Adventure with H

Yesterday I had the pleasure of creating some bokays for a special friend’s art exhibit. Check out the artwork of Kelly Wilkerson at Blue Bossa Prints here. Despite all the rain this week, I had plenty of flowers to choose from. The big question was which ones should I use. The Belinda’s Dream roses paired with the Stargazer lilies won my heart and filled the vases quite nicely.

Take a look at my options for vases this week…

Lovely Senorita Rosalita Cleome from Proven Winners… a real winner in my garden!

Here are a couple of bokays I made earlier this week…

David Austin's Wollerton Old Hall — David Austin’s Wollerton Old Hall

: Lovely creamer from P. Allen Smith’s garden shop with Drift Roses … a true fav.

And here are the flower bokays for Kelly’s very first art exhibit…

Hope things are blooming in your world this week… whether it is in the form of actual flowers or beautiful snow that they are having in my friend Elspeth’s world in Australia!

Do you have a favorite flower you like to see in arrangements?

For the last week I have had the pleasure of walking the beaches of Southern California. What a pleasure. Sunshine. Blue skies. White sand. Pristine beaches. Wide walking trails. Rose Gardens. Yes, rose gardens. Many of the beach homes have lovely rose gardens just outside their doors. To say the roses in California are larger than the roses in my garden would be a gross understatement.

Roses love Cali and Cali loves roses.

I can’t wait to show you some of the pictures I took…

But the prettiest rose I saw while in Cali, was David Austin’s Falstaff Rose that Mr. H found so lovely…

: #AdventuresWithH

Falstaff is a most fragrant rose!

Here’s what David Austin Roses has to say about it…

Hardiness: Hardy
Fragrance: Strong
Repeating: Excellent

Falstaff bears large crimson flowers with a shallow, cupped shape. They are of exquisite form and quality, packed with numerous petals which interfold at the centre. This helps to create a lovely, glowing effect within an enclosed saucer of outer petals. The blooms are a rich, dark crimson colouring at first, eventually turning to a wonderful shade of rich purple. There is a powerful Old Rose fragrance. The growth is strong, bushy and rather upright, with the flowers nodding nicely on the stem. The foliage is quite large and rather modern in character. This variety is named for the well-loved Shakespearean character, who was the faithful companion of Prince Henry.

For more on David Austin Roses, read on.