Thursday, September 09, 2010

Into Each Life A Little Fragrant Cloud Must Fall


I believe this rose is called "Fragrant Cloud".
(Click picture to enlarge)
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"You love the roses - so do I. I wish
The sky would rain down roses, as they rain
From off the shaken bush. Why will it not?
Then all the valley would be pink and white
And soft to tread on. They would fall as light
As feathers, smelling sweet; and it would be
Like sleeping and like waking, all at once!"
~ George Eliot, Roses
The rose garden has been spectacular this summer, especially since this is the first year and most of the roses were bare roots when planted in the early spring and even early summer. Yes, we had our share of aphids and brought in the ladybugs to eat them to their hearts content. But the ladybugs left and haven't found their way back in any significant numbers, even though the milkweed aphids are running amuck in another part of the garden. Fickle those ladybugs.

And yes, this was a horrible year for the Japanese beetle... pesky thing that I wish would have stayed in Japan. At first I tried the beetle trap and had it all hung in a tree near the roses; but then I read how this would simply draw all the Japanese beetles from the neighborhood straight into our yard. In fact, the articles said that the best thing to do if you had a beef with a neighbor and really didn't like them would be to give them a beetle trap as a gift or even hang one in THEIR yard. So, I ran down the stairs and out into the yard to the tree; sure enough, in the span of 15 minutes there were 12 beetles in the bag. Plan B.... capture them and drown them in soapy water. I got a huge gallon glass pickle jar...(Mom loves dill pickles and buys these in huge industrial size jars at Sam's)... filled it with dishwashing soap and carried it around the outside, flicking beetles into the soup. The best time to do it is either in the evening or very early morning as they are the least likely to fly at those times. I don't know how many I gathered between the end of May and the first of July, but it was quite a lot and the soapy soupy stuff was quite nasty to look at, particularly since I left the jar outside and we had a lot of sun and a lot of high temperatures during June. Even though it was suggested that you grind up and blend the beetle remains with the soap and spray it on the flowers to repell them... it was just too nasty to deal with. So I left it... and left it... and finally, my brother Stephen couldn't stand it anymore and he disposed of them for me. I was just thinking that if he spread it a little at the edge of the property, perhaps they wouldn't come back. Not likely.

But the roses survived this... looking a bit disheveled but survived. And they survived black spot and me plucking and spraying... new leaves and new buds still emerged. Of all the flowers in the garden and all the gardeners in our garden (Stephen and I)... the roses seemed to enjoy the 98℉ temperatures the most... even with the 85% humidity at times. And they bloomed and bloomed; not all of them at the same time, but there was never a day when we did not have at least three different varieties blooming. And now they continue as it starts, ever so slowly, to cool down.... blooms are expected well into October. One of the plants will bloom until November...

And I will start looking at the new roses for the spring... so many lovely blooms and so little space.

(end of post)
Nature's Notes

11 comments:

Carver said...

That is a perfect rose. I find my roses generally survive in spite of all the pests and diseases they are prone to. Interesting reading aobut your challenges.

Sandra said...

i am so happy this one survived your attack by beetle. it is so perfect it looks unreal. almost but not quite a metalic color. it is wondrous, that is the best word i can think of. Nature is God's painting canvas. Sorry but i just had to laugh while reading about the killing of the beetles and the jar. to funny. and i will remember this if i want to curse a neighbor. still laughing.

Scarlet said...

<span>Here's hoping the beetles aren't such a problem next year! That soapy soup does sound gross tough!</span>

kenju said...

If they all look like that one, you were lucky!! I pick Japanese beetles off my plants and drown them in a bucket of soapy water (and I don't feel badly about it at all!). Then when it gets too yucky to look at, I pour the contents around the base of the rose bushes so the beetle crap can fertilize them....lol

I tried to take your advise about posting photos with blogger, and I thought that is what I had been doing all along. tonight I tried to post six; did them one at a time, and the end result was that they were ALL jumbled up and not in any semblance of the order I posted in (last to first). I deleted that post, and now I'm going to try Picasa and see what happens.

Ginny Hartzler said...

I love the poem! Now I must admit that fancy cultured flowers have not been my thing. I prefer wildflowers. But bloggers have been posting their roses, and I am slowly being won over. It's the colors. I do not like red roses, but ones like this are outstanding! This is truly one perfect rose in ev ery way. I have never seen such pretty roses as on blogs this summer! And I also was advised that roses bloom all summer long, which I had never thought of. So after seeing all these roses, then this awesome one, I finally have to say that roses are alright with me.

bonnie said...

Your selected poem would be lovely while listening to To a Wild Rose by Edward MacDowell. It is originally for piano but I like this version. It is wistful and longing, not unlike the feeling we have when thinking of our dear children scattered hither and yon. 

Caron said...

That rose looks as if it is in motion. Very pretty. Also, the jar of dead beetles is sort of funny!

kenju said...

Re your question:  yes, it was after Earl passed through. We got there on Monday the 6th and Earl had been gone for 2-3 days.

ramblingwoods said...

What a stunning photo...wow...I too have those nasty little beetles that most birds won't eat. I guess they don't like crunchy and of course they aren't native...I too bought one of those traps and then read that I was attracting them so I went back to picking them off....Michelle

Sandra said...

yes, we do get bannas but not this year, the trees are beautiful, but we had months of cold weather, so they had no fruit. we grow them because we love the foliage, the fruit is a plus, we also have ruby red graperfruit and avacado trees, both trees my husband grew from seeds he got out of fruit we bought. he likes to grow things from seeds.

colleen said...

The movie star of roses!  http://looseleafnotes.com