Green Cymbidium Orchids And a Vintage Creamer

My green cymbidium orchids, variety unkown, are in full bloom and I enjoyed cutting two flower stalks for the house lately and would like to share them with you. We had a strong storm recently and even though the flower stalks with buds where already fully build out then, there is hardly any damage to the orchids, which seems like a miracle to me.

I just love the light green color of the orchid blooms, which says spring to me in a subtle way. I put the orchids in a vintage apothecary glass jar, which is a present from a dear friend in Germany many years ago and is my favorite vase to display cymbidium orchids in. But the glass jar alone looked a little bit too sleek and modern to me, so I decided to place a vintage creamer to its side, which gives it immediately a more romantic look that fitted my mood of the day.

The flower stalks of the cymbidium orchids are so densely packed with blooms. 

And each flower is a little piece of art in itself. 

I love the little creamer, which keeps the orchids company. I bought it in an antique store in Georgetown, Texas on our trip there in July last year. The delicate pale blue, green and brown floral decor is so charming. The china is very thin, it is almost see-through, if you hold it up against the sunlight.

The creamer is marked and it says S&S Carlsbad, Austria. And there are also some numbers handwritten underneath the stamp in gold and the brown color the floral decor is painted with. I just did a quick internet search, but couldn't find any accurate information to determine the age of the creamer. My best guess is, that it is made around 1900. If you know something about it, I would be happy if you would share it in your comment with me.

I am not a serious collector, but I admit that I have a weakness for vintage and antique china. Maybe I show you some more of my pieces here on my blog in the future.

I really had fun photographic the orchids indoors, but was also very challenged, since I rarely do indoor photography. It is a totally different ball game in comparison to outdoor photography and requires much more precision and technical photography knowledge.

Just a few more pictures...

Hope you liked my photos! I feel inspired to go out into the garden more often and pick something for a vase to bring indoors. The rose season is not far away here anymore and there definitively will be a rose or two to fill a vase...

Wishing everyone a wonderful week.

See you in the garden!

Christina

I am linking to

Bernideen's Tea Time, Cottage and Garden
Holunderbluetchen
Rose Garden Malevik

Skylar, the Doberman: The Big Shake

All dogs love to shake their body from time to time, especially when they are wet to get the water out of their coat. Skylar, our red Doberman Pinscher, is no exception. My husband recorded one of his shakes after Skylar had played in the water at the beach. There is a lot going on! Please click on the video to see it in slow motion.

Hope you enjoyed watching the video as much as Skylar seems to enjoy his shake!

Wherever you are I hope that the winter is not too hard on you. Here in Southern California we are having a heat wave caused by Santa Ana winds and temperatures are supposed to rise up to 89 degrees Fahrenheit/32 degrees Celsius today! Really unbelievable even for San Diego!

Christina

I am linking to

Rose Garden Malevik
Bernideen's Tea Time, Cottage and Garden

January Roses

May I present to you the first new rose bud of the year 2016? It belongs to rosa 'Bewitched' an older, tried-and-true Hybrid Tea rose, bred by Lammerts (United States 1967). The photo below was taken on January, the 31st in between rain showers. When I say new rose bud, I mean it comes from a rose that is planted into the ground and has been pruned this winter and is not part of a rose that is flowering through the winter season here, but that has not been pruned by January. Still I am cheating a little bit, since this rose was planted into the ground in October and has only been slightly shaped at that time.

I had hoped that the flower of 'Bewitched' would be fully open by the end of last month, but that obviously didn't happen. In any case it started the new rose season in my garden and is a promise of many lovely rosy things to come.

Just on a side note: Boy, did we have a storm on Sunday. I think it was the strongest storm that I have ever experienced, since I am living in California and with winds estimated to be 30 mph and gusts up to 50 mph, it was really not fun. From some roses the leaves seem to be ripped of, but other than that there was surprisingly little damage in my garden, for which I am extremely thankful. The storm also brought some rain with it, I guess in my garden an inch or so came down, which is such a blessing.

The photo above shows the bud of rosa 'Bewitched' again one day before the opening photo of this post was taken. 

But besides some exceptions like 'Bewitched', this January most of my roses looked like rosa 'Pierre de Ronsard' above. Deleaved and pruned they are just a shadow of themselves in comparison to spring.

Rosa 'Old Fashioned Girl' is a rose that would keep flowering through the winter, if I let it. It is growing in a very protected location and had a full nice flush in January. Too bad that I didn't take a full bush shot at that time.

'Old Fashioned Girl' again, showing proliferation. Even though considered a fault in a rose bloom I think there is some beauty to a bloom like this, too.

Most of the roses that weren't pruned in January, yet, had pretty unsightly foliage and just looked tired, like the two 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' roses on the photo above. They continued to flower, but were really not a joy for the eye, so it was definitively time for them to get a hair cut.

Rosa 'Iceberg'. Love the red tint on the petals that occurs when temperatures are relatively low. 

Here is an image of the full bush of 'Iceberg', growing happily since years in a big container. 

My other rosa 'Pierre de Ronsard'.

Rosa 'Moonstone' had many lovely, huge, globular flowers in January,...

...but my joy about the flowers is really spoiled by the rust that plagues this rose. Can you see the rust on the back of the leave situated directly above the rose bloom? I am seriously thinking about replacing this rose with a healthier white one, maybe another 'Pope John Paul II' or I can also imagine to try out 'Sugar Moon'.

That is how my Hybrid Perpetual rose bed appeared in January, after the roses were deleaved, but not pruned yet. I have taken them down more by at least a foot or so, after the photo was taken.

Rosa 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' was the second rose carrying a new bud already in January. I love how the water drop is trapped in the tips of the sepals of the rose bud and almost acts like a magnifying glass.

Here is the rose bush to which the bud from the previous photo belongs too. Rosa 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' is one of my new acquisitions that I got delivered in the beginning of January from Chamblee's Rose Nursery. Of course, it is a fairly small plant still, but it is making plenty of new leaves already. I am very excited about this rose, since I ordered a band of this variety many years ago, but it died within weeks. Many consider 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' to be an exquisite rose and I hope to enjoy her first open flower soon. Of course, I will try to fetch a photo for you to see, too!

Today I picked up the organic fertilizer that I ordered over the San Diego Rose Society and I am looking forward to feeding the good stuff to my roses as soon as possible. Honestly I can't wait for the spring flush. In about eight weeks from now on it should start.

Wishing everyone a good rest of the week!

See you in the garden!

Christina

I am linking to 

Rose Garden Malevik

Bernideen's Tea Time, Cottage and Garden