The garden continues to be in fat bud stage, except for a few Tea roses that are now in full bloom – Monsieur Tillier looked like this yesterday. That's Rouletii overhead. I shot this and all the rest of the images in this post with my iPhone 6s. There is something so appealing about the phone's mobility. This shot would have been hard to come by with my big Canon.

Here's another shot of the darling Monsieur.

This view is from outside the deer fence. With all that land how could I not continue to plant roses and hope for the best? M. Tillier back there actually is guarded with wire fencing, which handily is not showing in the photo. That's the mighty wanderer James Mason in the foreground.

This is Tea, Gilbert Nabonnand, who is a tallish sprawler in my garden. It's been blooming for a few weeks now and I've made many bouquets. Gilbert is planted outside wire fencing – deer rarely munch it.

And last but not least. I'm very proud of this gorgeous melianthus, not the typical rose garden companion, but so very wild and fun. I cut it to the ground yearly and it comes back full force every time. Happy spring to you all!

Nothing like a sea of posies – these are for an Easter brunch party, ready to go out the door.

This was last year, and I was happy I had a few roses, they'd  just began to bloom.

Ready to get busy along with . . .

charmers from the market.

 Ranunculas always seem to be the favorite at market – freesias come in second for me.

For easy transport I put the posy pots in orchid crates.

 
 I always seem to have small pots leftover from orchid plants. I sprayed them white and added a plastic cup for water. 

I share your songs, through charmed hours,

With my sworn friends, the leaves and flowers.

~ Mary Webb, To a Poet in April 

Happy Easter! I'd love to hear from you.

Imagine an adventurous and hot day in the glorious Sacramento Old City Cemetery Rose Garden shooting hundreds of pictures (this was in April 2015), and then a seventy mile drive home with two best flower friends. It must have been about 5:00 pm when Susan and I dropped Mary at her doorstep. Mary cheerily invited us to hop out of the car and take a tour of  her garden. 

Weary me was less than enthusiastic, though I did pause long enough to shoot Mary's pretty side yard on our way to the rosebeds in the back garden.

But then I perked right up when I saw this powder pink rambler by the back gate.

And when the perfect blooms of Sparrieshoop, in the same color palette, presented herself I was at full attention with my camera. The opportunity to frame these blooms on a patch of lime feverfew was good too.

Then the joy of zooming in on the button center of Christopher Marlowe . . .

only to find Color Magic was waiting for me, a few yards away.

Mary has a number of (hard to grow where we live) peonies. Don't you love the blush on this one?

And how about this graceful farewell? I relish catching shots like this.

Thanks so much for the tour Mary and the fabulous photo op!

BACK AT HOME 

The pretty pinks followed me . . .

even into the house.

I just loved all these pictures when I first saw them and looked forward to making a post here. It was amazing to get so many good shots in such a short time (especially after a day of intensive shooting in Sacramento). It's almost been a year and hopefully its never too late. Let me know what you think. That is my daughter Anna's knitting with yarn she purchased at the amazing Webster's in Ashland, Oregon.