Pink Saturday - blending colors

Pink Saturday - Beverly at the blog "How Sweet the Sound" hosts Pink Saturday. Let the color pink inspire you! Today's post is in honor of Pink Saturday's anniversary - which debuted in 2008.

Sometimes things just happen by luck, or coincidence. This year, in my garden, was a perfect example. A rose, an old China rose called 'Mutabilis' burst into the year's first bloom at the same time as a selection of Scotch broom (Cytisus x 'Lilac Time') and their branches mingled together.

The broom, pale pink and maroon and purple, yet tinged with amber and cream, mingled with the blooms of the rose.

'Mutabilis', as its name suggests, is a changeable rose - single blossoms open golden, then flush to peachy-orange, then age to copper and cerise and finally fade a rich magenta.


The brilliant changing colors of the rose are enhanced by the deep red of its stems and new growth. Even its thorns - translucent when backlit by the sun - are suffused in a deep rosy glow.

Quite a bright, rich pink for a Pink Saturday.

'Mutabilis' is an ever-blooming rose, like most Chinas. Its changing colors are beautifully suited to the shifting tones and moods of a multi-season garden.

As the spring turns to summer and the blossom of the broom fade, a deep mahogany bearded iris turns the palette that echos the darker side of the rose's stems and aging flowers.

Later, the bright stems of the kniphofia, or 'Red hot poker' rise up from narrow grassy foliage next to the rose. Their tubular flowers, coral and honey-colored, punch up the brightness of the new buds.

A summer-long companion, the perennial gaura "Siskyou Pink" - its stems, buds and new leaves suffused with rose - its airy, lacy stems float like butterflies amid the rose blossoms.

Color - in all its richness. There's so much more to it, when you combine them together. That's one of the garden pleasures I want to share on this special Pink Saturday.