Southern Charm

Lady Banks Rose

On the way home from our antiques weekend, my friends and I took a detour through Independence so we could stop at the Antique Rose Emporium. And I left there without having bought even one rose. No, there's not anything wrong with me (well, not anything new, at least). There weren't many roses in bloom yet, which made resisting temptation a LOT easier, as did knowing that there's limited room on my corner of Katy for more roses. Although the HG suggests we could take out a little more grass ...

I did buy three 4-inch pots of Verbascum 'Southern Charm', a perennial whose muted colors will look lovely somewhere in the garden. Don't ask me where exactly ... the Head Gardener hasn't decided that yet.


Our answer to the below was a resounding yes!

The building near the windmill is an old stone cottage from the 1800s.

The Beatrix Potter Garden is designed with children in mind.


I'm not sure what these structures for climbing roses are called. They seem too grand to be called tuteurs.

This is the new sales building, which replaces the original structure that was destroyed by a fire in 2008.

This is another of the outbuildings on the premises.

I'll be darned, we CAN grow Hellebores in Texas!

The Texas Mountain Laurels are in bloom but my allergies prevented me from enjoying their sweet grape soda fragrance.
Can you spot the honey bee burrowed inside a bloom?

Since I was with non-gardening friends, this was a brief visit. I'm thinking I should go back in a few weeks, when the roses are in full and riotous bloom, and make up for lost time!