Orchids and Fair Bianca

The orchids were for daughter's 26'th birthday. She sure was surprised to get flowers delivered! What fun!

The yellow orchids look dramatic with the red-dyed eucalyptus, a perfect fit for our daughter's personality. When I ordered the arrangement, I didn't pay attention to the eucalyptus and was going just for color. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that our daughter had an allergic reaction to eucalyptus once. She was visiting a friend in a warm room that had a big eucalyptus wreath on the wall and she turned beet red and passed out. She insists that she's outgrown the allergy thing but we don't want to find out so the arrangement is staying in the dining room where there is plenty of air flow.

It was quite a struggle to get the orchids and eucalyptus to stay in the pretty, red globe vase. I had to fuss with the arrangement numerous times. We tried using a smaller glass filled with water and a plastic water bottle hot glued in the middle. Neither worked. Filling the vase with glass marbles worked but doesn't look nearly as pretty because you can't see through the marbles. Still, it's a stunning fall display.

Today I checked on the roses and found a gorgeous, huge Fair Bianca bloom. Wow! It smells wonderful too! The Fair Bianca seems much happier now that the temperatures are cooling off. The bushes in the front yard are getting more buds too. That's nice to know because Pat Austin seems to be done blooming for the year and the Scepter'd Isle is slowing way down. This means I'll have roses for a long time next summer. The Fair Bianca would have had lots more blooms if I had known how to prune properly. I can't wait till next spring to see what a difference good pruning will do for the roses. I didn't get "festoons" this year but maybe next year I will.