Roses and Pansies!

I'm participating in the garden party at The Little Round Table!  Make sure you click through to visit the other posts.  I have an eclectic rose bed that runs along one side of my front yard ... along the picket fence.  I have a couple old climbing roses ... one 'witchy rose' ... and I've been planting Knock Out roses in the past couple of years.   We've had tree damage in the last two years, changing the amount of sun in various places in the yard, so I've had better luck with my roses.  When you live in a house for four decades, the size of the trees eventually changes garden spaces!  Oh, yes ... I have blackberries in the rose bed.  They are perfectly friendly ... and produce well!

Mr. Lincoln is deep, bright red!

This one is a Knock Out ... and the color is 'Lipstick' ... looks just like the shade my mother wore!

One of my old climbing roses ... Miss Phoebe picked all the yellow roses the other day ... so none to show!

Cotton Candy pink ... in another Knock Out!

Blush Pink ... in another Knock Out!

I love the iron trellises!

The blackberries are just beginning to bloom.

Love pansies ... don't have great success with them ... because it gets hot early in Southern Illinois summers!

This Mock Orange is 50 years old ... I have to keep it cut back or it would take over the whole yard!

I clip my Clematis ... and use them in arrangements.  This year they are blooming a little  early ... so they'll look great with the Mock Orange ... and will smell so good!

Now, let me introduce you to 'witchy rose'.  This rose bush is 25 years old ... and in all those years it has only bloomed on significant occasions.   It is a Queen Victoria rose ... and is a climbing rose.  All it ever really did was climb.  Nothing my gardener and I did would make it bloom ... except when my favorite aunt died ... when my brother died ... when my daughter got married ... when my mother died ... when baby Phoebe arrived ... and when my father died.  In 2009, I got mad at it and tried to chop it down and cover it with our new front porch.  Guess what?  It still found its way through the narrow slats between the wooden planks of the porch.  This is a 2010 bloom.  It stretched three branches up through the porch floor and made one rose.  I've decided she's stronger than I am ... so I'll just let her do her thing!

... whatever and whenever!