Today is National Gardening Day

Today is National Gardening Day and I get so excited when the flowers start blooming in our gardens, especially the roses. Rich would talk to his roses every morning and he grew the most gorgeous flowers but his roses were exquisite.

These are just a few of Rich’s roses from years ago, he planted this rose bush in 2013 and it is full of blooms from early spring to sometimes into December.

2026 Roses

I’m doing the best I can to keep Rich’s roses growing and thriving like he had them. These are time lapse photos of two our the special roses, one is the red long stem rose that smells like raspberries and the other is Alex’s rose that we planted in 2017 when she moved from Indiana to South Carolina.

Rich’s Long Stem Roses

This beautiful rose smells like fresh raspberries and feels like velvet. On March 30th, I took the picture of the bud just showing a bit of the rose. It seems to take so long for it to open but it needs time to work on it’s beauty. The second picture was 9 days later on April 8th, then April 11. There was quite a change from when I took the picture on the 11th and then the final one on the 13th. The last picture I took at night on the 13th.

Alex’s Rose

Alex’s rose is also unique. It starts out a peachy coral and as it opens it’s a deep pink. The first picture is April 8th, then the 10th and 11th.

The first two pictures were taken on April 12th and 13th. Within five days this rose went from a closed bud to a gorgeous coral/pink rose. The last picture is a night shot taken April 13th.

Yesterday’s Gardening Project

I did this gardening project a day early! Last August the front side yard looked like the top picture. It was time for our overgrown 20 year old pampas grass bush to vacant the premises. It took me about a week to cut all the branches then dig up the roots. There were ground hornets living in the in the roots and once I started chopping, sawing and digging they were not happy. That set me back a bit as I had to do most of the work in the early morning when it was cool and the hornets were sleeping. Yesterday I tackled the area and removed some more roots and weeds that had grown through the winter. My next step will be to finish this area with something. My neighbor has lime green Sedum ground cover and she says it spreads quickly. I’m thinking maybe that would look nice where there is no grass and put a rock border around it. If anyone has ideas for something that stays green year round, I’m all ears. It also has to be something that can tolerate high temperatures and not much water.

My National Gardening Day will be busy today working on outdoor projects and watching my roses, iris, hibiscus, liatris, cannas and lilies start added color to the gardens.

Did you know today is National Gardening Day, what are your plans in the flower beds or vegetable gardens?