Grow Everyday: Introducing My English Rose

Let’s cut to the chase here, everyone loves a rose! They are basically irresistible to most folks, and are so layered with meaning, you can find a color of rose to symbolize any occasion.

I myself don’t grow roses, due to lack of sunshiney space in my garden. WAIT — I take that back, Uncle Bob gave me a beautiful yellow rose for Mother’s Day several years ago, and I set it, still in its pot, near my potted herb garden in the sun. I thought surely in the next month or so I would get around to clearing out a place in the garden for it to be planted.

If not that month, then surely the next month.

Or the next month? Definitely the next month.

Well, we’re heading in to that rose’s fifth season still in its pot, as its roots must’ve shot through the bottom of the plastic tub and found their earthy connection between the bricks. It’s healthy and happy! Last year, the rose sent out canes hither and yon, extending all along the fence with our sweet neighbors, and and it had about 200 blooms. Turns out the cultivar reverted from yellow to red, but it was such a wonderful show. Thank you, Uncle Bob!

The photos of inspiration I’m sharing here today are from the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Rose Garden. I had gone to the garden to do some walking and reflection, and couldn’t help but stop and photograph these beauties. I know this is crazy, but I didn't write down which varieties these all are! You all know how I like to keep track of things like that. Well, we’ll just have to bask in their glow and be content not to know. (Unless anyone can eyeball ID them, and if yes, please message me!)

Our newest clear stamp set coming down the line sprouted from a digital offering I brought out last year called La Vie en Rose. (Which basically translates to ‘life through rose-colored glasses’ — which, you know, I might be accused of doing, but hey .... )

I want to share a few cards made with that set, because you can see here that La Vie en Rose is a set that has a little “tag” attached to the rose. Then folks could stamp a message inside the tag, like our wonderful Allison Cope did here (paired with Hello stamp from Big Scripts):

And here’s a very sweet one by Julie Koerber, using the ‘I Love You’ I handlettered for the digital version of the La Vie En Rose set:

After this rose digi set had been out for a bit, I noticed that several of our designers had started using the rose without the tag (we can say ‘sans tag’ since we are speaking French) — they had done a little Photoshop pruning! By the way, I endorse this practice, as I love to see people stretch their creativity and take things beyond my original vision. With this new clear rose set, I have done the pruning for you. Now you get one superfrilly rose with the tag, complete with buds and leaves going every which way, and THEN you get a larger single rose without so much fluffery.

Sometimes you want fluffery, sometimes ya don’t, know what I’m sayin’? Introducing, My English Rose:

We’ve got several NEW sentiments that fit into the tag that is attached to the fluffy rose cluster, and then we’ve got several more sentiments that are more general. Most of them have a loving feel to them, because we are such an amorous type, aren’t we?

One more quick tidbit... I named this set after a very lovely song by The Jam, a British band headed by Paul Weller, who is just basically the coolest dude ever. This is his ode to his homeland of England, and when Doug and I first started dating, he put My English Rose on a mix-tape (CD) for me. Here’s a link if you care to hear the tune...

With that beautiful soundtrack playing, let’s go see what the Bloomies have made with My English Rose today!

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Kathy Jones
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan

I hope to see you all back here tomorrow... we’ve got a set that is unlike anything I’ve shared with you before. It’s superfun, and we’re going to have some fun with it! Have a great day,