The transition from USDA planting zone 7b (Lower South) to 6a (N. & Central Midwest) was a big deal for me. Plano, TX planting zone 7b, where I had over 200 roses is home to places like Dallas, Austin & San Antonio with long hot & humid summers and mild Continue Reading
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A Rosarian’s Ode To Lilacs
Something happened on my way to building the new rose garden. A memory so vivid it took my breath away. Fragrance triggers are like lightening bolts in our brain. The fragrance was the smell of a lilac bush just starting to bloom on a cool Continue Reading
Rose Garden Eclipse of the Heart
Does a watched rose bush produce a rose bud more quickly? I don’t think so. Waiting for your rose garden to leaf out, produce canes and ultimately rose buds is like waiting for paint to dry. So I’ve come up with some things for you to do. This is an Continue Reading
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A Rose Garden, Hope Springs Eternal
Rudyard Kipling said, “Remember Gardens are not made by sitting in the shade.†However, shade sitting is never quite so satisfying as when one is contemplating the beauty of a rose garden from the prospective of being in it and having created a rose garden in the sun. Here is Continue Reading
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Rose Pruning Primer, Early Pruning post traumatic stress disorder (PPTSD)
Let us hope and pray y’all have not gotten spring fever with the deceptively warm winter, gone wild and whacked your bushes. Because if a killing frost comes along there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth if the new growth stimulated by your early pruning dies back as the Continue Reading