Nope, not this time. It's about a rose called Baby Love. It's another shrub rose I bought last week as a companion to the Double Knockout we planted a few weeks earlier. Here's an image of a mature Baby Love in bloom.
I have been gardening for a MANY years. Annuals are my favorite thing to grow because of their long bloom time, but some Perennials get my vote, too. (Those are plants that come back year after year, which annuals generally don't do.) Throughout my gardening "career", however, I have never liked roses.
Well, actually, that's not entirely true. I like the rose blossoms. They are very lovely in arrangements, and some would say they smell wonderful, but of course if you know me, you know I wouldn't include that on my list of positive things about ANY plant. Maybe I'll explain that statement another time. :)
Soooo, I had a thing against roses because I thought that 10 months out of the year they were just "sticker bushes". I couldn't understand why anyone would want a bunch of sticker bushes for just a few weeks worth of blossoms? Plus, I'd always heard that roses were very hard to take care of, what with the disease fighting and pruning requirements. And I did mention the thorns? Yeah, they can draw blood easily.
Why in the world, then, would I be starting to collect roses now? Especially in a place where I have to compete with the deer? Well, I finally got educated, that's why. Turns out that lots of roses bloom for months and months...like from May to October! And many varieties are disease resistant, and require minimal pruning. Learning about these kinds of roses finally turned my cheek in their direction, and I started paying attention to roses on my daily walks. Sure enough, some of them were gorgeous ALL SEASON LONG, and that's when I started desiring some for my own yard.
I've done my homework, kept my eyes open, and even gone to a few Rose Seminars with my friend Paulene, and I know what I'm looking for. I've become a convert. Roses can be wonderful landscape additions. The deer and I have something in common...we both love roses! I just hope I'll be successful in convincing them to LOOK but don't touch!
1 comment:
Well, it seems like the deer wouldn't be as likely to nibble on the roses because of the thorns. We'll see if they pay attention to that theory. My grandfather had a Cecil Bruener (sp?) rosebush, and used to make mini corsages for me and my girl cousins from the miniature blooms. (Which smelled very sweet, too.) I loved that bush.
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