Climbing Rose

 from my grandfathers garden.

This Rose is from a cutting from my grandfather's garden. He was a miner and loved his garden green and bright out in the air.

By the time I knew him he was not working, accidents had stopped him working below ground and further issues had stopped him working at all.

He loved gardening, growing food had helped the family during the war years, he was in a protected occupation as a miner but he had joined the home guard as well.

He still liked growing vegetables and "cut flowers" in the back garden, but the front was for show and pretty plants.

He had a full wall with a climbing rose and a birdbath he made himself. I have strong, warm and happy memories of the gardens front and back.

It was my job to "help" the sweet pea tendrils find something to hold onto, even if it was just "holding hands" with another tendril. Or to gather the pansy seed because I was closer to the ground.

This was the house my mother, uncle and aunt grew up in. When my grandfather died the house had to be vacated as it was rented from the council all those years.

We could not keep everything, some things that held precious memories had to be let go.

We did take the birdbath, heavy as it is, and cuttings from special plants that we could not take.

This rose was one. It has had good years and tired years and has not been putting on any new shoots, but still flowering.

This year, perhaps it has enjoyed the very hot and subby weather , it put up a new shoot from the bottom, and it has flowers. Sort of tucked in between the main shoot and the fence  I had to hold my phone up to get a picture of them.

They have come out a beautiful delicate pink.

I am hoping this is going to be a refresh for the rose.

Buddleia

 This was a small plant in a pot. It had been in the pot for some time, being small and contained.

I was sure it was a dwarf variety,

I put it in the garden. It grew, quite a bit.

I had taken a cutting and grew it in a pot just in case the original did not like the soil in the garden, or the space I had for it. 

This is a close up of one of the flower clusters from the cutting plant.

You can see it starts off one shade and then changes.  The video shows the size of the original one in the soil directly and out of its container. 

Changed the Title of the blog

 because I wanted it to be more about the garden then just the one type of flower that grew well. So not just Aquilegias but what ever gardeny thing I feel like.

and raining

 such a soggy garden yet also very green. 

It is snowing

 and the garden has a carpet of white. I am glad I refreshed the suet cages for the birds and I am contemplating the flowers for this coming year. The seed attempts have not been going well, I am not as good at looking after them at the moment. However, the plants already in the garden keep coming back and seeding, and I am getting some different flowers where they have cross pollinated. Still all pinks and purples and cram / white. Never did manage to get any in the orange/yellow .

Cream

I am not sure if this is from one of those seeds I planted last year that I thought nothing had come of or if it is a hybrid from the plants already in the garden.

It has a very large flower, larger than all the rest. 

I think it is beautiful.

and a little later

2019 and new seeds

planted for new colours (I hope) at least that is what the packet promises.

So far little green shoots are visible after the very nice weather we have had.

The already in the garden plants are well up and some are even in flower.

Not sure if the seeds will produce flowers this year but I can hope.