Flower Friday - Veilchenblau + Friday's Fab Five

Veilchenblau

This week's flower is one of my favorite roses - Veilchenblau!  This rambling rose is a fast-growing, thornless rose that blooms profusely in shades of violet and purple.  The flowers are only about two inches across, but they bloom in such large clusters that Veilchenblau puts on a huge display of color each May and June.  We started our Veilchenblau from a tiny twelve inch plant a few years ago and it is now a sprawling rambler that is over twelve feet tall and eight feet wide!  Sometimes called "The Blue Rose" or "Blue Rambler" it is an old-fashioned climber with bright green foliage.  The flowers have a light scent that smells a bit like green apples.  Our Veilchenblau has never had trouble with aphids or black spot, even when planted near one of our most disease-prone roses.  It is a once-bloomer, so the flowers fade mid-summer, but the foliage remains green and pretty well into the autumn.  You can read more about this rose on GardenGuide's Veilchenblau page, Woodland Rose Garden's Veilchenblau page, and Martha Stewart's Veilchenblau page.

Friday's Fab Five with Froggarita

  

1.  What is your favorite book blog meme?
I enjoy Friday's Fab Five (when book-related).  I also love Teaser Tuesdays because it's fun to read quotes from a wide variety of books & I always seem to stumble across new books to add to my wishlist.
2.  Name a book that everyone should read.
 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
3. What is your favorite invented world in a book or series?
The world of Harry Potter is pretty awesome.
4.  Do you like it when they make books you love into movies?
I do!  Movie adaptations are practically guaranteed to disappoint when compared to the source material, since it is nearly impossible to capture the depth and atmosphere of an original book or series in two hours.  But I still enjoy watching and discussing movies based upon books I loved.  If the adaptation turns out to be terrible, it is fun to laugh at what a mess they made of the story.  And if the adaptation turns out to be wonderful, it is fun to smile at how nicely they captured a particular character or moment.  One thing I don't like about movie adaptations is that after watching one, I often find my image of a character tied to a particular actor and have a difficult time remembering how I originally pictured them.  For example, even though Robert Pattinson is not even close to my original image of Edward Cullen, his face is now inextricably linked with Edward in my mind and that makes me unhappy.  :(
5.  What is your favorite movie made from a book?
I can't seem to pick just one favorite, so I am going to list ten.  The BBC/A&E version of Pride & Prejudice is amazing and by far the best Pride & Prejudice adaptation I've seen.  Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility is lovely and impressively faithful to the book.  Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing is fantastic.  The BBC adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's North & South is beautiful.  Victor Fleming's Gone With the Wind is epic and moving, even if it is not entirely true to Margaret Mitchell's incredible book.  Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings adaptations are excellent.  In fact, I would say that the first movie is much more fun to watch than The Fellowship of the Ring is to read.  Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride is based on William Goldman's clever book and is among my all-time favorite movies.  Kevin Sullivan's first two Anne of Green Gables  adaptations are awesome interpretations of Lucy Maud Montgomery's series.  James Ivory's adaptation of E.M. Forster's Howards End is beautiful.  And several of the Harry Potter movies, while not perfectly faithful to the books, are very entertaining.  :)

This fun meme is hosted by Froggarita's Bookcase.  Every Friday Froggarita asks five questions so we can all get to know each other better.  The only rule is that you can't use the same answer twice within your five!   Ready to play?  Leave your answers in the comments or leave us a link to your own Friday's Fab Five post.  :)