Its already spring in Geneva, 3 hours drive south west from my garden. Some people may say "false spring" as there can still be one or 2 more hard frost or even snow....but the snowdrops are always ahead of forsythia or other flowers that appear in late winter.
Crocus are also blooming
Wild daisies are all over the grassy areas
....and most interestingly, as usual my GPS took me to this road as I go around searching for parking. This is not a rose garden but a small lane
As I stepped out of the car, I spotted this bush that's towering to at least 3 meters tall. Looks like a a very mature hybrid tea bush with lots of intact blooms. Some looked a bit worn out after the winter battering but there are a few good looking buds unscathed by the winter frost.
I can't get a better picture than this as it is a very very tall bush but you can see bits of the leaves shows some frost burnt.
A closer look at the buds
that looked like its about to open up as the temperature gets milder and warmer.
Crocus are also blooming 
Wild daisies are all over the grassy areas
....and most interestingly, as usual my GPS took me to this road as I go around searching for parking. This is not a rose garden but a small lane
As I stepped out of the car, I spotted this bush that's towering to at least 3 meters tall. Looks like a a very mature hybrid tea bush with lots of intact blooms. Some looked a bit worn out after the winter battering but there are a few good looking buds unscathed by the winter frost.
I can't get a better picture than this as it is a very very tall bush but you can see bits of the leaves shows some frost burnt. 
A closer look at the buds
that looked like its about to open up as the temperature gets milder and warmer.
5 comments:
Hi Rae,
Lovely snow drops! I planted them in back bank before but they disappeared. Chionodoxa was same. They might not like my climate...
My image of Switzerland is like Alagna pics, very cold place.
But the HT has so many buds(there is none in my garden). I don't have much experience of growing HT. Are they so tough?
Anyway, pigeons' faces look quite different to Japanese one. Cute!!
Switzerland is typical alpine climate Maki. The higher the altitude the colder it gets and the intensity of the sun also increases according to the altitude. Roses love sun. Alagna is a very special place and not that very far from Mont Blanc (the white mountain aka the white lady) (the highest mountain in the alps and in Europe) Climate wise, the whole region shares many climatic similarities, except regional influences due to the natural phenomenal like föhn for example. Anyway, this year's winter is really cold with record breaking amount of snow.
The HT I posted from Geneva is an amazing one isn't it? I think the blooms held on because of it protected growing environment, tall buildings in the middle of the city. Geneva can get quite cold too during winter but being much more south west and not very elevated probably the HT really like it there?? I saw quite a lot of them there and they are all monster tall (quite similar to those growing in Italy) I have quite a number HT myself. I think a lot of HT are very tough plants but my garden is almost 800m altitude and the blooms on my HT usually shrivelled away by end of December (which is not that bad compared to hybrid musk or David Austin's and their repeat cycles are much shorter)
When I walk my dog down at the river tomorrow, I'll take some pics of the pigeons. Some of them are very elegant looking lol. Its very rare pigeons drop by my garden. I have no idea why they decided to pick my garden shed as their nesting place. Strange. I cannot recall seeing any pigeons when I was in Tokyo or Kyoto. Are they really very different?
Snow drops and chinodoxa in my garden are slowly poking out. No idea why they don't do well on your sloping bank? Did you plant it too deep? or too shallow?
Very nice.. reminding me that spring is coming. Love the flowers, symbolizes a new start. Life is sure not a bed or roses, but we could try. ^^
Hi Rae, what lovely photos of the roses. You have captured the beginning of spring well through your lens.
This blog is really wonderful.
I love the blogging , the comments and the beautiful photos
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