I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

The title of this page is from that beautiful song by Lynn Anderson entitled Rose Garden.   But this page is not about her song, it is about my rose garden.  I have always liked roses.  I am particularly fond of the roses with the high-centered or urn shaped flowers.  These include the floribunda, grandiflora, and hybrid tea roses.  2026 will be the year of the roses at The Condo.

We will be planting four roses this season.  Last year we had a single rose in the beautiful urn by the front door.  That rose did not survive the winter.  So, we purchased a replacement and planted that yesterday.   One of the last of the large shrubs that were here when we purchased the condo has finally been removed  It had grown to the point that it was blocking the dining room window.  In it's place, we have planted a yellow rose tree, called the Julia Child rose tree.  It has a tall central stalk with a yellow floribunda rose grafted at the top.  It can grow to four feet tall and should be a prolific bloomer until the first frost.  The big addition this season is a white trellis that will have white and red climbing roses attached.  The trellis is 39"inches wide and about six feet tall.  It will eventually contain alternating rows of red and white roses.  Unfortunately, it necessitates the transplanting of a giant leaf hosta and several clusters of daffodils.

Why all this focus on roses and flower boxes and the like?  A small part of it is from my childhood.  For nine years, I worked on a fruit farm near home.  But the larger reason is my way of dealing with the grieving process.  It would be so easy to lay around the condo constantly dealing with my loss.  But I don't want that and neither would she.  So I am trying to put my energy into flowers, woodworking, cooking, and family.  Hopefully, my neighbors will get some enjoyment out of my efforts.

Speaking of flower boxes, that was the other project this week.  Last summer I built five flower boxes that are attach to the railing on my rear deck.  I felt that I over planted the boxes last year, so this year I am scaling back to just four plants per box.   I have chose African Daisy's, marigolds, Dahlia's, and some unidentified  small flowering succulent.  I headed to Lowe's (my middle daughter has worked there for 20 years) and picked out some nice healthy plants and some outdoor potting soil.  Everything is in place and it looks great.  I am sure that it will fill in as the summer progresses.