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| Veterans Honor Rose: Fragrant, pure red, lasts forever in the vase, even when left cut on the ground. |
I told our neighbor next to Mrs. Wright's home that I should have some extra roses from Gurney's this year. No offer came from Gurney's, which told me that Week's roses were not overplanted and undersold, as they were last year. I got 20 roses for $5 each and enjoyed learning about a lot of great roses that I would not have planted otherwise: Easy Does It, Europeana, Paradise, Purple Splash, and Hot Cocoa.
The Blackberries were crowding the orphan rose, so I decided to offer it to our neighbor. Sassy went outside today and found our neighbor's little terrier in the bush near our house. Sassy flushed the dog out, did a meet and greet, and started to play. The terrier ran over to neighbor's house, and we learned the little doggie can climb his own fence.
The same neighbor and her daughter followed me on Mother's Day and thanked me for the roses I left at their door, so I knew she loved roses but thought they were "difficult to grow."
The plan is to figure a place to put them, and prepare a place one day ahead. I do that by soaking the ground thoroughly the day before. Then the clay is easy to dig but not a mess on transplant day. Meanwhile I will water the Veterans Honor rose extra to build it up.
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| Purple Splash climbing rose stays in bloom. |
More Rescue Roses
Our helper has two Purple Splash roses growing, and one of our maple trees, too. All are mulched carefully with cardboard and shredded cypress.
Today I saw that my work on the fence roses yielded some Peace roses and Pink Peace roses. The Peace roses were harboring a couple of Japanese beetles, which enraged me. I got my supersharp rose clippers and cut the Peace roses and put them in a vase with water. The beetles wanted to stay in the roses and eat, but I chased them out with the clippers, as much a nightmare for them as they were for the roses.
Pink Peace are intense, deep pink, and very productive. The heat index was Inferno! today so I cut those too, to let them enjoy the cool weather inside.
I watered a long time in the main rose garden yesterday, so I figured some roses would be there as well. The Falling in Love row had several more, perfect in form and delicate in color, mildly fragrant (compared to Stinkin Lincoln, cough). The entire vase was quite a cloud of rose fragrance when I brought it in.
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| This photo captures the white reverse of Falling in Love, but not the meanest thorns in rosedom. This week I cut one stem with four blooms and two buds on it, which Mrs. I enjoyed indoors. |
I noticed that the whole front yard smelled rosy this morning, with only a few roses in full bloom.
The fence roses will become front yard roses next year, so we can enjoy and care for all the roses at once. I can replace the fence roses with some low flowering shrubs like Clethra.
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| Clethra is an insect magnet, full of flowers, attractive and low growing. |
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| Borage is just starting to bloom, so we ate a few flowers. |
This annual herb has bright blue clusters of edible, cucumber-flavored flowers. Studies in Switzerland have shown borage to be exceptionally attractive to beneficial bugs with an average of over 100 beneficials found in just 1-square-yard of borage. In addition, common green lacewings have a very strong preference to lay their eggs on borage. Look for it on garden center seed racks and mail order seed catalogs.
I have sown borage seeds and had them grow all along the Wright fence. This year I have fewer in the back that I can see, but several plants in the front rose garden. They are fun to have in a high traffic area. We used to harvest the flowers all the time in Phoenix, with them growing around the pool.
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| A garden of roses is a delight to everyone and a reminder of this great Luther quotation. |