Coming Up Roses

the-rose-garden.jpgIt was 9 degrees below zero when I drove to work this morning.  I could tell.  The crunch of the snow underfoot was deafening.  I had to keep blinking to keep my eyelashes from freezing to my face.  Though I had all manner of winter gear piled on, my face stung from the cold.  The corgis always dawdle in the driveway before they pony up to be loaded into the Suburban.  I am ordinarily very patient about this.  I like that they have a happy life-and their happy life means a minimum of interference from me.  I am ok with hanging out until they are ready to be loaded up for work.  Loaded up?  Corgis have really short legs.  I give the both of them a big leg up.  I tell myself that loading and unloading two fifty pound dogs twice every day helps keep me in good shape.  I treasure this illusion!  This morning, their dawdling annoyed me.  It was too cold to be outside.

Milo.jpgOver the course of the day I downloaded scads of pictures on my Iphone to my computer.  A day when it is really too cold to be outdoors is a really rare day.  A day confined to the inside is not my most favorite day, but confining circumstances can make for some unexpected pleasure. Pictures that I took in June of this past year-I was looking at them for the first time.  The roses-how beautiful they were.

griffith-Buck-roses.jpgThere are those gardeners who would choose to pass by a planting of roses.  Too much trouble to grow.  Too much a symbol of the history of gardens.  No doubt rose bushes are just about the most ungainly and unattractive shrubs ever to grace the earth.  But I would not want my garden to do without them.

griffith-buck-roses.jpgI only grow a few roses.  Carefree Beauty, and Earthsong, bred by Griffith Buck.  Jeannie Le Joie-a miniature climbing rose.  Eden-a large flowered climbing rose.  And the English bred shrub rose Sally Holmes.

miniature-climbing-roses.jpgThe most of the month of June is a delight to this gardener.  The roses play no small part in this.  I love the flowers and the fragrance.  On a freezing January day that keeps me inside, the memory of the roses comfort me.

miniature-climbing-roses.jpgthe roses in June

roses-in-June.jpgCarefree Beauty

june-roses.jpgThe roses in June fuel my love for the garden, year round.  On this astonishingly cold and discouraging day, I like the idea that my 2014 gardening season will be coming up roses.

rose-bud.jpgA rose is a rose

rose-season.jpgEverything will be coming up roses.

Memorial Day Weekend

Italian terra cotta pots

Both of my crews combined yesterday to plant annuals in containers and in the ground at one of our big jobs.  We finished up about 3:30.  It was the consensus that my pots could be brought out from the garage, and filled with soil-an end of the day job.  I was delighted with the offer.

Italian terra cotta pots

Next to the pruning of the boxwood, this is my favorite day of the year.  The pots come out of storage.  I move them a few inches this way or that.  I may reconfigure them altogether.  I have next to no warning when that moment for the placing and filling of my pots will be-good thing.  The pressure of the moment is sometimes my best effort.  When I have too much time to think and rethink, I can stall and move right into a tail spin.   

Italian terra cotta

I do not like my crews glaring at me, waiting for a decision.  They want to get the work done-with dispatch.  Needless to say, all of my pots are out and placed now, and furthermore chock full of soil.  It takes my crew only moments to get this part done.  It takes me many more moments to make a decision about what to plant.  I walked by these dirt filled pots many times late yesterday afternoon.     

container planting

That I am home in the afternoon at the end of May is a rare day indeed.  Of course I took advantage of that moment. I toured every square inch.  Though what I will plant in my pots this year is so much on my mind, I enjoyed what has been going on in other parts of my garden, in my absence.

Jeanne Le Joie

My roses are starting to bloom.  They are early this year.  The climbing roses, the dwarf Jeannie Le Joie, and the big flowered climber Eden, were not a bit fazed by our terrible April frosts.  They are coming into bloom, as though all was well with the world.  My Griffith Buck roses-another story.  The buds are small.  The extreme heat we have had the past few days means some flowers have come into bloom, and shattered in less than a day. 

dwarf climbing roses

Our late April frosts are still haunting my garden.  But it was hard to be discouraged.  I was in my garden on a sunny afternoon the end of May.  This means I was on holiday. 

late spring

I was happy to be home, unexpectedly, on the Saturday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend.