Pretty flowers

Big Girl sat in my lap this evening and we browsed the Jackson & Perkins catalog together. She loves to discuss the "pretty flowers" with me. I'm an insatiable flower and plant catalog addict. I love to admire all of the new varieties and dream of planting fantastic gardens, some day, at a house that does not yet exist...

So this particular catalog features several of my favorites, including the rose shown here, the Summer of Love Hybrid Tea Rose. I love roses with pink-tipped petals, with white or creamy yellows in the center. Hubs is a smart guy and always tries to find these when he brings me flowers. I would love to have a large rose bed and grow my own, along with others in yellow, peach, deep pinks, and white. If I had this rose bed, I would be able to participate in the J&P Rose Test Panel, which I think sounds like such a neat idea. They send you four plants, all hybrid teas in contention for Rose of the Year, and you get a scoresheet to give feedback on the roses' performance in your garden. My mom did this one year, many years ago, and I've always wanted to have a yard suitable for doing this myself. I would want these hybrid teas, but I would also need to have arches and arbors to grow some fabulous climbing roses as well. And maybe a gardener to help me maintain all of this, since I'm already dreaming extravagantly.

That would just be one portion of my garden, of course. I would need many beds for many, many flowers, plus an herb garden and an area to grow vegetables as well. Including pumpkins for Big Girl and Two to carve for Halloween. And lots of crook-neck and zucchini squash, plus tomato plants. Maybe I'll need a larger staff for these dreams.