“Love You Best” was what she said. Mother made every person feel they were the person she loved best. Peonies were her favorite flower. Every year in northern Illinois in preparation for the spring bloom I would take the hand tool and cultivate around each peony bush, add peat moss 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