Variations On A Theme

Delicate petals with wild outrageous color. Hybrid Tea Rose - Sedona

"We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses." ~ Abraham Lincoln

Last year's construction included a 15' x 6' garden plot in the middle of the patio. We did not think this through with regard to our soil composition and drainage and with the rain and the misplaced "thoughtfulness" of the guy who took up the old grass (and put it in the flowerbed), we had a swampy, muddy mess. It was the kind of mess that kids would love, but not adults. Drilling holes and putting in rock did not help... only made it worse. I finally put on some oversize knee wading boots and started in to remove the sod from the bed. It was cleverly hidden by the muddy ooze and when it did come up in big pieces with that attached green plastic netting sod usually has, it made this deep slurpy sucking sound. Unfortunately, my boots also got stuck in the middle of the bed and when I pulled the grass up with its slurpy sucking sound, I lost my balance and sat down in the gooey, oozy, mud. I had more mud on my person than I had ever managed to get on me when I was a little girl in Roanoke making mudpies under the carport next to our house. Not only that but I WAS STUCK... literally. I finally had to climb out of the boots and retrieve them by hand from the side. After much more angst, and a bit of gratitude that my folks have no idea how to use a digital camera... I extracted myself and eight wheelbarrow loads of nastiness from the "swamp", as it was affectionately being called at that time.

Not willing to be outwitted by a hole in the ground, I mentioned the problem to the sprinkler system guy when he was there. Immense joy filled my heart to find that he also did drainage and he thought a large dry well would do the trick. It did. So I hauled in bags and bags of top soil, amended top soil and compost and a tiny bit of coarse sand and started planting. Now there are 19 or so rose bushes growing and even thought it is the first year, we have roses. I have learned a lot... bareroot are better than plants, most white and yellow roses are not as fragrant as red and pink ones, aphids really do run from ladybugs and we have beavers in our neighborhood.

So here is one example of my roses... two blooms from the same bush in variations of red... this bush produces blooms that range from bright coral to rich red to peachy pink and everywhere in between. It has finished its first bloom, I have pruned and now it grows again... hopefully to bloom while Stephen is here.

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