Southern Spring

4 Nov '07 5:26 am

Thanks Jacqueline for your kind comments, and your research on stoep/stoop. Obviously there is a link (perhaps via India though?? Is Malay an Indo-European language?) between 'veranda' and 'beranda'. Lets ask the question this way: do people in the USA/Canada/ OZ/NZ/Indonesia know and use the word stoep or stoop as an alternaive to verandah. In SA it is, with patio, the most popular term.

Bambi, I heartily recommend Penelope. She is low growing but throws out almost horizontal branches inches above the ground, which means she mingles very well with any underplanting. Combine her with geraniums etc. that are quite good at getting out of the way and finding their spot and, although she might spread over nearly 2m, she will not demand the entire space for herself. And the scent! And she repeat blooms quite adequately, with a further flush in late summer/autumn. She really is one of my absolute favourite roses!

4 Nov '07 6:47 am

Penelope is a brilliant mingler - Jack, that's a great way to describe her. Imagine her on a Garden Club bus - she'd be the one who'd make eveyone welcome, and never take up too much room, or pinch too many of the afternoon tea sandwiches!

4 Nov '07 9:20 pm

The last October photos in the camera: and what a note to end it on! (A blues note? Although my father is highly upset that my mom and I call what is to him pure purple 'blue'!)

5 Nov '07 3:55 am

Nights are getting colder here -into the 30'sF- which is shutting down the figs from ripening. But in your down-under world the garden is becoming flamboyant again. Love the mock orange photos - if only they could also convey scent. Penelope is stunning as a bud. If as you say she has great scent and plays well with others then she is quite a prize and probably entitled to a few extra 'sandwiches'.

The photos of the brick stairs against all this new growth from mature plants gives your garden such a nice feeling of age. The green belt of overhanging plants under which the stairs disappear really draws me. If I was there on an open day I would definitely want to wallk there and see where it took me.

I think the contrast between formal spaces such as the White garden and these stairs with the natural beauty of the plants you've established there is really wonderful. Thanks for taking us with you through the garden.

5 Nov '07 4:30 am

Just a quick response to your query about the use of the word stoop for a porch in other cultures. Here in the southeast US we use the word stoop to mean a small platform, either covered or not, at the front or back door of a dwelling. A porch is a much bigger affair, usually with room for outdoor seating, and with a roof overhead. Verandah can be interchanged with porch. A patio is a seating area at ground level that is usually paved with some type of material. A deck is a wood-floored seating area directly attached to the dwelling and without a roof overhead. Is this more information than you wanted?

Love the blue/purple iris.

5 Nov '07 10:37 am

Jack, yet more gorgeous pics of your blue (/purple! Wink

) irises - I just adore the contrast with the yellow on them. And thanks for the info on Penelope - I think she'll have to go on my "gotta get one of those" list Very Happy

6 Nov '07 8:59 pm

Wow!! What adorable blue Beauties!! Very Happy

17 Nov '07 7:18 am

A belated thank you, Faith for your exact and interesting info. I would say we use stoep in SA in the same way you do, plus by preference instead of verandah - and definitely porch is considered 'foreign'. Patio and deck are used similarly to the USA, except that 'covered patio' seems to have become the favourite synonom for porch in the last 20 years! Stoep is considered by many to be an Afrikaans word and as such rather inferior, going back to the days when the Afrikaner was looked down upon as course and common.

17 Nov '07 9:54 am

Though most of the roses are blooming profusely,I am still waiting for Penelope,so that I can post a picture-she has put forth a few delicate fluffy flowers,but lots of buds promise a beautiful sight soon.
About what we call'porch'~there is a sort of a'joke' about a porch~a gentleman employed a handyman,giving him a bucket of house paint,and telling him to paint the back porch.The handyman appeared a while later,having painted the car out the back-the car was-you guessed it !
dixie.

17 Nov '07 4:13 pm

I used to say to my students when they weren't concentrating - 'Turn the porch lights on!' I like your Porsch joke, Dixie!

Southern Spring

Thank you all!

Go Penelope

End to October, farewell to spring!

A whole other world ...

stoep/stoop

Stoops etc,

Out on the back Porch