Reclaiming My Roses

It is not what it once was, we none of us are, we are a little worse for the wear, but we are ready to begin again…

Today Maurice was back. He and a helper cleaned up the yard and cut the grass, a tree growing over one of the gates and up over one side of the house was cut down. Everything is opened up there again, there is light and an airy feel now. And the green gated garden and all the way around it were dug and raked, cleaned up and made ready for planting. I ordered a pound of seed called “Burst of Bloom,” a bright, colorful mix of annuals and perennials with a quarter pound of giant zinnias and a quarter pound of mixed varieties of cosmos to add to it. It will be a glory come late summer even if the fence could use painting. Baby steps. I am moving forward a little at a time.

Before the fire this was a place of breathtaking beauty, it was my pride and joy. And while yes such a profusion of flowers surely meant that there were always flowers in the house there were so many that what I cut didn’t make a dent in this cottage garden. I mainly planted for the insects and the birds. The garden was always abuzz with bees, butterflies and dragonflies, hummingbirds and more. This was the garden before the fire…

It won’t look the same, and now this whole front side of the fence is covered with a climbing rose that is breathtaking. It is ‘Mel’s Heritage’ from Rogue Valley Roses. I planted it the autumn before the fire and it thrived despite neglect. Last year it took me almost a month to prune it, it is very thorny and it was growing out all over the yard. It is full of buds now and will soon be in full bloom. Here it was last year…

Right now it is filled with tight pink buds just starting to open…

This morning when I went out with the dogs I went around to check out the roses that have begun to bloom. I am so delighted. They had been so overgrown and neglected for the first years after the fire they weren’t even blooming almost at all. Last year I pruned them hard and fed them well. A few weeks ago I fed them again. The first of them are starting to bloom and it makes me so happy. These are almost all old-fashioned fragrant varieties but sadly I’ve forgotten what most of them are. I’m going to have to figure that out…

And the rose that is one of my deepest loves, ‘Veilchenblau,’ is considered a violet rambler from Germany, 1909, and the clusters of roses can turn several shades from almost blue to deep purple and everything in between. It is a stunning rose…

A couple of days ago when I checked the roses around the front of the house I was surprised to see the most beautiful buds, normally a peach rose it was painted with red. It was stunning. Along with the sweet white rose that will take over the world if not pruned hard they looked lovely together. The second picture is the peach rose open on my kitchen windowsill and you can see that the red disappeared when it opened. I have got to find out what these roses are. Almost without exception all of my roses came from Rogue Valley Roses. I am going to ask their assistance in naming them and I will share the real names when I find them. I have planted roses for decades and am embarrassed to have forgotten the names but after the fire the tags were lost and my mind went along with it…

I started to write a different blog post today, and then I thought no, I cannot go to a sad place again. I will turn my eyes to the garden, and I will find comfort there. All the rest of the little bulbs and many seeds will be planted this weekend in pots on the deck and in the raised beds. Within the week the bulk seeds should be here to plant the green gated garden and all around it, and there are more roses just starting to bud, not yet in bloom. They will be soon. I don’t have all the answers that I have been seeking, but I do know that this blog and the garden are work that I can do, my sweet little pugs are here with me, and we will soldier on. There is new life in the garden. I am ready to begin again.