This week as I have been thinking much about our new gardens what I’d like to plant and how to do all this, I have been drawn to gardens old and new…
Netflix has given me a wealth of programs to study and recently this one was recommended for me: Monty Don’s Italian Gardens. Monty begins his tour of Italian gardens in Rome with a study of classical Renaissance gardens. The series moves through the ages since the 15th century with gardens originally created by different Catholic cardinals all competing hopefully to be chosen as the future pope ~ their gardens created to impress and show their wealth and ability to rule the Catholic church.
As the series goes on, Monty shares how styles of gardens have changed and I am up to the Romantic garden style ending in episode 3.
He tours around a few properties on a Marconi bicycle which I found charming and the gardens are absolutely stunning! Do look up this series and afterwards check out Monty Don’s French Gardens (which is where I will head next!).
A Little Chaos ~ Also seen this week twice as I absolutely fell in-love with this story about a widow who is bestowed with the gift of gardening. This film from 2014 stars Kate Winslet and Alan Rickman plus features the every funny Stanley Tucci as the brother of France’s Sun King Louis Dieudonné, Louis XIV.
As Sabine De Barra, Winslet is wonderfully understated and humble working in a time when very few women held jobs let alone one as out in the public as a landscape artist. Very good film and I highly recommend it!
Then of course I have been over to the David Austin Roseswebsite as I wanted to study which roses would work as climbers on our south wall which is all brick but would look fantastic with an enormous rose climbing its walls!
Sigh…
🙂
Sceptre d’Isle is a rose I had back at our last home in California and I am so glad I bought another here for our Texas garden! It is loving its new home and looks stunning in its pot.
These pictures don’t do it justice and I need to find a better spot for it where it can really shine but this year is its second or third year planted and it is blooming madly and I shared a couple of pics on my Instagram.
It is absolutely loving its normal 5 hours of sunlight but being shaded from the really hot afternoon sun. This area where I was thinking of planting it and the other roses is just under our bedroom window and two very large oak trees provide lovely afternoon shade.
The iris having been blooming too and all seem to be a yellow with some brown bits ~ pretty and soft with their pale yellow blooms.
We need some defined pathways and this past weekend Mr. Ethereal and I went to a friend’s open house party ~ check out his lovely backyard walkway and the sweet Texas paver!
Love love love brick pathways!
And I am thinking about a semi-circular stacked stone small planter wall for the roses and a matching one around the first oak tree, which will then be underplanted with some of these iris and some vining plants. Love these that Yoda and I found out locally on our weekend walkabout.
*Here’s a link to a cement pathway I laid out at our last house (this was the redo after fixing the pool equipment).
But right now it’s all about removing baby oak trees… They are everywhere in back and outfront!
Planted either by the local squirrels (whom I love anyway!) or buried by the massive water gushing off the roof eaves during storms (hence the mud splatters here and there) we are working on drainage and gutter fixing next.
So I leave this post as it is ~ a bit mud spattered but real life.
😉
Coming up next is Share Your Style so stop back over to link up and to find some inspiration!
Thanksgiving is a lovely time every year to spend celebrating the day with our families and friends.
This year we are blessed that our daughter will be flying up from Austin for a few days to spend the holiday with us.
We have so much to be thankful this year and on this happy note I’ve set out to create an ethereal romantic table styling to share with y’all…
courtesy of Courtney Allison
This is my inspiration A photograph I happened upon while out visiting another blogger led me to an older photograph created by my friend Courtney Allisonfor her blog French Country Cottage a few years ago. I just love this gathering of storybook pumpkins and roses and you absolutely must stop by and see the rest of her photographs. Simply stunning!
Courtney recently published her first home decor book titled French Country Cottageand if you haven’t ordered her new book yet you’ll love it when it arrives! {hope that links works for you.}
A lot in common
We have a lot in common as I like soft tablescapes roses and chandeliers as Courtney does, so today I thought I’d share the makings of an easy-to-create Thanksgiving table setting you can use for your own holiday table.
The loveliest pink roses with green outer leaves… sigh! Very similar to Eden roses found at Heirloom Roses.com.
Setting the scene
Pick out one of your prettiest vintage embroidered linen tablecloths and lay it katycorner across your table ~ almost as a runner ~ then add in a vase of your favorite flowers.
These store bought pink roses with just a hint of green in the outer leaves grace our table this time.
Use a beautiful vase for displaying your bouquet then
begin surrounding your vase with softly colored
mini pumpkins and sprinkling in a few larger
Cinderella pumpkins for added oomph.
Pretty place settings
Bring out your most romantic china pieces placing them atop a woven grass placemat.
This gives such a nice contrast of textures to your Thanksgiving table.
Next with the addition of some pretty silver tucked into a floral napkin ring along with a cute checked napkin you’ll have a table set to inspire.
Pretty. Romantic. Ethereal.
Here is a list where you can pick up these same or similar items to help you recreate this table styling:
buffalo checked napkins
woven braided placemats
vintage silver water pitcher
vintage silverplate flatware
crystal stemware
This is not a sponsored post ~ just sharing links I think you’ll love.
🙂
So what are you doing for Thanksgiving?
Having anyone special coming over to
share the meal? Hope so. 🙂
This little gold pheasant or quail I found last year at a local thrift shop and I think this little feathered friend adds a nice gilded touch to the tablescape…
😉
As an added bonus here is another table styling I created using the same pumpkins and place settings just moved to a table pour deux.
I’ll share more on that next week.
😉
Do stop by again tomorrow to find out more about the little craft project you see here on the table.
A hint?
See those pumpkins… they aren’t all real.
😉
Also ~ if you enjoy these posts, please consider following me to receive future offerings ~ all the links are on the sidebar.
I appreciate you!
And feel free to pin and share, always.
:X
Sharing with
Feathered Nest Friday ~ French Country Cottage
Thursday Favorite Things ~ Follow the Yellow Brick Home
Inspiration comes in all forms and this quick post is just a preview to a couple of upcoming Thanksgiving posts, a craft and more…
Last Friday was a beautiful day to be out of doors for some fall Thanksgiving photography and table stylings that I am excited to share more later this week.
For now, enjoy these photos and check back Thursday for more and a craft on Friday ~ I’ll be sharing where I found my inspiration, too.
Don’t forget to stop in on Wednesday evening after 6:00p.m. for Share Your Style, too!
Can you spot the craft project??
😉
Sharing with
Spread the Kindness ~ Shelbee on the Edge
Style Showcase ~ Shabbyfufu
Friday at the Fire Station ~ A Fireman’s Wife
Dishing It and Digging It ~ Angie the Freckled Rose
here in North Central Texas this whole month of June
however the heat has unwittingly helped me as I’ve finally
figured out how much and when to water my
potted yearling and new roses!
Growing roses is always a challenge for any gardener
as roses can be finicky with their sunlight, soil, water,
bugs and fungus issues.
This year though I have finally figured out how much
and when to water my five little babies ~ of which
I am very happily thrilled!!!
And here are the results!
Roses with their leaves all filled in after plucking due to rose rust and some black spot. This is Sceptre d’Isle, a lovely David Austin rose ~ which has really pretty multiple petals on its little rose blooms.
Just two of the five roses are blooming right now and I wasn’t thinking about snapping photos earlier this evening so I
didn’t take any shots of the whole garden.
A photograph taken from the rear looking forward ~ love how the drip was captured! Roses look a little sparse due to removing leaves with fungus but they have grown back and look lovely now.
At the beginning of June I did happen to snap a few photos
and here you can see the how I’ve moved plants around
to get more morning sun and a little shade in the afternoon.
Our trailer’s tongue and the front where our bedroom is
help provide much needed afternoon shade
for these babies!
Photograph unedited ~ I’d been out moving rocks around to create a little platform for each pot. This was a watering day, too, as the hose never lies. 😉
Wherethese two roses sit side-by-side, there is another rose to the left of the larger pot with the white bacopa just starting to trail down the sides ~ to the right in this above picture.
That pot is identical to these terracotta pots and along with a birdbath on the far left sitting under the drip from the bedroom a/c, a smaller flat-ish pot with pink gomphrena sits smartly
between the two.
A matching pot with lavender sits on the opposite side.
The rest of the plants can be seen around to the left of the
little walkway up to our Prairie Home’s entrance.
Yoda ready for this evening walk waiting patiently while Mom shoots a few iPhotos. 😉 Winchester Cathedral is a creamy white bloom with multiple petals.
I hope you have enjoyed this mini garden tour today!
These are all David Austin roses with this white one above
is Winchester Cathedral ~ a beautiful all white rose.
Ignore the yellow tint ~ I added that in Lightroom
since it was evening.
😉
To see some of the other roses in bloom check out
this postfrom last summer and my ideal garden
post for more rose garden ideas, thanks!
Sharing with these lovely link parties:
Gardens Galore Link Party ~ Everyday Living
Hearth and Soul ~ April J. Harris
Waste Not Wednesday ~ Faeries and Fauna
Feathered Nest Friday ~ French Country Cottage
Sweet Inspiration ~ The Boondocks Blog
FYI ~ WoW is on summer hiatus, for those of you who like to visit Kim’s blog
and her Wow Us Wednesdays for inspiration. 🙂
Thank you for stopping by from the
Gardens Galore Link Party at Everyday Living!
I’d love to have you sign up to receive future posts
Sorry I haven’t written much except a little on Instagram this past week ~ I’ve been battling a really bad head cold and I’m just beginning to feel better. With that I looked back to some older posts I had written and
I came across this photograph in a post that I had written
about a peacock tea party at our home in California.
I had wanted to share a tutorial on how to make this sweet
little rose ornament and found that I never did
so…
Here we are to remedy that today!
🙂
How to make a Rose Ornament
Supplies you’ll need
faux silk roses for the top piece and leaves
sewing thread or embroidery floss a large doll needle
styrofoam balls in size for your project
decorative ribbon for trimming small tassels found on decorative trims
fabric scraps
hot glue gun and glue
Directions
Glue fabric scrap over one-half of the styrofoam ball.
Glue on fancy lace or any ribbon trim with dangles
around the middle of your decoration.
Glue leaves over the other half of ball facing down.
Glue a silk rose or other flowers centered on top
of the leaves.
Attach a hanger made of embroidery thread or a saved
ribbon or hanger from previously purchased clothes
using the long doll needle ~ run up through the bottom of the ball through the flower.
*This is a great way to repurpose and recycle those cute hanging tags we get from purchased clothes at a big box club store or from a department store.*
🙂
Add a hanging ornament, crystal or tassel to the bottom
of your ornament if so desired. *This can be done at the same time as attaching the hanger as I’ve done with these small ornaments ~ just make string long enough to tie on the hanging decoration plus enough to to through the flower and create the hanger.
sunflowers, blue violets and other flowers as tops then
gave them away as favors at a tea and also as
gifts at Christmas time.
These are pretty and festive and can be adapted
for any occasion ~ these little ornaments would be
super cute hanging off the backs of chairs at a
bridal shower, a wedding, or at a Mother’s Day luncheon.
Just think how cute they would be hanging on
a mobile at a baby shower with little pink or blue ribbons
and coordinating flowers.
🙂
Sharing with
Beautifully Made ~ My Husband Has Too Many Hobbies
Inspire Me Monday ~ Create with Joy
Really Crafty Link Party ~ Keeping It Real Snickerdoodle Create Bake Make ~ Blue Willow House Keep in Touch ~ Let’s Add Sprinkles Really Crafty Linky Party ~ Keeping It Real
The flower queen of the garden with hundreds of varieties
and a pedigree dating back 35 million years to the
oldest rose fossils, structures to support them came about
as an off-shoot to growing fruits and vegetables
in ancient times.
Today these structures continue to add support
but also their beauty and no where is this
so true as in the rose garden…
The rose is the quintessential flower of any formal or cottage garden and as such we want to showcase these beauties
in the best way possible.
We do this with a variety of structural supports such as large
arbors as seen in the photograph above.
Arbors
I shot this massive four-hoop arbor at the Biltmore rose gardens
last fall and went inside it to “measure” as best I could
how big each of these really are.
Each arbor was approximately 8′ wide by 8 – 10′ tall and
each was wired to its neighbor, four in all.
Impressionist painter Oscar-Claude Monet made these arbors famous through his paintings and gardeners have been
applauding their supporting roles in the garden ever since.
Often climbing roses need some support as they do not cling to walls and structures like other climbing vines do as they bear
only spines and no winding tendrils.
Summertime is a good time to access your garden’s needs
to see where a new support might be needed to hold up our
beloved roses and climbing vines.
Creating a plan to restructure the garden by adding a pergola here or an arbor there will give your garden added height and added
beauty in addition to offering roses the support they need.
A lovely backyard pergola or patio cover ~ photo taken at my friends Cindy and Bob Ellis’ garden.
Pergolas
Pergolas or patio covers are usually beamed open ceiling structures often with lattice or shade cloth on top to help filter the sun.
They can be free-standing structures but are often built against a house or building for extra support in the high winds.
Pergolas are perfect for tying-in monster climbing rose canes
as they are built to take the weight of canes as they mature.
Wisteria is another climber that especially needs a solid structure
to support the future weight of its canes as it tends to collapse arbors and other supports that are too light to carry
its eventual weight.
Trellises and Towers
Trellises are smaller light-weight structures often made from
wood, wrought iron, aluminum or woven caning from
bamboo or tree saplings.
They are perfect for leaning up against walls in a garden
and growing smaller roses up against their frames
to add interest and light support.
I love small towers too as they can be added into a large rose pot
to create a mini arbor.
This type of trellis was really popular during the Victorian and Edwardian era when tea roses and climbing roses with smaller 4′ – 6′ canes were first introduced with their
repeat flowering abilities.
Other supports
PVC pipes connected together to create towers are great for their ability to be strong supports for roses tall vegetables and small trees. Small 1″ x 2″ boxes nailed or screwed together are make great light-weight square support structures in the garden.
Sometimes even a series of eye bolts screwed into a cement garden
wall and strung with wire or jute twine horizontally across from eyelet to eyelet can create a lovely support to espalier a rose bush
and especially fruit trees.
In a small garden espalier trees against a wall gives the small garden height but also allows the gardener to have a tree
that otherwise wouldn’t fit in a small space.
Espalier takes specific branches of a tree and runs them horizontally tied in along wires much like grapes are
out in the field.
Here is a young tree at Magnolia Market formed into an espalier showing many limbs removed.
The branches that won’t fit into the espalier are removed
and only those that grow in the preferred direction
are kept ~ I’ve seen photographs of trees also run on
the diagonal and they look spectacular and elegant
when a number of small trees are set out
along a wall!
Here is a small arbor made from young saplings wound
around each other and tied with jute in the center.
A company sells these to Chip and Joanna Gaines
to use in their gardens in Waco, Texas.
Here is another one of the large arbors at Biltmore Estate.
When these roses are blooming in summer and the
days heat up I can imagine that walking under these
arbors would be a scent-filled cooling delight!
Lovely roses at dusk…
One or two rose bushes were planted around each of the arbors’ “corners” which I found very interesting. I imagine that is to get the fullness needed to make the arbor the most beautiful when in bloom. Plus the intertwining rose canes create a criss-cross support as they are twined together overhead from one side to the opposite.
Some of the David Austin roses blooming madly in the early cool October evening.
Ethereal
Just a few last rose blooms as this post closes…
So if you haven’t tried adding some structures to your
Tea and roses is an ever recurrent theme at a great many
of the tea parties I have shared here at French Ethereal.
Those two words for me go hand in hand…
Classic cream scones recipe shared in a past post around Christmas time ~ our previous trailer.
Whetherhaving tea in our backyard at our previous homes
or in either our current or past “RV prairie home”
sharing photos from tea parties with you and
sharing photographs of roses from my yard or in
store-bought bouquets is something
I truly enjoy.
Often it is just me for tea as my husband enjoys iced tea but he prefers coffee in the mornings when we breakfast together
on the weekends.
Sometimes I’ll bring tea cakes or scones with me to our
Bible Study group to share while we talk through
what we’ve just been learning.
A tea for two.
“The very act of preparing and serving tea encourages conversation. The little spaces in time created by teatime rituals call out to be filled with conversation. Even the tea itself ~ warm and comforting ~ inspires a feeling of relaxation and trust that fosters shared confidences.” — Emily Barnes
One of many vintage teacups and saucer sets I have ~ most currently packed away but ready to come out again soon. 🙂
The addition of roses at my teas came naturally as I began
growing roses at our very first apartments ~ it all began
innocently enough with three roses in pots.
A lovely rose found in the Biltmore rose garden.
In the past I had many teas at my home for friends
I met through a group in Riverside County, California
called the Victorian Tea Society.
The group is still together and although it is just a small
group of women now compared to 20 years ago
they still get together for lunch once a month at
each other’s homes.
The friendships begun so many years ago are firmly
cemented in “taking tea.”
I am thinking that once we find our *next house I’d like
to start a new tea group.
Isn’t it always fun to have a few friends come over for a
tea luncheon?
🙂
*We are looking at houses on a little land and I took my
hubby Mr. Ethereal to see one this week.
I hadn’t looked up the for-sale price until we returned
home from our drive…
It was listed only at $849,000.
Just a little over my price range ~
but perfectly situated!
A small pond, stables and corral, large metal workshop,
12 acres, a large home of 3800 sq. ft. {really too big}.
It sits up on a small bluff and the workshop, doughboy pool
and stables are down below.
Nice black angus relaxing out in the field near the pond.
Nice view of some of the surrounding area…
Our former Big House in Murrieta, California ~ still love this living room and the travertine marble floors we hand-laid. The corner round cupboard held many of my rose strewn teacups and other sentimental treasures from my children.
For now though a new home will have to wait.
🙂
But tea and roses
lives on…
🙂
My mother-in-law baked this chocolate cake with coconut
frosting for me for my birthday back when the above
photograph was taken.
Love her vintage transferware china with its colorful ethereal
flowers winding along each piece’s edges!
Souvenir de Malmaison pink roses and mini purple agapanthus ~ a favorite bouquet in summer.
This bouquet of roses was extra special as it was the bouquet
cut from our yard at its most beautiful in June ~ the day our
last home went on the market.
Some favorite roses since…
Loved this little garden we had when we first began
camping full-time.
The nice thing about having tea and roses together is
that like “home” they can travel with you
wherever you go.
🙂
Sharing with Make It Pretty Monday ~ The Dedicated House Tea in the Garden ~ Bernideene’s Wow ~ Savvy Southern Style Feathered Nest Friday ~ French Country Cottage Style Showcase 31 ~ Shabbyfufu
Springtime is finally here to North Texas and now that the danger of hard freezes is over we can finally get outside and
do a little more gardening!
Today I’m sharing how to create a new rose by rooting
from a cutting…
Both of these roses are Ducher roses.
Last week while I was down at Magnolia Market in their garden
I saw several garden employees working and I had some
questions about a particular rose bush.
The woman I spoke with was trimming back plants saidshe believed it was called a Ducher rose ~ a creamy white rose that I realized later looked a lot like two of my old climbing rose with the monster 14′ canes ~ *Cécile Brunner and New Dawn.
The blooms are the identical size and shape and it didn’t dawn
on me until later last weekend that that’s why I was so drawn
to this new-to-me Ducher rose.
🙂
An iPhone 7 photo taken at Magnolia Market at the Silos’ gardens.
This Ducher rose is an *antique china rose which has small 2-3″ bloomson its stems ~ and since the gardner was cutting
she told me about it and gave me two clippings!
{One I shared with an employee at a resale shop in Waco.}
Toting it home in a glass Coke bottle filled with bottled water
I was excited to have something special from Chip and Joanna Gaines’ beautiful market gardens.
🙂
After enjoying the rose spray all weekend I pulled out my pruners on Monday morning and got busy clipping and saving the blooms.
From there I stripped off the rest of the leaves and little branches
hopefully creating four future rose plants.
Supplies needed
pot(s) for planting/rooting
loamy potting mix
good potting soil
pruning shears
rooting medium
How to root cuttings
Cut sections of a new green growing rose cane (or branch).
Strip all flowers, leaves and dead branchlets off and
cut to at least 5″ lengths.
Leave several bud unions on the cutting ~ these will become
the new branches and from these will create the little roots.
Recut the tip of the bottom section a little and dip or put
immediately into water.
*Rose cuttings’ ends close quickly with sap so they must be put into water quickly or
recut once taken inside to put in a vase or to use for rooting.
Prepare your soil ~ a mix of well draining loam and potting soil.
Poke holes in the soil mixture with either a pencil or your finger.
Take your cutting out of the water (or recut and wet just before)
and dip in the rooting medium.
Place gently several inches down into the holes.
Tamp the dirt mixture around the branches to root.
Holler like my husband’s grandfather used to do, “Grow, dammit, grow!”
{Okay, you don’t really have to do that, but whatever helps!}
😉
Water lightly and keep the soil moist.
How to check the for rooting
In about 3 weeks or so, pull gently on each cutting and
see if it “feels snug.” If it does then the new plant
is rooting.
Wait for new shoots and leaves to emerge before
gently transplanting to separate smaller pots.
{I put all four of mine in one large pot for now;
they are spaced equidistant apart.}
Roses release a chemical that will kill off other roses in a pot
{which is why when you plant a new rose in an old roses’
spot in the garden you have to first remove all the old soil
or it won’t do well or will just die.}
Taken with my iphone at Magnolia Market gardens.
*In a really nice article found on Wikipedia, the Cécile Brunner and Ducher roses created by Joseph Pernet-Ducher, French rosarian and hybridizer, are of the same lineage. Cécile Brünner was bred by Marie Veuve Ducher, his wife and her family’s rose growing business, and introduced by Messieur Pernet-Ducher in 1881. Although, in another Wikipedia article it states that Jean Claude Pernet bred Cécile Brünner, but it was within the family. Joseph
Pernet added his wife’s last name to his as a way of identifying “his association with the two rose growing entities.” Joseph was the most famous of the family.
Joseph was a “third generation rosarian” and his father, Jean Claude Pernet, called “Pernet pere” or “Pernet’s father,” bred some roses you may know: Baroness de Rothschild (1868) and Prince Napolean (1864) among others. His father, Claude Pernet, began the rose nursery in 1845 but there are no known roses that he bred.
As far as I can find, the Ducher rose is a china rose (an old rose originated in China and which has small rose blooms and repeat flowers) but is in a class of roses called the Pernetiana, a subclass of hybrid tea roses. Ducher may not be specifically the name of this rose but is now sold this way, thus identifying that M. Pernet-Ducher created it or that it was created in his memory (like the Souvenir de Georges Pernet, for one of two sons killed in WWI). It comes in a variety of colors. I could not find this rose’s actual name although it may be a descendant of Soleil d’Or. Another nice article is by Hedgerow Rose called Types of Roses.
I am part of the Amazon affiliate program and will earn a small commission from
anything you may purchase here; however, you won’t pay a penny more.
For my full disclosure, please see my Disclosure page above. Thank you for helping me
I wandered along this pathway and found this set of
French iron gates leading out to pastures and fields off
to the western side of Biltmore Estate
where the family most likely walked, rode their saddlebreds
and hunted over a century ago now.
There is an equestrian center on site and you can
bring and board your own horse!
Here is the information page.
These gates take you away from the house proper and down along the roadway, over a beautiful fishing stream, then winding down to the lower rose garden and arboretum.
I’m really glad that I arrived late in the day as I was able to capture these views as the sun was going down.
Although for viewing the house and seeing more of the estate
it would have been better to arrive earlier
as viewing the house and full estate one needs really
more than one day for maximum effect.
But, being there late in the day allowed for enjoying the evening light, the Blue Ridge mountains in the distance
and just the cool fall weather found in the hills.
Too, I kept expecting deer to appear out in the fields
and that would have been just a perfect ending to
a day of elaborate and ornate perfect day!
😉
Just a few photos from the rose garden…
Beautiful palest of pinky whites ~ possibly the rose
Winchester Cathedral
as my Winchesters would turn a slight pink as the flowers
matured and especially in the fall.
One of Winchester Cathedral’s parent roses is
Mary Rose
which is a lovely pink so the child rose
can sometimes hint back to its parent.
Lovely!
A view while walking up to the top of the garden.
Actual daylight with no alterations to show plantings any brighter.
Fall plantings of mums and sweet pansies tucked below.
More fall color…
🙂
Rose petals naturally strewn along my path.
Here and below I’ve opened up the lens a bit
to show the glasshouse a bit brighter.
This photograph I deepened the colors a bit
to show the mountains beyond.
This lovely water fountain, too, I’ve opened up the lens
making the picture a little bit grainy.
In the next photographs, the light was deepening
into night…
With the hazy sunlight…
And darkened below to see the mountains and cloud
formations better…
Lovely sitting areas abound in the park…
Lovely mophead hydrangeas displaying
their darkening pink turning to rust
here in the fall…
Here’s a video I made while photographing this day.
