Most of our landscape is xeriscaped, which means there’s a lot of water-smart plants and trees. The Okanagan is has a desert-like climate in the summer, and it can get up to 100F/40C. We don’t have grass. It’s all super-low maintenance, but there were some cedars that got away from us. I’ll have to look back to find photos of how big they got, but here’s a picture of the space that was left behind when we ripped them out.

To fill the space, we got a series of colorful roses. Cherry Parfait, Love At First Sight, White Meidiland, and Joseph’s Coat roses. The Cherry Parfait and Love At First Sight are to grow into full bushes. The White Meidiland are groundcover roses to go under the window, and Joseph’s Coat is a climbing variety that will grow onto our metal garden arch.

Here’s some more information about each type of rose we got! They all bloom from spring to fall, lightly fragranced, with double blooms.

Cherry Parfait Rose

We loved the color of these roses and thought it would make for a really nice bush.

Clustering hybrid tea rose with 4″ blooms of 35-40 petals. Features a unique color combination, white blooms with dark pink picotee edges.

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Love at First Sight Hybrid Tea Rose

We wanted something bushy, but compact since it will grow close to the bedroom window.

This is the hybrid tea for smaller gardens and patio planters. While most reach about 5–6′ tall, this one stops at about 3′ tall. The flower form follows a growing trend in modern European rose gardens—the ball–shaped bud opens into a less–pointed bloom than the typical high–centered hybrid tea bloom. It’s a little more rounded, and the extra curve is striking. This style is still very new in American gardens. Subtle bicoloring—red on the front of each petal that pales on the reverse—further enhances the rare shape.

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White Meidiland Rose

We needed something low since these roses will grow under a window. Originally, we were planning on getting regular sized rose bushes but were advised otherwise.

A dwarf, spreading shrub rose which produces abundant clusters of very full, double, pure white flowers, up to 3 in. across (8 cm), packed with up to 70 petals. The blossoms have no fragrance and stand out against the lush and beautiful foliage of glossy, dark green leaves. Blooming continuously from late spring until frost, this ground hugging flowering shrub is ideal for banks and rocky areas. Vigorous, hardy, shade tolerant and easy-to-grow, it is also very disease resistant. An exceptional choice as a ground cover or low flowering hedge.

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Joseph’s Coat Rose

My favorite! I am the most excited about these roses. They have the most gorgeous range of colors, and it’s a climber. We have a metal arch in our yard that is going to be perfect for these roses!

A kaleidoscope of colors, Rosa ‘Joseph’s Coat’ is an eye-catching climbing rose with clusters of large, 4 in. across (10 cm), full flowers (26-40 petals), changing from yellow to scarlet back to orange and carmine. Moderately fragrant, they bloom in flushes from late spring to fall. This tall climber enjoys a stiff, upright growth with quite thorny stems and lustrous, apple green leaves.

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We went a little crazy at the garden center last year, so I had plenty of empty planters that were begging to be filled. I can also see my little garden plot every day when I’m sitting at my desk at work. So every day I am reminded I could be watching my garden grow. It also means a lot to me this year, because planting and gardening remind me of my mom. I think gardening is going to be an extra cathartic experience for me this year.

We lost her in early winter. We do not follow many Chinese traditions, but it is customary to mourn someone for 100 days. Her 100 days ended around the spring. And I had mourned heavily. Even before she was gone. I think I’ve done a pretty good job of working through my journey of mourning, which is something that I may go into in another post someday. I will always have my grief, but I was ready to move on from mourning her death. And so gardening is one way I can celebrate my mom. I expect a few more rough patches this year, but hopefully, the act of putting down some roots (pun intended) will help anchor me as I move through the “firsts” of things, like Mother’s Day and her birthday this year.

This year, I decided to stick to a color scheme. Normally, I like to buy whatever bright and unique and catches my eye. But when I was browsing some websites to get my gardening fix, I noticed a section on the page called “colour theory” and realized I should try for a more cohesive look this year.

We picked up swiss chard, kale, an orange pepper plant, a strawberry plant, mint, and a bunch of tomatoes. My collard greens that I planted last year have made a reappearance in their planter, so we’re excited to tuck into those this time around. For florals, we picked up lilies, geraniums, begonias, petunias, pansies, ipomoea, a trailing ivy (can’t find the tag now), bacopas, and creeping jenny (my favourite!). I made matching planters for the ones on our upper patios, as well as hanging baskets, and then freestyled the other planters. I have never bought plants or veggies from Superstore before, but so far they look pretty promising! I’ll make another post when everything starts to grow in and fill out. It would be nice to report that I am done with garden purchases for the year, but I will probably have to make one more. I need to get soil amendments because I didn’t do “crop rotation” and am crossing my fingers my tomatoes still do well!

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