Say It With Flowers

A Mix Of Styles Says So Much About Life Itself

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

It’s always interesting to see how professional florists put together an arrangement. This beautiful bouquet, placed in a square display for a table, has an interesting variety of colours and textures that complement each other.

The square box is light pastel pink, which is perfectly echoed by the silken wax paper that encases it, separating it from the actual blooms. At the bottom of he box and concealed from sight, is a small bowl holding water and some magical long-life mixture.

The roses were photographed on the third day and they have slowly emerged from bud form into tightly furled blooms, with their colour a great match for the rest of the pink hues below.

The mix of white-based blossoms at the base of the decoration are an interesting mix of shapes and sizes, including what appear to be azaleas or something related to the rhododendron family, with dark transverse stripes across their light, curved petals.

There is a combination of leaves as well, in terms of shape and reflectivity. The larger leaves are from the rose stems, while the tapering, darker leaves are from a camellia.

It’s an interesting metaphor for life, don’t you think? Not every aspect must be strictly complementary - and sometimes unexpected variety can actually create a harmonious overall effect.


Visit Luiz Santilli Jr for the home of Today's Flowers.

Verse And Worse

Random Wit, Errant Rhyme. Not A Literary Crime

Grandpa says he pre-supposes
Wild success for his roses
But when he tends the bougainvillea
Help me hold the ladder, will ya?

Petal To The Metal

Tracing Kinship Between Nature And Technology

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

About eighteen months ago, I shot a sequence of images of a a single bud as it began to unfurl on a climbing rose bush on our property. It was a very interesting project, because one of the photographs I shot is the one I have published above.

At the time, the positioning of the petals as they were about to unfurl reminded me vividly of a sight I have often seen on tarmacs at airports around the world. But I had to wait a while to shoot the image that corresponded with what the rose reminded me of.

It is the white swirl painted on the giant turbines of the jets that we see at every airport. Is it just me or do you see the graceful resemblance too?


Visit Luiz Santilli Jr for the home of Today's Flowers.

Verse And Worse

Random Wit, Errant Rhyme. Not A Literary Crime

Pruning your roses in the middle of winter
Ensures that the stems will never splinter
Cut the stems cleanly and on a sharp angle
And the buds that bloom will never tangle

After The Blessing Of Rain

Looks Like There's Been A Growth Spurt

Photographs copyright: DAVID MCMAHON

These photographs were talen a few hours ago, to show you a remarkable transformation. Through the long, hot, dry summer just past, our many roses continued to thrive. We had every colour imaginable, with a variety of scents. Maybe they were not as profuse as they have been in years where the drought has been tempered by some occasional rain, but there were roses on every bush nonetheless.


Then last month we had a three-day spell that was hotter than anything else in our history. Unrelentingly, the heat reached the 46C mark (almost 115 Fahrenheit and stayed there. On the first day, I showed the Authorbloglets several fresh blooms on the rose bushes across our property - and I pointed out that by midday they would all have withered.


Even the rose hips were burnt to a crisp. Normally, the hips form a beautiful head-tossing dance in a strong breeze, but few of them took on the orange-green hue that is common to their form. As you can see in this shot (above) taken a few hours ago, some of the rose hips in our garden looked like remnants in a fireplace.


At the end of that torturous hot spell, there were no flowers left in our garden. Then, last Saturday we had real rain. In a few days, the dun-coloured lawns and nature strips of Melbourne have turned green again. And sure enough, some of our rose bushes have burst into bloom once more.


Visit Luiz Santilli Jr for the home of Today's Flowers.

Heaven Scent

From The Garden To The Table, With Rich Perfume

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

The vases at Casa Authorblog are always filled with fresh flowers from our garden. But the greatest pleasure in walking through the door with an armful of fragrant blooms comes from the knowledge that everything on our property was planted by us.

We built this house and we planned very little detail, from what's inside it to what's outside it. We didn't just inherit someone else's garden. We planned our own, right down to the smallest detail.

Each time we place our own flowers in the vases, it reminds me of how much pleasure the simple act of planting a cutting, a stem or a plant can bring.

Visit Luiz Santilli Jr for the home of Today's Flowers.

Hip Packet

Petal Pusher Has To Buy 124,000 Red Roses

Will they have enough vases at home? An Iranian man has been ordered by a court to buy his wife 124,000 red roses. The woman decided to claim her mahr, or dowry, after ten years of marriage, saying: ``He even refused to pay for my coffee if we went to a cafe or restaurant". A long-stemmed rose in the Islamic Republic costs a little over $2, so the order will cost him more than $250,000. The husband says he can only afford five roses a day and complains "her billionaire friends put such ideas in her head."

FOOTNOTE: Flower (em)power.

A Thorn Between Two Roses

Ready To Repel Darth Invaders

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

The bigger the rose, the bigger the thorns. If you look down the stem of this bud, you'll notice gossamer-thin protruberances. As the rose grows, so these grow into protective, sharp thorns. The afternoon light was just right for this shot, because it highlighted the mini-thorns while allowing me to capture the bud in all its glory. Some years ago, nurseries began selling thornless roses, but the concept didn't really take off. Can you guess why? Because thorns actually serve a crucial purpose, of keeping pests away.

How Does My Garden Grow?

Pretty Good At The Moment, I Guess

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

As the days get longer and the weather gets progressively warmer, the roses are really coming along nicely. As always, the ones that get the afternoon sun are the early bloomers. I have a theory about highly scented roses - and I'd like to have your opinion as well. I reckon the roses with the most distinct perfume do not last as long in vases as those with a less distinct aroma. Do you agree with my theory?

Short Cut

That Ain't A Rose, That's A Prune

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

In a comment on my recent post Great Hips, Rose, a fellow blogger, It’s The Little Things, asked me recently why roses have to be pruned at an angle - and there is a very simple explanation. Because roses are pruned in winter, the cuts should be carried out at a 45-degree angle - or as close to that angle as possible. If the cuts were horizontal, frost or dew would remain on the stalks, possibly causing them to rot or even impeding new growth. But an angled cut means any moisture simply runs off harmlessly. No residue, therefore no disease.

Click here: Pentax K100D, Shutter speed 1/180, F8, ISO speed 200.

Great Hips, Rose

Prune Those Bushes Down To Size

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

I've never joined in the lemming-like rush to prune roses as soon as winter starts. Why? Mate, what's the point of encouraging new growth when the frosts are cruel? So while the rest of the country's gardeners eagerly get out their secateurs in the first week of June, I wait until the third week of July. I started the task on Sunday and of course I had to get the camera out to shoot these beautiful rose hips. It wasn't just the colour I wanted to capture, but the distinct curves on the stalk above this one reminded me of a set of curved elfin shoes. And the light was just right, too.

A Rose Is A Rose, Cicero's

From Summer To Winter In 18 Hours

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Yesterday, in the post Weird Weather, Heather, I pointed out that the weather was still like midsummer, instead of being on the brink of winter. But Melbourne's climate is capricious. This morning the weather turned full circle. After a warm, almost tropical night, the temperature slid off the scale and we had some very welcome rain as the cold southerly wind swept in. So even though the roses are still blooming in my garden (above) the story today was very different (below). One thing's for sure - you can never get bored with the weather here.

Trivia Pur$uit

California produces 60 per cent of all American roses, but the vast number sold on Valentine's Day in the United States are imported, mostly from South America. It is estimated that 15 per cent of women send themselves flowers on Valentine's Day.