flowersaremusic, The bloom with the hummingbird moth is a relative of the annual Datura..its called Brugmansia aka Angel's Trumpet. It is a perennial shrub of which some varieties can have flowers that are 22 inches long. The flowers point downwards vs the Datura where the flowers point upwards which is why Datura are devils Trumpets..I guess these two could be used in a "Garden of Good and Evil" Theme lol.

The Brugmansias come in all kinds of colors and sizes. They can also have double to quadruple or more flowers.

Cori Ann- thank you that is very kind of you to say :) I’ll be posting crazy amounts of photos come spring time. Everything is still a bit sparse since we just completed our first full year in the house, but I imagine very quickly the gardens will be jam-packed haha.

SJN- those brugmansias are gorgeous! They remind me almost of a fairytale or fantasy garden :)

My beds are color-themed mostly. However, yrs ago I was thinking of doing a "Booze Bed!" Roses like... BRANDY, CHERRY BRANDY, COURVOUSIER, WHISKY MAC, CHAMPAGNE, CHAMPAGNE COCKTAIL, JOHNNIE WALKER, NOBILO'S CHARDONNAY, TEQUILA SUNRISE, MINT JULEP, SHERRY, etc....

Thanks kali :)

Darren that sounds amazing! I bet I could get my dd interested in gardening with that idea! Alice in Wonderland is her favorite! Do you have any photos?

Beth I love that! A Booze Bed rotfl ! Nice! You should do it. You could make a bottle tree and make up some little plant markers with wine corks and travel sized liquor bottles. Hmmm You could do a Jimmy Buffet theme w margaritaville for plants. Mojito mint could be a companion plant. Make some little flip flops and margarita glass plant markers from sculpy clay..add some parrots and flamingos lol

I have too many roses and am too uncoordinated ahead of time to stick with a plan for a theme for a whole garden bed. Heck, I even have trouble keeping to a general color scheme when the roses don't cooperate with the colors they're supposed to be, and don't get me started about rose heights! (smile)

The main themed patch is in my fussy pants section (many of the roses named for fun things are HTs or floris and not entirely hardy in zone 5). I planted WWII Memorial rose for my father-in-law who's 97 and counting. He was serving on a naval vessel out in the Atlantic the day after Pearl Harbor and he has some fascinating stories about the dilemma they were in when a German sub started approaching, but we hadn't officially declared war yet. Should they fire? Should they wait and get blown up? Would it start an international event? They ended up not firing and the sub passed by, but that story among others has really stuck with me. I have Veteran's Honor nearby, and tried to grow Pearl Harbor with it but even in my zone 6 pocket few Howard roses survive for me. I have WAVES coming in spring and I'll put it nearby to honor the women who served in WWII including one of my aunts.

If I got organized, it would be fun in a bed of modern roses to do a Hollywood theme, emphasizing 50's movie stars - think of the color exuberance of a bed of Cary Grant, Lucille Ball, George Burns, Doris Day, Gracie Allen, Grace Kelly (aka Princesse de Monaco), Judy Garland! Their colors are even complementary hot colors with the good Princess to calm things down a bit. You could even have roses that correspond to the letters in the Hollywood sign and make the initial letter of your rose stake huge to spell out the name - let's see, keeping with the color theme we'd have H for Hot Cocoa, O for Octoberfest, L for the eye-popping coral of Lady Elsie May, another L for Livin' Easy, Y for Yankee Doodle, W for Well Being, O for Oranges 'n' Lemons and another O for Outrageous, and D for Drop Dead Red. You wouldn't even need the little lights for that sign, since those combined colors would glow in the dark in a warm climate where those roses are happy.

Fun topic!

Cynthia

Kez, a nice thing about white gardens is that often white blooms have a scent that the cooler evening air brings out even more.

Bossy, color blocking sounds like it requires patience to put it together. Photos? I'd love to see photos of all the different types of gardens described here.

Kali, a red and white bed with shades of pink - so pretty. A little yellow never hurts. Absolutely love honoring your family with an illustrative name of who they are. LOVE that. And, Kali, your post was not too long.

SJN, thanks for the distinction between daturas and brugs - I didn't know that. It's brugmansias that I like. Yours looks like it's in a rainforest garden.

Darren, your Alice.... garden is the epitome of a theme garden. You must have a background in garden design and work at Disney World. What an undertaking! Photos this spring, please!!

Beth, interesting how many roses are named after drinks. Someone must have been all liquored up when naming them.

Cynthia, I hear ya!! I have a mere fraction of the roses you have, and it's hard for me to place them all where they show off to their best advantage, etc. Yeah, height - I know! I think those height numbers are just thrown out there, willy nilly.

It seems you DO have a memorial section with roses to honor your father-in-law and other veterans. I'm glad there are roses in that category. There should be more.

Your Hollywood glam / old movie stars theme is a fabulous idea! Lots and lots of roses named after 40s and 50s stars. You surely have every one of the roses to make it happen.

What a great thread !! I love all the ideas here but no theme of my own . My common thread throughout are my rabbit statues . Somehow I have ended up with quite a few as well as swans . I don't know how it happened it just did! But that's not a garden theme , I don't think

Lily, speaking of statutes..I bought this one the other day :) Its a mama manatee with babies. My cat keeps trying to sleep on her cupped tail area lol.

Lilyfinch, it is if you say it is. Your view with the green rolling hills and the lake look like a bit of old England to me. With your beautiful roses and perennials, you already have a cottage garden theme.

SJN, in all my days, I can say I've never seen a garden manatee. That's unique. Of course your cat wants to sleep in it. Doesn't it look like a cat bed to you? Every properly equipped kitty cat needs a manatee bed.

I wish I had a theme but mine is more of a pottager cottage garden with roses mixed with vegetables. It is quite rustic. It is ironic considering I am artistic and creative but never really have any plan for my garden. However, ideally my theme would be the romantic garden. I like the idea of a timeless rose garden with artifacts or remnants of the past.

Sultry I love the manatee !' So sweet and unique to your area . And sweet of your kitty to nuzzle up to it . I bet the stone feels warm to his fur .

Thansk flowers ! I appreciate the compliment. Wish you could drop by and see it in person ! Like " bewitched " with the twinkle of a nose

Jjpeace, there's a real knack in mixing veggies with flowers. Your creativity and artistry is at work there even if you don't realize it. I agree that artifacts add to the appeal. Even a new birdbath can look like it's been there forever if it is partially concealed by mature plants. I hope you will share photos this spring.

I just want something that looks like a gothy castle courtyard. Or Victorian looking. I've got dragons, gotta figure out what to do with them. So far it's just dig a hole in the middle of the lawn. lol Eventually I want a small pool at the end. Not deep enough for diving, but my daughter has autism and juvenile arthritis, so deep enough to get her some exercise, while not being over her head. Like 5 feet max fiberglass liner I'm thinking. She loved the pool at her old school. I would love to have a mermaid or gargoyle fountain on one end, with a pointy roof pool house. I'm the Adam's family/Munster type of person. lol Would die for one of those Victorian glass greenhouses.

flowersaremusic, you've started a fabulous thread! I enjoyed reading all the posts and ideas. To answer your question: I studied piano in music school and sang in choir when I was young but I'm not a professional musician. Life took me in a different direction... the love for music has stayed to this day though.

I love how others came up with the theme dedicated to their loved ones. Coming from a very small family, I can't have this theme with a large number of roses but I did plant two roses in memory of my Mom and Aunt. My Mom loved having a bouquet of dark red/purplish roses in a vase, so I dedicated Munstead Wood to her, and planted St. Elizabeth of Hungary in honor of my aunt who was of Hungarian origin. I recently read that St. Elizabeth is also considered the patroness saint of rose gardeners which additionally warmed my heart when I found this rose.

Thanks flowers and lily! At first I thought it was an Otter statue with babies..then realized it was a Manatee..I love Manatees so I had to get it, plus it was only $20! Its a decent size. Our Ace Hardwares here in FL have awesome nurseries and greenhouses with amazing tropicals/subtropicals and herbs plants etc in them. I also got 2 body bag Blue Girl roses :)

Now I need to create a Water Theme garden maybe w King Neptune, Medusa, and mermaids to go w the manatee. I have a fountain but its an elephant lol. Hmmm have to think about this.

Heres my baby elephant fountain that right now is a plant bog lol. It works fine it is just not near an electrical outlet so I have to run an extension cord out there so I havent really been using it as a fountain. Its really a mess right now..so here is its 'before' pic lol

witchybrew, a victorian/goth garden would be cool. There's a lot of nice urns that look victorian. I saw a huge gargoyle fountain the other day. I should have taken a photo of it. They also had gargoyles statues that could be turned into a fountain with a little work. Probably some onamental grasses would look cool..black and dark purple millets. There's an almost black Hawaiian Ti plant and black elephant ears..or mojito elephant ears/colocasia have black spots. Dark purple leafed canna would be easy to find.

Or a black bat plant would really look goth.

'Mojito' Colocasia

You could also hang some Witch Balls in your goth garden..they are round glass spheres that are supposedly for protection to trap evil spirits in.

http://www.sunnyreflections.com/witchballs-legends/

JJ, your potager garden sounds really nice. I have a fenced off section for my veggie garden to keep chickens and ducks out lol. I started putting flowering plants in there for hummingbirds and then vines on the gate. Then ended up adding potted hibiscus and roses. It sure brightens up my boring veggie garden. I did have an Asian theme going on with long asian beans and japanese eggplant. I have banana plants on the back border and a few dwarf red lady papayas.

vesfl, I love that St. Elizabeth is the patroness saint of rose gardeners. That's so cool. I will have to look up that rose. My grandmother just passed away right before this Christmas. She was 100 yrs old. She was good a rose gardener. Everything I know about gardening and roses I got from her.

Sultry, I'm sorry to hear about the recent passing of your grandmother. She must have been a very special rose mentor as well.

I read about this rose in a couple of articles by Darrell Schramm. In the ARS newsletter, he writes about it with great enthusiasm and includes the story about St. Elizabeth as a patroness saint. As a plus, he writes that the rose "tolerates not only temperatures of -25° F, but also 95-104° F in the shade":

http://www.rose.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/OGR7-3.pdf

And more about the rose breeder Merkel (also a Hungarian) in his obituary in the Heritage Roses Group newsletter:

http://www.theheritagerosesgroup.org/public-newsletters/2013-february-hrg-rose-letter.pdf 

Witchy, I think we would all die for one of those victorian glass greenhouses! You have a good start on your theme by knowing exactly what you what. You could start with a pool to benefit your daughter and work around that.

Vesfl, your love and appreciation for music will always be a part of you, regardless of other paths you may take. Munstead Wood and St. Elizabeth of Hungary must look fabulous together, and what a sweet tribute to your mother and aunt. Thank you for the info and link. Now, I need another rose!

SJN, if you and Witchy got your heads together I can only imagine what you'd come up with. Your grandmother left a great legacy to you. It's meaningful when we can trace our love of gardening back to our parents or grandparents.

Absolutely adorable manatee family, sjn - if only our stores would stock that, but being about as landlocked as things get in the US it's not a likely thing here in Nebraska. It's a tribute to your grandmother that you can carry on her love of roses, and I know she'd be proud of the gifts in gardening that you share with her.

That's so cool that St. Elisabeth of Hungary is the patron saint of roses, vesfl! I got that rose years ago from Vintage and while it doesn't bloom often the shape of the blooms is nice. Mine has survived in a non-optimum spot for over 5 years, so the hardiness isn't far off, though another plant of this in a different location didn't over winter after a year or two. It doesn't bloom very often in part shade and is pinker than I'd thought, but I don't dare move it since it's not replaceable in the US as far as I know.

Cynthia

vesfl, thank you for those links. It is a beautiful rose. Very fitting for special grandmothers :) Munstead Wood is one of my favorite DA roses. The scent really wafts on the humidity here.

One rose that I have that reminds me of my grandmother is Gloire des Rosomanes. She grew that and when I moved here I also had to find one. A Reverence for Roses carries it. It was grown as a rose then used as rootstock mostly on the west coast. Now its grown just as a rose again. It pops up on old homesteads due to have been used as rootstock after the top part of the grafted on rose has died off. It is a beautiful, strong survivor.

My grandmother's passing still hasnt really sunk in yet. She raised me and my siblings for a period of time when we were really little. She was very special.

Cynthia, Wow your St. Elisabeth of Hungary is a real beauty! I love that color. Good to know how tough she is.

Cynthia, it's a good thing for me St. Elizabeth of Hungary is not sold here. I want too many roses.

SJN, when I saw Gloire des Rosomanes in your comment my heart skipped a beat, but I was thinking of another rose. I've wanted Rosomane Janon for years, but even if I could find it, it's not hardy in my zone.

I'm so sorry for your grief. Because grandmothers are such an important part of our lives, I think we somehow expect we'll have them forever. She must have felt your love every day.

flowers, I just looked up Rosomane Janon because I had never heard of it. OMgosh is that thing real? That is insanely beautiful coloring! Why oh why don't they have Rosomane Janon here? I guess that one will have to go on my 'unicorn rose' list ..like I will get it the 5th of never lol.

~Sjn

Heirloom lists St. Elisabeth of Hungary as in stock, but geez - they're up to $38 for a gallon plant at regular price now! But at least there's a source.

Witchybrew, I like your thinking! Halloween is my favorite holiday, and I'd love to have a Halloween-themed bed - Twilight Zone, Midnight Blue, Enchanted Evening, Black Magic, Full Moon Rising, Incantation, October Moon, Halloween (an older HT)... I did some research, you can see. Sadly I have too many trees and too much shade to work around. A couple of those sadly don't seem to be offered anywhere as of this year.

Sjn, I KNOW! It's nice, isn't it! It had to be beautiful - look at the parentage.

ac91, good to know St. Elizabeth is available if anyone wants to pay the price. Isn't Heirloom the one that's always higher than the rest?

Your halloween bed would have some beautiful roses in it. Much too pretty to be scary.

Beautiful pictures and beautiful theme gardens. Thanks for sharing. I love to see what other people are doing with their gardens. You are all very inspirational.

I had no idea about witchballs. I see them made with trees and everything else inside them. Very cool!

Are those the same thing as the gazing balls that were popular garden ornaments during the victorian era?

Love this thread so much ! Sultry those are such pretty , and unique plants !i love your elephant fountain ! im also sorry for your loss of your dear grandma . Mine is also gone, and was so incredibly special. I miss her so much ! It's amazing the impact a person can have on us .

I was at Ross this week and found another swan statue o had to have . I'm at the point where maybe I should get rid of one for each I bring in .. dosnt mean I will though:)

i love gazing balls ! Mine got broken but I saved the stand for another. Maybe when Lucia isn't such a danger to delicate things haha

Lily, if you've got a spot you can store some statues you can always rotate which ones you have on display. Although I can see myself running out of storage AND display space if I let myself get garden ornaments!

Lily I know what you mean..I want some cherub angel staues. Maybe some gargoyles would be cute too.

I moved my concrete Swan birdbath yesterday by myself. In retrospect, I should have used the hand truck lol but I just dragged the base and lifted the top. That sucker is so heavy, I will prob get a hernia lol. I noticed birds haven't been using it. I read in a blog recently that birds want the birdbath out in the open so they can see if predators are coming. I had it kinda tucked under my banana trees so I pulled in out to the center of my garden.

Found one of the wing tips got broke off a swan so I will have to glue it back on somehow grr. Prob when our fat muscovy ducks flew up and knocked it over one time. They have a pond and fresh water they are just onery.

Anyhow, I took a pic if it by the dormant brown frost bit banana plants which will grow green again in March.

a few weeks ago the bananas looked like this..

Beautiful bird bath SJN! All these garden decorations sound adorable. I might have to get some myself. The only thing I have now is this stone statue of a kitty in the back garden. It’s really cute and actually the original owners of the house left it. It seems it keeps getting passed down to each new owner lol. Although it’s real enough looking that occasionally one of my cats will glare at it from the window, or the dog will growl at it as she walks by haha

Great idea ac! I probably could do that . I inherited a nice vintage gnome collection from my grandparents. Most stay in the basement ! I put two out but the others are waiting a home. I would have never bought them myself but I loved them as a child hidden amoung their hostas . My pap had a thing for all of the garden ornaments! He even made a lot out of wood.

Sultry that is so so cool you grow banana !! I love them , eat one every day at least. Your birdbath will look great out in the open! I moved mine myself too yesterday but with a hand truck .

Kali - that would freak me out if the dog growled at it .. like the " Annabelle " doll or something! Shivers . Don't want to think too much on it . Lol

Thanks you guys. Bananas take so long to mature its hardly worth it if the plants weren't cool looking. I like the plants so the bananas are a plus. They do taste better than the store. These taste like very sweet banana and vanilla plus I know they are organic lol. I have to freeze them to use in banana bread etc because they all kinda ripen at once. I like the banana flowers..the big red part you see is a bract the actual flowers the bananas grow from are tiny whiteish. Here you can see them still attached to the ends of the growing bananas. The bees love them.

Lily, I love your swan statues. I need to look for the swan planters that match the birdbath. I remember when we bought it prob 7 yrs ago, there were matching planters Kinda regret not getting them then.

kali, that's so funny about your kitty statue!

Such cool bananas SJN! Wish I could grow them here, far too cold. Lily I definitely need to invest in some swan pieces now lol

I've learned a lot here. Garden statues at Ross - who'd have thought!.....roses I've never heard of that I now need ASAP.....beautiful, meaningful and unique garden themes.....and I'm learning that some of you have more talent and creativity in your little finger, uh, I mean green thumbs, than I ever hope to have. I've also learned that I need garden ornaments, also ASAP. All I have are plain bird baths and benches. I'm always afraid of over doing it, so I end up under doing it.

Thanks everyone for your thoughtful contributions. I'm going ahead with Heaven on Earth and Earth Angel, which I already have, and will add to as time and budget allow.

Please, please post photos of your theme gardens this spring.

I love fairies, but anytime I've ever got my grubby mitts on any kind of fairy, the wing/wings get broke off. From a necklace to a small statue. I just gave up. I think they're bad luck for me. I even had a little pewter one that managed to get the wing broke. :-\

I searched ‘St. Elisabeth of Hungary’ just now for any information on this rose. What a delightful thread! The theme gardens sound wonderful and I love the garden statues. I wish I had read the part about ‘St. Elisabeth of Hungary’ doing well in the heat with some shade about two hours earlier! She’s in full sun now, so I hope she likes it there. She’s a fully mature plant, so she required a HUGE hole. Great thread! I’m so glad it popped up in my search! Lisa

Lisa, how were you able to use the search bar? It's still inoperable on my computer. That is, unless I sign up for something or other. Have you found a way around it?

I didn’t even realize that there was still a problem using it. I’m trying to remember if I was on my iPhone or laptop last night, when I searched it. I think my iPhone, because I was outside supervising the digging. I just clicked on the little magnifying glass as usual and typed in “St. Elisabeth of Hungary”. It instantly brought up a list of threads beginning with the most relevant. I wonder what it will do if I search via my laptop? I’ll try it and report back. Funny, I had forgotten about the issue because it behaved exactly like usual when I searched last night..... Lisa

I think this place is haunted by old rosarians mad at this ad filled houzz takeover of gardenweb. BOO houzz

Thanks, Lisa. I usually use my computer for Garden Web, but I'll try my phone.

Witchy, I also think Garden Web functioned better before they were affiliated with Houzz. There have been more problems and complaints since Houzz entered the picture. I think this was a case of trying to fix something that wasn't broken.

I used to have gardens named after songs. Such as “Strawberry Fields”, which was filled with red impatiens and other red blooms. “Rainbow Country”, a song by Bob Marley which had flowers in every color of the rainbow, and Shady Lane (a song by Parchment), which was obviously in the shade.

On the other hand my mother in law loves weird plants and I always say she has a Harry Potter garden. I swear she has a venomous tentaculous growing in there somewhere. Lol

Oh, and she has that bat plant, which I do admit, I love

Thanks, SoFL. Two more enticing themes to ponder. Your song theme is appealing and I think it would be fun to put together, and there are some here who will go for the Harry Potter-ish theme.