by plain wood chips. She calls it her Back to Eden garden. What an abundance of roses you have collected. I wish I could remember the names of my roses. One I had years ago was a muted lavender color. It think it may have had the name Dusty in it. I had left the tag on it but it has been so long ago now. I moved from there. I wonder if it still blooms? My more recent one I don’t believe it has the name tag on it. I should be more careful. I will check tomorrow. Rosewater is my favorites! Glad to hear you are feeling better!🌿🌹🌹🌹ðŸ’🕊🌿🦢🌿ðŸ’🕊🌹🌹🌹🌿