Hello Flower Friends, I’m excited to launch a new column here on Flirty Fleurs – In The Garden with Fleurie. Fleurie is owned by Laurie Garza and located in Central California. Laurie has shared much gardening knowledge with me over the years and I feel she’ll offer Flirty Fleurs readers great information about cutting gardens.
Hello Flirty Fleurs readers! I’d like to introduce myself, I am Laurie Garza, chief flower slinger and flower grower at Fleurie | Flower Studio in Reedley, California, right near the hot center of the state. I am not only a floral designer, but have taught floral design and propagation at the junior college level, and a California Certified Nurserywoman. I have always loved gardening and the natural world, it just came naturally at a very young age.
One of my favorite type of flowers to enjoy, grow and design with is the rose.
Last year I added some David Austin roses and a few commercial cut flower type roses to my already overflowing collection of 70 + various cultivars of roses in the garden. This year, those new roses are really producing a lot of flowers! I like all sizes and shapes of flowers, from miniatures to antique to hybrid teas and floribundas.
I’d like to share a few of my current personal favorites. My favorites change all the time! How can a flower lover choose? These are not necessarily the perfect cut flower, but their beauty is worth it, even if fleeting.
Tranquility
A creamy white David Austin rose with the prettiest medium size very symmetrically shaped flower-
![Tranquility - David Austin Garden Rose]()
Tranquility – David Austin Garden Rose
![Tranquility - David Austin Garden Rose]()
Tranquility – David Austin Garden Rose
Port Sunlight
This was an elusive one for me to figure out! I first saw it at the Morcom Rose Garden in Oakland, and was in love! The color was perfect and the scent was divine. But thanks to a couple of helpful flower people, after nearly a year had passed, and a second visit, it was determined that this mystery rose was indeed Port Sunlight.
![Port Sunlight Peach Garden Rose]()
Port Sunlight
Koko Loko
This is one gorgeous, unusually colored roses. Taupey, lavender, beige, mauve are all descriptions I’d use for the color of this rose. It’s second year in my garden and it has tripled in size!
![Koko Loko Rose by Weeks Roses]()
Koko Loko Rose by Weeks Roses
![Koko Loko Rose by Weeks Roses]()
Koko Loko Rose by Weeks Roses
Sally Holmes
A pillar rose, starting out as a buff colored bud, opening to a beautiful ivory with pretty yellow stamens.
![Sally Holmes Roses]()
Sally Holmes
Princess Alexandra of Kent
A big blousy rose of a rich pink tone. It has a little dustiness to it similar to a Romantic Antike rose, but more pink toned.
![Princess Alexandra of Kent - pink garden roses]()
Princess Alexandra of Kent
St. Swithun – David Austin Roses
It’s a gorgeous clear pale pink and has a nice strong myrrh- rose scent, seems to be a vigorous grower so far.
![St. Swithun - David Austin Roses - Pink Garden Roses Grown by Fleurie]()
St. Swithun – David Austin Roses
Charlotte, a David Austin Rose
I love the soft buttery color of this one, the color is a good blender for a lot of different shades of flowers. It seems to bloom well even in the heat of summer.
![Charlotte - David Austin Rose]()
Charlotte – David Austin Rose
![Charlotte David Austin Garden Rose]()
Charlotte David Austin Garden Rose
Falstaff and Koko Loko
Falstaff is a huge, heavy, many petaled rose, which has a blue cast to it, lending it toward the burgundy tones.
![Falstaff - David Austin Roses Koko Loko - Weeks Roses]()
Falstaff – David Austin Roses
Koko Loko – Weeks Roses
All of the white roses I cut from 3 David Austin Tranquility rose bushes that I planted in May 2015. So far it has outlasted all the other roses in an arrangement I made recently.
![Tranquility - David Austin Roses]()
Tranquility – David Austin Roses
Contact-
Laurie Garza
Fleurie
http://fleurieflower.com
All photos are by Laurie Garza
