Sumtimes the universe gives me a gift I ill deserve.
2 1/2 years I've let Rose's Garden tend itself; so named January 6, 2001 in honor of my late next door neighbor who enjoyed from her front window the roses in my little garden when she felt too ill to sit outdoors for a closer look. She always wanted me to plant more; so, after her death I did just that and named it after her.
Rose's Garden was my salvation when Jim died in 2002. Midnight raids to pull weeds by lantern's light when I could not sleep. Railing...and wailing…to the heavens how unfair it all was. It did not mind the splash of salted tears as the weeds were pulled in vicious attempts to beat GM into submission.
As a final reward that year it gifted me with a single coral colored rose huddled next to the mulch on a chilled November afternoon long past bloom time on a day when I was heartsore and weary of the path I walked. It seemed a sign from Jim and Rose that I should, at least for that day, appreciate the gift of life.
It was beautiful then.
Not so now.
It is a wild tumble of weeds and interloping saplings from years of neglect. What seemed so hantingly extraordinary in the ice of December seemed suddenly shabby and sad in the brilliance of February’s sun.
This morning as warmth crept into this sunny day on my return mission from life in the fast lane, I could not bear to see that wildness and began tearing through the weeds and trimming the saplings till I can get a saw in there and hack them to the ground.
Suddenly….nestled deep in the weeds and saplings, I literally stumbled upon sprouts growing from beneath the dead canes of my once beautiful English and Old World roses. All gone natural, I reckon, back to the stock root.
Rosa rugosa’s…wild…rugged…tenacious…outlaws.
Even so...a rose is a rose is a rose.And, there they are; evidence that life goes on even amid the ruins of death: The circle of life right in my front yard. How can I ignore the rebirth fighting to emerge from those dead canes? Just as we who are left behind battle to breathe, scrabble to find life among the ashes and at some point thrive again, I reckon I must answer the call to bring Rose’s Garden back to life.
After 2 ½ hours I've made bare a dent in the jungle and twill likely take me all spring and summer to tame Rose's now wild garden.
Still…begun I have.
To be continued…
When people said roses were their favorite flowers, I *tsked * thinking that such mainstream popularity made it over hyped.
ReplyDeleteTherefore not really our "thing" while planning our garden additions .
Then we decided to buy some for our south eastern Tejas slice of suburbia.
We were so wrong in our assessment
of the roses well deserved high regard on gardeners and the general populaces status rank .
We fell in love with these scrappy blossoms that give us joy in this climate year round.
We had 2 rose deaths in the past 3 1/2 years .
Their forlorn pots a hollow reminder of our failure as gardeners to keep them alive .
Tom and I didn't have many gardens as we lived in rent mostly, and he liked wildflowers alot.
Nothing to tend, just watch 'em go when their time had arrived.
((Josie))
Of course you must tend to Rose's garden. It needs you.
ReplyDeleteI remember your posting of the midnight raids on the garden.
You may be very surprised at the short amount of time it takes to bring the garden back. And how very forgiving they are of our neglect.
Bill and I planted a beautiful rose bush in the garden of house where we were living before he died. Our anniversary is in August. The rose bush had stopped blooming and was full of leaves, being a one time bloomer. On August the 8th, our anniversary, I looked out over the porch to the small garden and there was a rose, in full bloom, not there the day before. I have that rose to this day. My last anniversary rose.
Rose among the ruins. Is this a picture of a rose that you found amongst the ruins of Rose's garden?
ReplyDeleteOh, anonymous, alas, no. It is months too soon for rugosa's to bloom here. It is a sample photo from an internet site on rugosas.
ReplyDeleteThe small rosette leaves among the mulch in the last picture are what currently sprout beneath the tangle in Rose's Garden from the other 2 pictures.
The caption on that picture is now clarified so as not to confuse the reader into thinking a rugosa would bloom so early in my little patch of southernicity.
The gift lay in the fact that the sprouts were there to begin. The hope is that it will grow enough to produce a smallish bloom similar to the picture later in the spring or early summer. I little more from Rose's Garden this year.
That last of my reply should say I expect little more from the garden this year.
ReplyDeletefledgling feral roses, I love that!
ReplyDeleteI love this story, Outlaw...will look forward to the sequels...
My housesitter is a wonderful green thumb young woman and she asked permission to work on the flower bed that Rick had started...what could I say but yes! So she's keeping me posted, has planted herbs in there...I can't wait to see what she's done.
These things are important.
SB