　Dry flower making: After drying outside in a half day, hang them in the garden shed.
They are good to use when making wreaths.

　Princess Alexandra of Kent is outstanding together with Astrantia major. Very elegant graceful rose like its name! Astrantia is a good companion plant, since they bloom together in early July.

　Blush Boursault is the new face in my garden. It is one of the old roses, pre-1838. In the garden center I found this rose last year, with lovely flowers pending down from the long branches as a pot plant of the climbing rose. How lovely! How tall! And how expensive! I needed a climbing rose for the arch of the new circle stone area, so I bought it!

　After the long and hardy winter, I am so happy to see the flowers blooming beautifully and healthy.

　Very clear pale purple flower. Looks like a glassware.
　Waiting for the flowers to bloom every summer.

Gentle Hermione is one of David Austin roses, too. Lovely apricot white color, myrrh fragrance. Repeat flowering, very healthy. I love Gentle Hermione very much!

　It was a good season for the roses. Mild climate, good amount of rain. Everything is prepared for the roses to bloom! Actually roses bloomed much better than any other seasons I had experienced. On the day I invited guests at the beginning of July, it was too warm for the roses, so some roses were burnt! I saw the burnt rose petals for the first time! Anyway I enjoyed the most brilliant rose season!

　Lovely red fruit! It's a female tree!
They say a male tree has a beautiful tree shape, but I like fruit!
I like a female tree much more!

Autumn wreath with abundant rose hips which were harvested after I cut back the rose bushes for the preparation for the snow.

My wreath making is free and easy. I use any flowers which are convenient for me at that time..

　After the July rose season, my rose garden becomes the rose and vegetable garden, with squash runners creeping around the rose bushes.
　I tried not only a squash but also a bitter gourd this year. Bitter gourd is now very popular in Japan as an ecological green curtain and an ideal food rich in vitamins.

　Except Comte de Chambord, every rose I chose here is an English rose.
　English roses or David Austin roses are suitable in Hokkaido.　They are very healthy in my garden.
　Old roses are also very healthy, but in spite of myself I buy a new English rose when I see the catalogue.

　 Rosa acicularis is a wild alpine flower in Hokkaido. In 2013, I got the shoot plant from one of the memeber of the Old Roses and Climbers Club, who had collected the very rose bush near Mt. Taisetsu together with Mr. Seizo Suzuki, or Mr. Rose. Since then I have dreamed of its growing. Only three flowers could be seen in this season. So slow to grow!

The introduction of the 2017 season is not roses but herbs and wild flowers. I have a deep love for roses usually. However, other natural flowers and colored leaves make my garden colorful and brilliant. They are always healthy and easy to grow. Flowers in excellence!

　As for our new symbol tree, Ilex macropoda, is it a female plant or a male plant? Could it survive after the severe winter? Please see the images below.

　Roses are superb, too, thanks to the good weather of the season! After the rose season, there is a large harvest of bitter gourds and squashes.
　

　In early summer, I found the flowers! But my husband said, 'Does a male tree have flowers, too?'
I checked and yes, it's true! I couldn't identify again!
　

　The garden gives me great pleasure. I enjoy making dry flowers, wreaths, etc., using various flowers in the garden.
It's my own design, very original.
In summer, I make a wreath of natural flowers. In autumn, I make one with rose hips. I enjoy the seasonal wreath arrangement.　

　Instead of the maple tree which suddenly had died, last year we bought Ilex macropoda. It cost us 18000 yen, the most expensive tree in my garden! However, we couldn't identify it was a female tree or a male tree when we bought.
　
A female or a male?
Let's identify together!　

　In the shade garden, there are wild flowers. Anemonopsis macrophylla is my favorite.
I look forward to its blooming everyday in August.
Kirengeshoma palmata is also alpine plants in Japan.
They are now the summer princesses in my garden.

　Roses and herbs are said to be good companion plants, so I planted various kinds of herbs here and there in my garden. Dry flower making with the herbs is my favorite work. By seeing those photos I recognize how much joy I get from my garden. 　