The Rose Garden – Le jardin de la rose

We visited this wonderful rose garden in Doué la Fontaine today, 11 km south of Saumur. These three trees with their climbing roses were my favourite. Aujourd’hui nous avons visité cette merveilleuse roseraie à Doué la Fontaine, 11 km au sud de Saumur. Ces trois arbres avec leurs roses grimpantes étaient mes favoris.  

Hot Lips

This delightful flower is a Salvia Hot Lips from the sage family. It’s very prolific and an annual. We now have three in our garden and I love them. They flower from May through to October.. Behind you can see a very high Loire at Amboise. Some of the bike paths further along were under …

Love-in-a-Mist – Cheveux de Vénus

This extraordinary flower, which is extremely difficult to photograph because it is so light that it seems to be constantly moving, is  an annual from the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) that blooms in spring and early summer. The genus name Nigella comes from the Latin “niger” (which means black), and refers to the plant’s intense black …

Rainy Roses – Roses sous la pluie

The roses, of course, are not holding up well to the rain! But, I can tell you that my new grass is growing like mad! That’s a persistent honeysuckle on the right, by the way. Les roses, bien sûr, ne supportent pas bien la pluie mais je peux vous dire que ma nouvelle herbe s’éclate ! C’est …

Flowering Chives – Ciboulette en fleur

I owe this photo to Stuart from Amboise Daily Photo. This time last year he posted a photo of chive flowers on his terrace and I was so taken with them that I went and bought a couple of plants. After giving us chives all year round, they now have these lovely mauve flowers. Je …

The Yellow Vineyard – Le vignoble jaune

After the Bordelaise mix on the vines earlier in the day, I was worried about why this vineyard was covered in yellow but it only turned out to be buttercups which seem to be everywhere this year. Après la bouillie bordelaise sur les vignes plus tôt dans la journée j’étais inquiète de voir ce vignoble tapis …