Things That Make Me Happy - Garden Roses

My husband and I are just days away from our 4th wedding anniversary! The traditional gift given for year number 4 is fruit or flowers, while the modern day apparently is an appliance. Seriously? Who comes up with these? So short of making my darling a fruit salad, I'm still not quite sure what to get him...
Last year however, he bought me the most beautiful rose called Pink Flamingo. It was a good size when we got it but these year I'm sure it's at least doubled in size - now, just about 5 feet!

There's been a bit of a delay this year as the warmer seasons roll around in New Jersey. We had such a harsh winter so I wasn't expecting much of my anniversary rose just yet. So you can imagine my suprize to now see Miss Flamingo looking more beautiful than ever!

I love that these roses are full, fluffy and lush like an English garden rose as opposed to the traditional long stemmed variety you might be lucky to have on Valentines day. These coral pink roses of mine, give off such a sweet, heady scent too! They're just gorgeous... I'm happy to see they're doing well.

On another note, they've also been providing me with some artistic inspiration. I've been working on some new silk flowers for Aurora Bridal, so when it was time to dead head these new roses, I took the opportunity to do a little flower study.

Using a flower iron for shaping silk, allows me to style and shape each petal, much like the real thing. Here are a few observations I made from my newly plucked petals.

I hope you'll stop back to see how my silk flowers are coming along soon. In the meantime, I'd love to heat if you're also enjoying some back yard blooms this summer. What happens to be your favorite flower?