Anthony was/is crazy about flowers and we have dozens of rose trees and camellia trees and all sorts of other flowering things in the garden. The trouble is (a) he isn’t home anymore and he’s the one who tended to all of these gardening shenanigans; and (b) I loathe gardening.
Don’t get me wrong – I love gardens and flowers and trees and all of that, but I just wish they didn’t need so much help. The camellias are my favourites because they just thrive anyway, but the roses – oh the roses!
My beautiful friend, CB, has come over several times in order to teach me/help me to prune the roses and we have made a bit of headway but only because she does most of the work while I drink my coffee or struggle to find the stupid secater/scissor things (see, I can’t even spell the secatooooor word!) Nevertheless, she is very patient with my procrastinating ways.
Since I now really want to grow sunflowers, I realize that I must first prove to CB that I can prune those bloody roses and prove to her that I am a newly-fledged gardener. So tomorrow, or maybe the day after tomorrow, I am going to do it – yes! I have to do this before she comes over and sees that I haven’t done it.
I plan to invite her over on Friday afternoon to see the pruned roses and to get sunflower advice because she knows all about this gardening thing. That is one of the many reasons I adore her.
Here are a few pictures of the camellias that do not need anything except the occasional glance of appreciation!
jmgoyder 
Looks like you are doing a great job. Roses are actually pretty forgiving. Do what you can and they will bloom as they will. Good luck.
The roses must be very forgiving!
Our roses weren’t very forgiving – managed to kill 80% with either poor pruning or neglect 😦 The rest are doing just fine! Now sunflowers, they are truly happy to do their own thing 😀
Oh so sunflowers are easy – yeeha!
That last photo … is stunning – what a “tree” of roses. Camellia or gardenia is my ultimate flower – but so difficult to handle. You have done a fantastic job .. or the flowers know things we don’t know. They maybe know that with Antony not able to take care of them .. they have to adjust to you.
That is one of the camellia trees – we have them everywhere. I’ll take some more pics.
how glorious (god, I am getting old –when would I have ever used glorious in my younger life?)
I like flowers that basically take care of themselves
Thanks for your glorious comment – hehe!
oh you’re funny —
Roses are forgiving… cut back and leave enough for new growth… they always come back.. and if she says you took off too much tell her you want to retrain them…
Good advice!
Love that last photo Julie…. I wish I could do gardening but not in the cards for me… I will enjoy your garden and new sunflowers when you post shots though ~ these camellias are great ~ need to see is we can get some since they don’t need much assistance!! xo
I am starting to get really excited about the sunflowers – it’s the small things isn’t it!
sunflowers are special!! Love them!
I am going to plant hundreds – after all there is lots of room!
I can’t wait to see!
I will do some research now!
those are so beautiful……like you
Call me beautiful again and I will bop you – haha!
would you like me to call you ugly?? LOL, by beautiful, i mean your spirit. not your outsides, i have know idea what you look like. hehe
Kidding around!
i know, u love it, u r like me, let’s get the good stuff we can out of life,including compliments about your BEAUTY.lololol
ok daaaaaaahling!
hehehehehe
I like a nice garden but don’t have time to keep it tidy. Someone told me where to buy artificial shrubs and flowers cheap so I bought them and put them in the garden.
Garden looks lovely and I don’t have to spent time maintaining it. Always in bloom, even in the winter!
Well now I’ve heard of everything!
What a stunning rose bush, now i knew a taxi driver once who had the most beautiful roses, show stopping displays, in fact every time he picked me up he would detour past his house to show me, he was an old fella living alone, an old codger friend of my dads, Now, Julie, he pruned them with a hedge trimmer. All of them all to the same height! Just chopped the lot short. So do not despair Go hard!! But do remember to water. And i agree that sunflowers are great to grow plus you will get bird feed from them.. what more can you ask for! c
Ah, a hedge trimmer – wonderful idea. That man sounds like a genius!
Oh those were all camellias!
I also like camellias. We bloom at different times, though, so I’m lovingly looking at your gorgeous bush. I have a shrub rose that grows well in this area; it tolerates the heat and drought-like conditions and puts out plenty of rose clusters. Otherwise, I don’t bother with any other varieties except the Queen Elizabeth. My favorite flowers are the zinnia – very hardy and colorful – and the daisy which I used in my bridal bouquet years ago.
I can’t believe I am getting interested in flowers – so weird!
Is it age? Or is it wisdom and appreciation of the simple things? I vote for the second.
Me too!
This from a women who said that she didn’t care about the flowers in my garden. I am pleased to see that you are a better person now.
I can’t believe I was so rude – sorry! Well it is Mrs Tootlepedal’s sunflowers that have reformed me. (Although I still prefer to look at birds).
I hope your sunflowers grow to be glorious giants.
Any special hints?
Mrs Tootlepedal says that you should start them off in pots perhaps.
Tell Mrs Tootlepedal thank you and I will do that. Now I am wondering how to protect them from the birds – I forgot about that tiny problem!
A well directed shotgun?
Now you have really shocked me – ha!
Oh dear Julie these photographs are so beautiful especially the last one… I can understand you about gardening, I love too gardens, flowers but I can’t work good with them… Even I have a little place around my home, some of them died because of the heat waves… But how nice you have a nice friend helps you about gardening. Good Luck for Friday, Thank you, love, nia
Your heat wave sounds awful!
Sunflowers are my favourite flower, so I hope you manage to make some bloom
Everyone says they’re easy so here goes!
They’re just beautiful Julie!
Unfortunately I can’t take the credit for that!
I don’t know…maybe you’re a great leader with exceptional delegating skills…..
Oh very funny!
Anthony and Cap’n Firepants have a lot in common. My wonderfully talented husband is a wizard with plants. The camellias are beautiful!
Yes, I think you either have a green thumb or you don’t – I don’t!
Gorgeous Camellias Julie.
They’re great this year too.
Have you noticed your Camellias have more blooms on them, than previous years?
When I prune our little strip of community garden outside my flat, I just trim off the ungainly bits or trim them back so there’s at least one bud left on each branch.
Oh – okay! Does that mean I have to prune the camellias AND the roses?
I love gardens and flowers as long as I don’t have to care for either………………..yes I just like look and admire them but not have to worry about the care of them…………..
Me too but I have to save the arghy roses for Anthony’s sake!
I can’t believe you have all these flowers during your wintertime. Where’s all the snow?
We don’t get snow over here!
Hmmm. That seems all wrong! Sorry, I live in a place known for its snow. I know that not all the U.S. gets snow in winter, so there’s no reason to expect all of Australia to get snow. Nonetheless, I was still surprised to see flowers. Since I’m not fond of gardening, despite having a garden, I hear what you’re saying.
I love camellias too. These are just gorgeous and must br a really brilliant back drop to the birds coloful feathers. I can just see the peacock feathers against the pink camellias. Beautiful. Both with their own sense of texture.
This is a very pretty share Jules. ~ BB
Just reblogged your post (until I figure out the widget thing) – such a great cause Baroness!
Just saw that you in fact did reblog this post. I cannot say thank you loud enough for you to hear from where I am. But I am screaming it because I am so proud~
This is your cause too Jules, you are part of this. Only togther can we make a difference in some child’s life. I happen to know this is omething you are very passionate about too.
Thanks so much, you are simply the best!! ~ BB
It’s great to be able to do something!
Gardening – yeuggh! Right up there with cleaning and ants in my book.
That’s funny because in your photo that heads up your blog you kind of look like you would love gardening!
I’m in a park – somebody else does the work! 😀
Lucky you!
The camellias are beautiful, but I love flowers of all kinds too. So do your bit, so that you can plant your sunflowers! (We have stray sunflowers grow all the time from when birds drop sunflower seeds from our feeders. Hope yours are as rowdy as ours are).
Yes I would love rowdy sunflowers!
I so love camellias because of their beauty and the fact that don’t need much to be happy 🙂 when we bought our home 10 years ago, I ripped out all the roses and threw them in the garbage along with the previous owner’s copious notes on how to maintain them. I expect she wouldn’t much like the water-wise, low maintenance yuccas and agaves that are planted in their place. 😉
What are yuccas and agaves?
Desert plants, haha
I like to garden, but roses can be a pain. Generally Camellias, gardenias, Azaleas and rhododendron are low maintenance, high flower power.
I like that – ‘flower power’!
I don’t think sunflowers need much work. When I was living in North Carolina I was feeding the birds with a mixture that had sunflower seeds in it. Before I knew it, there were sunflowers all around the feeder.
Yeeha – okay, in that case I will just throw seeds everywhere!