Various Yellows

543

“The yellow glistens.
It glistens with various yellows,
Citrons, oranges and greens
Flowering over the skin.”
~ Wallace Stevens

In my old house I had this beautiful yellow rose. It is called a Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’ (Lady Banks’ Rose) and it has a mass of small, multi-petalled, pale yellow, double flowers in late spring, early summer. Once it gets going it is vigorous grower, semi-evergreen and the cascades of yellow flowers look like blossom. It was a gift from my Mother many years ago and I loved it very much. When we moved house it was one of the things I was sad to leave behind.

But, new house, new garden, and a fairly empty garden at that was a chance to start over with a new space and new plants. The first year I didn’t do much to the space. I just wanted to see what it was like and live here for a bit before I launched into anything. The last couple of years I have slowly added some plants. Roses and clematis mostly, because they are my favourite. Last summer I added a Passion Flower, which I had been unable to grow in my last garden as it was not warm/sheltered enough. So far it is doing OK in this new space.

I have lots of ideas/plans in my head but gardening is a slow game. It is definitely a marathon and not a sprint and I believe the best results come from taking time and letting the garden evolve rather than trying to force it into a vision that does not fit.

However when my Mother asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year I told her I missed my Banksiae rose. The beautiful lemon yellow ribbons of flowers, the lush green growth that it produces each year. The way it hangs and trails over its supports. It is a truly beautiful thing and now I have a new one.

I planted it today. I have had it since mid April but the weather has been too rubbish to get it in the ground as it was to be the first plant in a new flower bed I had planned out and digging over a new flower bed when the ground is completely soaked is not a good idea. So today was the day. But before I firmed it into it’s new home I welcomed it in other ways, by stripping off and taking some naked pictures with it.

I have a whole series I took with the one I had in my old house. You can find them all linked on this post, Front. Clearly as this specimen is new it does not have the same growth as that old one. It will though, and hopefully I can take more pictures when that is the case but it does have flowers on and it not being in the ground yet meant I could play around with the placement of it. I took a few pictures in the end and I suspect some of them will appear here eventually but I decided for this weeks Sinful Sunday theme which is Yellow, this double exposure shot fits the brief perfectly.