Rain, Birds, And Roses

I am back online after my sleep day yesterday. I finished my fourth night and was totally shattered and could not find the energy to do much. I slept and am a bit more energetic today. I left a link for the Arena Flower.com Florists blog with my guest post. The into said I had taken my gardening passion into informative obsession with a frequently updated blog! I think I will try a poll in the side bar to see how often people read it. Are my readers clicking daily or once a week or month?
The day has brought much needed rain. My soil had about one inch of damp soil on top from my watering and a foot of bone dry soil below. It has only rained three times in about six weeks and has been very hot on some days.The plants, gardeners, and farmers hoped for rain to make everything lush and green, and to make the plants grow better.
This Peony flower bud is opening now slowly revealing light pink petals. These flowers are blousy and brash, and maybe last for a month a year. I have seen them at the allotment, and in a baby bouquet on Arenaflowers.com. They are like Tulips in that the flowers last a short time but are such spectacular blooms its worth waiting eleven months of the year.

The birds are still visiting daily. I saw a House Sparrow today move from the fence to the Lilac Tree and hop around the patio to all the locations where the ground feeder has been until he found it by the greenhouse! He knew there would be some seed in a black plastic tray and it is moved around regularly but is always there.House Sparrows have memories!

Some so cute House Sparrows on the Bird table. They look so fluffy and sweet. They have been landing on everything in the garden, including sitting inside the hanging basket to look out. I hope these juveniles grow up and return to my garden with their own families.There is a family group that visits. I have read they stay within a short distance of where they were hatched.They might keep coming daily like the Blue Tits, Great Tits, and Robins.

Heres looking at you Snappy..this basket is so warm with the fake moss lining around the edge of it.

A tale of two Climbing Rose bushes. The White one, and the Pink one.This pink one has been badly cut with straight cuts and not angled. The growth has been slow and lop sided. I turned it today to face the growth to the mesh and tied on one long stem. I also trimmed the dead woody stems at fourty five degrees, trying to spark new growth.The Pink Roses will be sandwiched between the Honeysuckle on the right, and Sweet Pea's on the left. A scented Wall by the kitchen backdoor...

The Climbing Rose Iceberg (thats Titanic I think, not Lettuce leafs!) climbing up the Trellis on the outhouse. It has masses of Rose buds like Morrocan Minuets and is doing spectacularly well. It was trimmed properly with angled cuts and grew the best of all the one pound Rose bushes.
The David Austin Lady Emma Hamilton is growing beautifully though. If I was to do a Rose Garden anywhere I would try to buy all David Austins. The Stems were bigger, and the roots more developed, and it has grown as much as the others despite a three month delay in getting one!