Happy Friday everyone.  I hope your week is going well and you are looking forward to a relaxing weekend.  I am definitely looking forward to a relaxing weekend in the garden as I have a few veggie plants that need planting, and since we are expecting rain I want to get those seedlings in the ground soon. 

Really? It took a pandemic to get people interested in gardening?

Speaking of gardening, I’ve been reading many news stories about the nurseries lately having lines out the door and running out of soil and plants. 

The news outlets are attributing this new-found interest in gardening to the pandemic and all the quarantine measures in place right now.  It seems because of all the lockdown measures folks are discovering the joy of gardening and are interested now in growing their own vegetables.

Can I just mention that I never in a million years thought that it would take a pandemic for people to discover the joys of gardening!  In all the decades I have been gardening, the one place I never saw a line or any crowds was at the nurseries 😀 , but now 😏!  Now, you get the picture, its not a quiet sanctuary like it was before.

Anyway, enough of me ranting on about the news and gardening.  Let me share with you now some pictures of flowers! Today’s Friday Flowers focuses on the humble carpet rose.

The humble carpet rose

I say humble because individually the flowers are simple and not your typical buxom roses that everyone likes to takes photos off.  But as clusters of flowers these carpet roses are showstoppers! 

Most carpet roses don’t have fragrance and they grow low like a mound, that’s why they are called carpet rose because unlike regular rose bushes that are tall, carpet roses are low mounding bushes with huge clusters of flowers.

Perfect Landscape Rose

Carpet roses are usually used in the landscape as fillers and in areas in the garden where you don’t want to do much maintenance.  That’s why I planted my carpet roses on my hilly back patio where I knew it would be hard for me to reach them for pruning and maintenance. 

What makes carpet roses so appealing is that they are prolific bloomers and re-bloom on their own without the need for any pruning.  Just plant them and water regularly and let them bloom away.

Carpet rose bouquets

I normally don’t cut carpet roses for bouquets because with so many other roses in my garden in gorgeous colors and lovely fragrance I tend to gravitate towards those but as I was walking in my garden this week the sight of huge clusters of carpet roses elegantly dripping with blooms really enticed me to cut some for the first time for a little bouquet. 

For some contrast I picked a few yellow astromeria blooms and a few orange fragrant roses too.  I must say that I was impressed at how gorgeous this humble carpet rose arrangement turned out!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. Get some fresh air, be safe and stay well.

Happy Gardening!