pink flowers – thehomeplaceweb

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.

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!

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Tag: pink flowers

Pretty in Pink

The Last of the Pinks