BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden English Garden Vote for your favorite summer flowers

Which of these flowers do you prefer? and which would you grow given the choice?

Hellie

Favorite summer flowers single choice
	Peonies
	Roses
	Lavender
	Lupins
	Carnations/Pinks
Votes accepted starting: 06/06/05 12:00 PM You must vote before you can view the results of this poll.

This was a tough one because where I live, NW Fla, peonies do not grow, lavender is very difficult, we have wild lupines, I think the only one on your list that can be grown successfully is roses. It is hot and humid in the summer, and can get cold in the winter. The humidity will do in a lot of plants that thrive in cooler climates. The lupine seeds for sale, including bluebonnets, just do not want to grow here. I never see carnations and pinks.

I voted for roses but it was a tough choice because I love all of the flowers listed and the only one that doesn't grow in our garden is lupines. I'd like to get some. They grow well in our northern climate, and wild in the mountains of NH and Maine...so pretty.

We had a strange experience with roses. We ordered pink Simplicity rose bushes from J.P. Perkins Co., if I'm remembering correctly. They were lovely for a few years and then, all the new shoots were Rugosa roses, better known around here as "beach roses" because they seem to grow wild at the beach.

All we could figure is that perhaps the Simplicity roses had been grafted onto Rugosa root stock.

They are so lovely though and fragrant. We have both the white and the pink ones, along the street side, white, wooden fence. If I knew how to make Rose Hip tea, I'd be all set! I understand that rose hips are loaded with antioxidants.

Pat Cummings, www.quiltersmuse.com

Rose hips are full of vitamin C and have vitamins A, D and E, as well as antioxidant flavonoids.

In Britain during the Second World War children used to collect the hips from the hedgerows to make into rosehip syrup and rose hip tea - so they are really good for you. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Pick the hips when they are red.

To make tea from fresh hips
Chop 3-5 hips and then add one cup of boiling water - leave it to brew for about 10 minutes.

You can alter the strength of the brew by not chopping the hips - weaker tea or by mashing the hips - stronger brew!

Hellie
English Garden
Walking

My vote was for the rose, although my favorite flower was not on the list: the daisy. (It's just such a happy, long-lived summer flower.) I'd love to grow roses, but living in Ottawa, most rose bushes do not survive for more than a winter or two, even when well-wrapped during the cold months. I'd love to live further south - somewhere in the southeastern U.S. - and be able to grow all sorts of plants! I do have a couple of beautiful peony bushes in my front yard, as well as some lilac bushes (another favorite of mine...my mother also loved them).

firefly...peonies won't grow in Florida? I've found them to be very hardy here. The temps in the winter can go down to below -35 C (-31 F), and I don't have to do anything to protect them; they're very tough. (Same with lupines.) Maybe it has to do with the variety. (I do have the same problem as you though, with lavender...can't get it to survive.)

I voted for roses but my favorite flower of all is the tulip.