Expanding the Maple Tree Rose Garden

Note the blooms fading and losing petals in the foreground. Pruning those blooms will create more root and plant growth - and new roses.

We have three rose gardens.

The main one is being expanded with a memorial row, a plaque for each person.

The rose garden along the Wright fence may get some beneficial plant inserts.

The maple tree garden now has a second circle of roses. Mrs. Ichabod suggested the first row when I ordered 10 more bare root roses at $5 each. I thought, "Oh boy, digging among maple roots." It was very tough, with a long time spent for each hole. But we had 10  roses blooming around a tree that was an eyesore with weeds and maple suckers before.

To make a second circle, we connected two screw hooks to twine that was measured out to a given distance from the tree. So we had a second circle planted. Digging them up was not difficult because the heavily mulched and earthwormed soil was soft and damp with spring rain. We had four roses in the sunny garden and four in the backyard to move. We took two days to get that done and water the results.

I told our helper, "We are not watering early. I did that in the main garden and ended up working and sitting in wet mud."

In spite of what people think, clay is easy to dig at the right time. It is also the richest possible soil. To build some immediate compost we turned sod clumps upside-down and secured them around the new-old plants. Heavy watering washes soil into place and feeds the roots that need to form, stabilize the plant, and feed the future roses.

Two more roses are going to the helper's home, and the whole family is participating in the move. They picked a place to put the roses and will help in digging and replanting. They also want to have fresh sweet corn at their home this year.

This is a great time to move roses, early in the growing cycle. We have couple more roses ordered and will probably add two rose-hip roses to the outer circle, for a total of 20 around the maple tree.

Falling in Love was our friend's favorite rose as she planned her marriage.