Charleston gardens, roses, and flower boxes part 1

Spent the afternoon downtown with some friends and my sister for lunch and after we took another walk around Charleston snapping pictures...I hope you enjoy them and perhaps can get some ideas for some planters as they have some amazing flower box displays all over Charleston. Sorry that I do not know the names of the roses in these pictures. I did see several that I believe were Blush Noisette or Champney's Pink Cluster (though didn't take any pictures of those) which isn't surprising seeing as they are from Charleston. I wish I knew more then that but I don't. So if anyone knows for sure the names of any of them please leave a comment I would love to know what they are.

I think this may be Jeanne d'Arc  but I'm not 100%

Pink Geraniums, varigated ivy, fern

Snapdragons

Foxgloves

Foxgloves and Delphiniums

Foxgloves

Neat Live Oak where the wall was built around it.

Well that's it for now. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Sombreuil 1850

Sombreuil

This a beautiful large flowering climbing rose with a strong delicious tea scent. 

Its flowers are large and flat when fully opened and creamy white. She is also a very thorny rose. 

Sombreuil draws me to her when in bloom for her blooms are breathtaking and her scent divine. 

I have her trained and fanned across wires along my privacy fence. She is 3 or 4 years old but growing beautifully. She does tend to get a fair amount of black spot on and off but nothing too drastic and she makes up for it with the fact she is always in bloom throughout the growing season.

Train this rose while she is young as her canes get stiff with age. She tends to throw out long canes that are easy to work with just watch out for those thorns. This rose would make a great pillar rose as long as you start wrapping young or as I have her fanned out along a fence or over an arbor. Give her plenty of room, and plant her somewhere near so you can enjoy her gorgeous blooms and delicious scent!

I tried to take a full shot of her but white I have found is very hard to capture with a camera (at least mine anyway). It just does nothing for her so I chose close ups instead. I highly recommend this rose!

What I've been up to lately!

Haven't posted in awhile. I have had family visiting from Massachusetts this past week and they have kept us busy. We went kayaking through a creek in Francis Marion National Forest..

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My kids all set and ready to go!

My daughters first time kayaking on her own.

It was a 3 hour ..well more like 2 1/2 hour kayak trip. She got tired (we all did) but she did great though, very proud of her! My son was with my aunt in a tandem kayak but he did plenty of paddling himself.

Meet my husband, Jeremy. Pretty good looking guy if I do say so myself!

Sorry no pictures of me..well there is but I'm not posting them on here. ;o)  Ok moving on along we saw owls,  alligator, Swallow Tail Kite, and other birds of whom I don't know there name. It was a beautiful afternoon and we had a great time! I really want to buy our own kayaks!!

alligator sunning himself

owl in the middle of the tree

another owl perched in a tree

The very next day we headed out to Brevard, NC in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains for a day of zip lining. We went from 83 the day before to a feels like 36! This was at Earthshine Mountain Lodge. I highly recommend it if you live near! This was about 4 hours away and was an all day event but well worth it...we had a blast...

The trees here are just  leafing out

This was my husband going across the last zip line across a pond

and my father

 He has a camera on his helmet and it made for some great videos which is mostly what I have. The video below was not from that camera but from my mothers as she was not the adventurous  type...

 

Oh this goat was so cute, he was following us like a dog...

Now tell me that doesn't look like fun! That video shows one of the zip lines that was 400 ft long!!

It was a very looong but very fun day and we all can't wait to do it again!

So after kayaking and zip lining we took them to Charleston just 20-30 min away (yes, this was the day after the zip lining) and spent the day walking around parts of my favorite historic city. It was such a lovely day!

Starting with Fort Sumter, the start of the Civil War

Now let's take a carriage tour through some of the what you'll see around Charleston

Unknown rose not yet blooming

A courtyard

Another little courtyard

One of many old grave yards

USS Yorktown

Well that was a little glimpse of Charleston, our kayak trip and zip lining. I am exhausted I tell ya but I am ready to do it all over again....after a weeks rest at least anyway!