Pinch me! I must be dreaming!

Is that a David Austin rose? here? in my garden?

Yes, it is! Please excuse my effusiveness but this is like a dream come true! I thought I would never see these roses in person, let alone having them in my garden! I feel overflowed with joy! Recently I was visiting this very nice BLOG which belongs to Clara Billoch who is a very skilled argentine gardener and I saw that there are english roses in her beautiful garden in Buenos Aires, I asked her where I could find those roses because I had never seen them here before. She kindly replied and I - defying the heat - rushed to the nursery!

There were not many because the hot season is too advanced  and almost all were prunned , the nursery employee told me these rare (rare here!) english roses come from plantations in Rio Negro - a southern province with cold snowy winters and short mild summers- to know this gave me a sinking feeling because whenever I bought plants from the south in the past they never thrived here (peonies mostly) but as those who read this blog regularly know I am serious case of zonal denial and stubbornly defy the climate all the time, so I bough two rosebushes to start the "experiment". They are "Pat Austin" (in the pictures here) and "Charlotte" (this one was prunned.)

Will they survive? or look at least half as good as those in glossy english books? Time will tell! but righ now I am very happy with Pat and Charlotte!

See you next time!

Tiresome summer days...

Not a lot going on at the moment in my garden, the insane heat keeps me from gardening and has claimed its first victim and it was one of my most cherished roses: "Jean Giono" (the picture is from 2016)

I think I could not replace this rose because finding it was a total serendipity and haven't seen anything like it in any nursery since I bought it in 2012 ... there were still some few roses blooming in the last weeks but with a great effort I pruned them all to encourage new growth and blooms when the days get cooler.

In the pond water lilies are unaffected by they heat, they love it! Some pictures before and after the rain

Very Monet-like haha! I know the threads ruin the sight but they protect the fish from the birds.

One of the princesses of the pond bloomed again: "Pink pom pom" 

A mesmerizing beauty

Natal lily

Lagerstroemia blooms

The large palm tree blocks light to the Lagerstroemia most of the day, it has never bloomed as it should because of this

Fuchsia magellanica

Lotus "Chawan Basu" a beautiful small sized variety

four o'clock  (Mirabilis japala )

The yellow variety is less floriferous

Plumbago

Unfortunately most flowers were too high up!

Hibiscus

See you next time!

Summer in the pond

Summer depresses me: the unbearable heat makes me feel sad and stressed... from  november to march/april staying in the air-conditioning is my top priority (I keep my bedroom at an arctic temperature) this means the garden falls into almost complete neglect. I only water the roses and some potted plants at night from time to time but the lives of most of my plants are ruled by “survival of the fittest” during summer months. Fortunately there is never shortage of rain here. In the pond the water lilies - unlike me - enjoy the summer and thrive in the heat. It's been a great year for my favourite water lily: Gloire du Temple sur Lot (Aka the Queen of the pond) she sent up a new flower last week when heat was at its highest, this time the flower was perfect, not shrivelled!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

The princess of the pond finally blommed last weeek: "Lily Pons" this gorgeous nymphaea was created by the american hibridizer Perry Slocum in 1992. She is a direct descendant of Gloire du Temple sur lot.

Lindsey Woods, a tropical purple lily

Golden west

Red star

Blushing bride, a stunning lily

Sasaki pink

Perry's fire opal

Perry's cactus pink, the small flower with narrow petals resembles a cactus bloom

This white lily might be Gonnere

Mayla

Barbara Dobbins

Perry's viviparous pink

Visited by a bee!

See you next time!