Pretty in Pink

July 2, 2025July 2, 202529 Comments

Lately pink has become popular in home decor as an accent color, because it’s supposed to be calming, but it’s too trendy for me in the house. While I may admire pink kitchen cupboards in a decorating magazine I don’t want to live with them for years. Recently a house went up for sale in my neighbourhood with the original pink bathtub, sink, and toilet from the 1960’s and a younger person I know thought it was cool as all that retro stuff is back in. It was listed by the original owner, a man in his early nineties, who’d obviously never spend any money on it. It had the original wallpaper too – you could have filmed a remake of the Brady Bunch there.

But if do find pink to be cheerful outside. My garden is predominately shades of pink, which give a splash of color everywhere you look, with a bit of purple and blue. A wise gardener once told me that for maximum impact go for a single dominant color, although a variety of colors seems to more popular. I planted some of those too, with zinnias and gladioli this year.

My garden has been neglected for the past four years, but it’s starting to look in better shape now, and I actually bought some hanging baskets this year, which haven’t done too badly considering the strange weather we’ve had so far. So join me while we visit the pinks in my yard.

I bought these vibrant pink geranium baskets for the back yard, as I enjoy looking out my kitchen window in the morning and seeing this bright pop of color.

But I bought these mixed ones for the front, as I liked the idea of the two-tone color with the brighter centre and hoped it would go better with the roses, which it didn’t really, but it’s still a riot of color.

Impatiens are back in style, and seem to be more disease resistant now. I had mine in early so they’ve already spread out quite a bit. They like shade so they’re along the fence where my neighbours cedar hedge hangs overhead.

I bought these dianthus for the first time, as they looked so nice and they reminded me of carnations. The pink watering can has sun-faded over the years.

These pink peonies are my favourites.

I never bring them indoors though, even if they look nice as a centrepiece, as the ants like them too!

Mosaic turtle hanging out with the peonies.

I don’t like these peonies as they’re too pale – sometimes the nursery tags can be deceiving, but they’re in and they flower, so there they will stay.

A tree peony in my neighbourhood flowers in May – I tried to find one but they were out of pink and cost $60, and I’d already spent too much replacing nine of my pink Knock-Out rose bushes.

I had twenty of these at one time, but when they reach the end of their life-span of 10-12 years they get either spindly or woody in the centre. I planted gladioli behind them along the house as an experiment for some August color.

I’ve never seen the lavender bloom so early.

The bright roses came with the house, they must be over 50 years old, and are prolific bloomers. They can be fuchsia or red or sometimes both. I googled to see what causes roses to change color, and it can be a number of factors, the age, the grafting process, the soil Ph, the time of the season etc.

I tucked this pink climber repeat bloomer in behind it about ten years ago, and it has done well too.

This is a newer pink climber in the back yard, one of those end of season bargains that you think will never grow, and it has, although it’s taken awhile to get established.

But it’s doing well now.

An older John Cabot climber enjoying the early evening sunshine.

The Dipladenia has recovered from a very cold May. I saved the pink pots from a few years ago. It’s cheaper to make your own basket than to spend $40 on one, as they have become very popular the past few years due to being so drought resistant.

That concludes the pink tour, but later there will be pink hydrangeas, some phlox, and hopefully some pink glads and zinnias which I put in window boxes around the garden for later, so there will always be something in the pink.

Are you supposed to deadhead these things?

Now, you might think I am a wonderful gardener, because everything looks so bright and lovely early in the season, but later things will start to slowly die, as I lose my enthusiasm over the course of the summer and neglect to water because it’s just way to hot to go out, there are too many mosquitos at night and other assorted excuses. But for the month of June my garden always look pretty in pink!

And lastly, because one does not live by beauty alone….

Some greens…..

With pink vinaigrette!

Next week, a list of Beach Books.

#Roses – Wordless Wednesday

June 16, 2021June 16, 202129 Comments

Let your photo(s) tell your story.

An heirloom rosebush which came with the house.

and blooms faithfully and abundantly every year.

Behind it near the trellis is a repeat pink climber planted a few years ago.

They seem to live in harmony despite the close quarters and clashing colors.

Another climber on the back arbor……the one on the other side died from lack of sun.

An old pale pink Austen climber which gets too much shade to bloom much.

And my favorite repeat bloomer the Knock-Out rose of which I now have 25!

For more on roses check out The Subject was Knock-Out Roses – link.

The Last of the Pinks

October 22, 2020October 22, 202031 Comments

I don’t bother with fall decorating outdoors as my pink Knockout roses (see link) are still going strong, and pink and orange (as in pumpkins etc) are not the best color combination in my opinion. It may be odd to see roses in October, but Knockouts are repeat bloomers and they’re usually in their 3rd bloom cycle in September with roses appearing right up until mid-November if we have mild weather. Although obviously not as abundant as in June, they do well considering that I have long given up all pretense of fertilizing and watering.

Fall is late here in my part of Ontario with no frosts so far and the trees just catching fire. The temperature today was 50 F (10 C) with another nice week ahead, with a few days in the 60’s, although there is already snow out on the prairies. While I would love to prune them now as I do my other roses, the timing is key, and so I wait and then curse in the spring and sometimes in December too as pink does not go well with Christmas decorations either! By then they are definitely the worse for wear especially when the rest of the yard has been tidied up but it’s much too cold too tackle any outdoor work. One year it snowed while they were still blooming, and that was a very strange sight.

I’m presently busy with the art world, with mom’s exhibit opening next week and writing time scarce, so I thought I’d post a few pictures of them, in their final days of fall glory.

They often look scraggly this time of year, shooting off in all directions, but are almost the same height as the deck.

I took these photos on the sheltered side of the house as the colors are more vibrant in the shade.

The bushes at the front are fuller but more blowzy, the wind having knocked many of the petals off.

By the garden gate – photo taken Oct 20.

I have other pinks in the fall – the odd hydrangea, a leftover dinner-plate hibiscus, but they are usually finished by the end of September.

My phlox was especially lovely this year.

This flower in the side yard belongs to my neighbor, but I’m not sure what it is?

The pale pink climbing roses on the front trellis are repeat bloomers too, so I don’t cut them back until they are finished.

A definite sign of fall, this burning bush looks almost pink in the shade.

And that’s it – the last of the pinks until next year!

The Last of the Pinks – painting by Joni’s mother

The Subject Was Knock-Out Roses

August 8, 2019August 12, 201968 Comments

The Knock-Out Roses are blooming again, starting into their second cycle of the summer. While never as showy as the initial blooming, they are still a welcome sight, a bright spot of color among the withered baskets and dried up lawns of early August.

If you want a low maintenance, easy to grow rose then Knock-Out Roses are the rose of choice. I have 24 of these rose bushes and it was one of the best garden investments I’ve ever made.

At $20 per pot for the pink double ones I’ve had ten years of beauty from them.

If you are not familiar with the family of Knock Out Roses they were created by rose breeder Bill Radler in 2000 and were a hit right from the start. Traditionally roses have had the reputation of being finicky plants, hard to establish and prone to disease, requiring lots of tender loving care.

Knock-Outs have become popular because they are basically no-care and disease resistant, but the biggest appeal for me was they are repeat bloomers. After a glorious initial bloom in mid-late June here, they will repeat the blooming cycle every 5-6 weeks. New growth on the bushes is seen as red shoots/leaves. One year when we had a particularly late fall, I had roses up until December – they looked quite strange with a dusting of snow on them.

Well more than a dusting….

They are also self-cleaning in the sense that there is no need to dead head them, although you can if you wish. I spray mine with the garden hose on jet when they start to look too shaggy. They are also heat tolerant and do well in most hot sunny locations, requiring 6-8 hours of sun a day. The two I planted on either side of the house do not generally do as well as the others as they do not get enough sun, likewise several at the back which are in the shadow of the house.

Made in the Shade

Although that is not true this year, as we have had horrible heat close to 100 for days, so the ones in the shade are doing better than the rest. We also had a late cool rainy spring with little sun, so the bushes have failed to achieve their usual height. I should point out that most of these pictures are from previous years, lest anyone think I have created miracles during this weird weather year.

They also don’t need much water, so as they are the perfect plant-them-and-forget-them rose, especially important if you are a lazy gardener like me who hates to drag the hose around.

As tall as the shepherds hook

Pruning and height: I prune mine back to about 12 inches in early spring, although last year I misjudged and pruned in late March then we had two more weeks of wintry cold, so I learned my lesson and waited this year. If no pruning is done, they can reach 3 to 4 feet wide and 3 to 4 feet tall, and some years I have achieved this when we had a milder spring and a good growing season. Although they may be shorter than usual this year due to our poor spring, they still have plenty of buds on them.

This year’s shorter bush

Caring and fertilizing: I give them a dose of bone meal in spring and a sprinkle of controlled release fertilizer and that’s it. The website suggests some winter protection in colder climates, but the year I blanketed them with a layer of fallen leaves, was also the year I noticed a lot of blackspot on the stems the following spring. The nursery owner suggested I forego the leaf layer and spray them with horticultural oil to treat/prevent any fungal disease, which I do now every spring. I do mulch them, but other than that they have survived our brutal Canadian winters, although this year I was a bit afraid as the stems were so late greening up and looked so dry and brittle for weeks, but they eventually came along….sigh of relief.

Here’s the company’s website, with a page of FAQ’s – link.

There are ten colors. I have the Double Pink Knock-Outs, as I love bright pink and when I bought the first lot the nursery owner suggested keeping the color the same if I wanted to make a statement. The Double blooms are fuller and put on a nicer show, so I always recommend the doubles. Unfortunately three of the Doubles I bought a few years later came out as singles, despite the silver grower tags on them stating double – liars!

I really wish they had climbers, but they only have shrub roses so far. They do have a tree rose, which stands about 6 feet, but at $90 I found it hard to justify when I have so many others and being a small tree, I wondered how it would over-winter here?

Knock Out Rose Tree

Of course there’s always a gardening mishap or two. One year some unidentifiable slug (I was never able to capture one), started munching on the bushes on the west side of the yard and managed to steadily eat their way along the whole row. I was busy with work and by the time I noticed it was too late – they had decimated six bushes.

2015 was not a good year!

Although I tried everything – soap, powder, washing them off with the hose – they continued their stealthy munch munch munch. But the next spring they bounced back, good as new.

Although they are bred to be disease resistant, a few years ago Rose Rosette Disease (also known as Witches Broom), started attacking the Knock Outs in some parts of the United States (see Southern Living article), but it hasn’t affected mine so far. Knock on wood that it never moves this far north, but if does, then it’s game over and they all have to be dug up and discarded. Best to check with your local nursery to see if this virus, spread by mites via wind, is a problem in your area before buying.

While I do have other roses – an ancient climber,