My favorite flower and garden photos from April:  there are already twice as many candidates for May and this is only the 5th.  I might have to break it down into weeks because I really love documenting the growth of my garden.  It is always different from month to month and year to year and I enjoy looking back.  Meanwhile, rumor has it there is a drought in the San Francisco Bay Area. So far my garden has not suffered.  We have always been water conscious and have practiced water preservation for decades.  Besides which, my front and back gardens are much smaller than they appear through the lens of a camera.  However, matters could be quite different a few months from now.  We shall see. 


I call this statue "Lovers at the gate".  They used to be part of a fountain--a friend gifted them to me when she moved away.  I used to have them turned so they could be enjoyed by passers-by but I have decided that I would rather look at them when I am seated nearby.



Here they are again; I can't decided if I like it better with her in profile or him. 


 I have a gorgeous view of the mountain/rock quarry from the bench in my front garden.  I never get tired of this view.



The rose that first greets visitors is Princess Alexandra of Kent by David Austin.  DA heirloom roses take a number of years to mature but when they do, they are stunning--and staggering under hundreds of petals per bloom. This one has a purple tinge to it and smells marvelous.





Next is a china rose whose name I can't remember. (The lone pink rose to the right of the china is a Queen Elizabeth, a must for all fanciers of pink roses.) It is fascinating to me--the petals actually fold together like a geometric box.  I love the obelisk on which it is climbing--there is always room for a climber in your yard with an obelisk.  (This rose used to be on an arch but it got demoted in favor of my Eden climber--which didn't bloom in April so won't be a part of this post.)


My old metal arch blew down in a December storm and could not be resuscitated.  This one consists of gothic arches and has a gate in it.  I admire it excessively.  Now when I sit here I feel like I am in a churchyard in Ireland or England.  (No pics of the arch this post.  Hopefully it will be blooming with something during May.)



Some of the fruit of my rose bushes are the above Abraham Darby, another David Austin, and one I will never be without.  I wouldn't say it is my favorite rose--it is the wrong color for that (too peachy) but it gets very high marks.  Smells fabulous, hardy, resistant, tons of petals, starts out as a light pink tea rose in bud and opens up to this delicious cabbage--and then fades out to pink again.


These perfect pink beauties come from my New Dawn climbing rose in the back garden.  They smell as delicious and delicate as they look.  Just fabulous.



This pink lovely is Queen of Sweden, another heirloom rose by David Austin.  It smells divine and is different in shape than any other rose I have ever seen. My mother's ancestry is Swedish so I had to have a Queen of Sweden in my garden.




I love this photo.  Easter came too early for most of my roses so these are all silk--but I still love it.



This photo of my back garden was taken in early April before the New Dawn had peaked.  The one rose to the right of the arch and next to the pink geranium is an Abraham Darby.  The hot pink bush on the far left is a bougainvillea, one of which we had at the house where I grew up.  It was planted shortly after my birth and by the time I was 17, it had grown so large that my boyfriend and I climbed it to the roof and carved our initials in one of its branches.  (I married him four years later.)


If you look closely, you will see that there is a chandelier hanging in the arch.  It doesn't work but it sure is pretty.



The pink rose in the green pot next to the wicker chair (currently serving as a nightly buffet for what ever animal is dining on it) is called The Mary Rose, another David Austin. 




This is a very pretty rose. I don't like how it smells (I can't even describe it-auto oil maybe?) but I have a Mary so I had to have this rose.  If I planted it in the ground, it would be far happier and the roses bigger, I am sure.  (But it would smell the same.)



But really, with petals like this, who cares how it smells?



My New Dawn climbing rose is a "great obsession" amongst a "great obsession".  I just can't stop looking at it, taking photos of it, and arranging its blooms in vases, pitchers and whatever else for about four weeks during spring.  I suppose it is a good thing that it is pretty much done before the end of May or I would never get anything done.




A sweet-smelling garden is the perfect place for reading, dreaming, meditating, praying and just allowing yourself to "be".