NB: A note for WordPress Reader users – you need to click on the title of the post again to see the full photograph. (Otherwise you see just a tiny section!)
We had a few days of frost and snow towards the end of December. This created lots of opportunities for winter photographs, so you can imagine how pleased I was to see it. (Finding something to photograph for the blog can get difficult at this time of year!)
The warm autumn and mild early winter had encouraged the roses ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ (above) and ‘Zepherine Drouhin’ (below) to produce a few very late blooms. I love to photograph frosty and frozen flowers because they’re like little icy sculptures. Sadly the frost brought these particular flowers to an end. Freezing damaged the cells of the petals too much for them to survive once the frost melted.
Most of my frosty pictures are photos of seed heads and leaves, so it makes a change to be able to photograph frosted flowers. Because there are only a few winter-flowering plants in my garden, I’d like to plant more flowers that will appear during this time. That would mean that I have more to enjoy in the garden in winter and more to photograph – that’s always a pleasure!
Ann Mackay: Inspired by Nature 
Your introductory photo is sensational! Well done, Ann!
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Thank you Liz! It was an unusual opportunity to take a photograph of this particular rose (Rhapsody in Blue) in the frost. It is less likely to produce late flowers than Zepherine Drouhin, which often manages a few late blooms. (I initially got confused about which post I was trying to comment on, if you saw my unedited reply, hehe!)
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I checked my blog and I’ve done two posts that include ‘Rhapsody In Blue’ because they have it in Gore Gardens and it’s one of my favourites! That’s interesting about the ‘edit’, I only got your ‘final’ version – I’ve wondered before about how that works!
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Probably a good thing that it does work! 🙂
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I don’t think of any plants to be blooming in Britain in December. This comes as quite a surprise. As you noted, it’s a great opportunity to enjoy unexpected combinations of frost and flowers.
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There are some Steve, mahonia, verbascum, winter jasmine being the ones I most commonly see. I plan to find more to plant here… 🙂
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It never occurred to me that you’d be lacking subjects in winter, but my view of English winter gardens has been shaped by posts by someone who lives near Southhampton, in the New Forest. As in Texas, geography shapes the possible; I suppose it’s much warmer there — although they have been coping with stormy weather that wreaks its own kind of havoc.
I like roses well enough, but they’re not something that would come to mind if someone asked, “What kind of bouquet would you like?” That said, this one’s a beauty. That color is just luscious, and it certainly pairs well with the snow. It’s a lovely photo — I’m glad you had the chance for it!
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The colour of ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ is what drew me to it – purples and blues are my favourites. I now have two of them, so hoping that they’ll do well.
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A very pretty sight. One of my grandmothers would preserve flower petals (violets and roses mostly) to decorate birthday cakes and these photos reminded me.
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They must have been lovely cakes! 🙂
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Yes, we always looked forward to any special occasion that warranted a cake. 🙂
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Each rose is special in its own right: the first has a more unusual color; the second an amazing array of ice crystals.
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That first rose is my favourite for colour. It changes a bit as it ages, starting off brighter and more purplish but softening as it ages and ending up a more bluish and greyer tone. It doesn’t usually produce flowers so late in the year, so this was a bit of a one-off opportunity. 🙂
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I can see why you love this rose’s colour–it’s exquisite. And how nice that it lasted so late into the season.
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Hard to imagine roses blooming but I actually have some November flowering ones. Shame the frost killed your blooms, but beautiful frosty photos.
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Thanks Jill! it’s a treat to have late roses and to have some November is sure to cheer you on a winter’s day!
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That’s a wonderfully decorated rose, Ann! 🙂 There’s no chance for a rose flower to survive our weather.
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Thanks Steve! The roses are entirely gone now – that frost was enough to see them off. But there are still leaves and some rosehips which tend to collect frost nicely. 🙂
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Love the ‘frozen’ roses…beautiful, Ann!!
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Thank you Indira! They were lovely while they were frosted but not so good afterwards – a brief beauty!
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Loved the Frost !!
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Thank you Neha – I’m glad you enjoyed the frost! (Looks like there will be more frosty photos to come because it’s set to be about -5 C tonight.
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