Roses always love the cooler temperatures of fall - and the ones at Brookside Gardens were no exception when I was there last week. The color in other parts of the gardens was from fall leaves….and the lights the crews were installing in preparation for the Garden of Lights which will be from November 23- January 6.
Enjoy the slide show!
What are your favorite smells of fall?
The smells I most strongly associate with fall are:
Leaf tea. The smell of wet leaves and pine needles on walks through the neighborhood or hikes through a forest are earthy and often very much like black tea and herbal teas. They remind me of how much I like hot tea as the weather turns colder.
Harvested herbs like basil and mint. I let them dry on a tray in the kitchen before storing them away for use all during the winter.
Pumpkin pie baking. The wafts of cinnamon, cloves, and ginger are so appealing whether they are the real thing or in candle form.
Roses. Roses tend to burst into bloom when the summer heat wanes. They have a wonderful last hurray in fall before the frost takes them.
What are your favorite smells of fall?
As we walked around the Smithsonian Mall and the US Botanic Garden in Washington DC, the plantings were representative of ones that are truly at their best in this area just before the leaves turn and then fall. The roses like the cooler weather. The grasses have full seed heads. The asters show their blue and purple color liberally. The dogwoods lead the color change and the winterberry has bright red berries that contrasts with the green leaves still on the bush. There may not be as many butterflies but the ones that are still around may be easier to see because they don’t flutter as rapidly in the cooler temperatures. Enjoy the slide show of these beauties of early fall and celebrate fall!
Brookside Gardens in September is making the transition to fall. We went first thing in the morning; the temperature was decidedly cool. Here are the highpoints of what we saw:
Enjoy the slide show!
A dozen roses wrapped in cellophane and tissue paper…or maybe in a large crinkly glass vase with a florist's bow. I like the ones that:
They are a welcome occasional gift; I’d not appreciate them as much if they were bought too frequently. As it is, I get them once or twice a year and they act as a spark to remember the event.
I like roses on their bush even more. I enjoyed a trek through the rose garden in Tyler, Texas a few years ago even though it was a very cold morning (and I did not have a coat with me). And the rose garden is one of my favorite parts of Brookside Gardens….but that will be another post and will have to wait until the roses start their 2012 blooming.
Few plants evoke such nostalgia as the towering hollyhock. A favorite since Shakespeare’s England, its stately spires of flowers inspire images of country gardens and cottages. - American Horticultural Society Practical Guides: Annuals & Biennials
~~~~~
Hollyhocks remind me of a great aunt. The image of the flowers growing in the bed to the side of her house surrounding the steps to the side door - which just about everyone used as the main door to the house - is so vivid even after more than 40 years. If I didn’t have that memory, would this quote resonate with me? Probably not.
Do you have a hollyhock memory or are there other flowers that always trigger nostalgic thoughts?
Or approaching from another perspective: think of people that were important to you as a child and into young adulthood. Is there a flower you associate with them? It seems so for me; I associate:
One grandfather with cannas because he grew so many of them. They were planted to be visible from the road and often screened the vegetable garden that was just beyond. Progeny of those cannas grow in my parents’ garden today.Celebrating the whole of life....
Thanks for visiting my blog! Enjoy the photo picks from 2023:
Copyright © 2024, Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
Powered by Squarespace.
