A rose by any other name

Gonna do something a little different today. I have a secret passion. Gardening! :) I like to grow things, water them, watch them grow, and make little plants from big plants. I have mixed emotions as well as talents with this hobby. I have 2 thumbs, one green and the other brown. I'm pretty good at getting seedlings to grow, or taking cuttings and making them thrive. However, unless something is pretty hardy, I will usually see it die away. I am not not real good at taking care of plants that need pampering. I grow roses and other things, but this post is about my roses. At one time I had about 18 or so growing in my yard, but that has now turned into about 7 or 8. Most of them are not looking too well at this point. I decided about 2 years ago that I would only deal with shrub or rugosa roses from here on out. I like the blossoms on hybrid teas, but cannot give them the attention they need. Here are 4 of my roses I have pictures of.


This is a small shrub rose called Tweety. This was always a pretty rose, but small and prone to all kinds of problems for me. Just stayed sick the whole time I had it. Blackspot was horrible and it died after 2 years.










This is a hybrid tea called Ruffles. Prone to blackspot for me and cane borers were a problem. The bloom here was over 5 inches across. This one died down and came back true from rootstock. Currently in critical condition.













This is called 21st Century. Another hybrid tea rose. Pretty golden rose, but it's century ended after one season. Blackspot was a nightmare.















Now, I show you the pride of what was my rose collection. A shrub rose called Knockout. I got this before it was released to the public because my wife knew someone that worked in a commercial nursery getting them ready for debut around here. Bloomed continuously through the growing season. It took 2 frosts to kill all of the blossoms in the fall. It would be fine today if an over zealous gardener had not used too much fertilizer. That would be me folks. I burned it up and did a good job of it. I did, however, manage to clip off all the canes from it and it turned into 18 little roses. I have it's little brother growing in the same spot this day, but much smaller right now.

I have several more roses in my garden. Some do well without any work at all, like the Knockout. Some won't die even if I wanted them to, like an old antique rose down at the bottom of the garden. Just a figure of speech folks, I don't want any of them dead.

I am happy to share this with everyone. Just don't tell my buddies about this. They believe men should be macho, and I don't think growing roses will be as big with them as the fish I caught. Gardening is a great stress reliever though and I wish I could stay out there more than I do. I plan to really get to work on it this year and maybe... just maybe, I will get something to last till next year this time. :)