Rambling Back to Real Life

I have had a fun break from my everyday life and spent the last couple of weeks visiting with my family and walking in the north Georgia countryside.

We survived a small tornado - it touched down a few miles up the road from Mom's house.  I also visited with some of the most beautiful, talented, and intelligent children in the world - my nieces and nephews. 

Does anyone recognize this shrub growing at the edge of Mom's driveway?
 I've forgotten its name.

I collected several plants to bring back home with me and try growing in my Texas garden. 

My new plants - gifts from Mom and her amazing garden.

Including these three ancient roses - 

My potting shed is just some wire shelves on the patio.  

O.K., I admit they don't look that old right now sitting here in their Styrofoam cups, but the Billie Bart Pink Rose, the Reminds Me of  the Old New Dawn, and the Pink from a Fence Somewhere are all old enough to buy us a drink.  My mom rooted me a cutting from another deep pink rose in her garden - not a climber it just has really long canes.  I think I'll name it Rock's Rose. 

This is Rock.

Now before you tell me I can't just name roses, no one who owns these roses knows what they were originally called.  Mom has had three of them in her garden for years and she can tell you about their growing habit and fragrance, but she doesn't know who first cultivated them.   The "Billie Bart" rose was growing on the property my aunt and uncle bought over three decades ago - there was no tag on it, without hiring a 'rose detective' how does someone figure out what rose they've got?  I just name them something that will have meaning for me... 

I'm gardening and cleaning house this week.  Speaking of cleaning house, I just deleted my PINTEREST account.  I loved having some place to put stuff - very convenient, super easy to share, but I don't want to be accused of stealing pictures and/or ideas.  I did question PINTEREST's posting instructions "don't use this to be self promoting" and only post pictures you have a right to post, but my pictures are the only ones I own.  So I quit of my own free will - that should free up a few minutes. I was so happy when I first started using it - especially when I would see something and wanted to share with a friend.  Now I'll send my friends to the 'original site' and they can check it out for themselves - just like we used to do.  

Please forgive my rambling, but somehow I think I see a connection to PINTEREST and the roses I'm rooting, I just can't get everything into focus and explain that connection.

Not stealing ideas, work, and art of another person is important to me and I was reminded of this as I was standing in the check out line of the grocery store with my Mom.  I spotted a magazine with a beautiful quilt on its cover.  I picked it up to for a quick look through and saw a picture that reminded me of something.  I looked at another picture and thought "Wow! This person must love Old Grey Mare  (I loved her place at Christmas)  because this looks just like her blog pictures."  I told my Mom, "This is creepy, these pictures look ripped out of a blog that I follow...."  By the time I saw the piece of roof (architectural art) on the living room wall I was livid !!!  How could someone steal this?! 

(Where do "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" and "Passing something off as an original idea" meet --- and does anyone get hurt?)

At this point I stopped my "only looking at the pictures" and started reading.  Oh, it was Susan Stoddard.  Then I saw where they mentioned her blog, Old Grey Mare, and I started to calm down (to the point of feeling a bit silly).  I really like her blog (and yours, too) and would hate for anyone to get credit for all her (or your) hard work.

I'm just showing you the front cover of the magazine,
 you'll have to go out and buy it for yourself to see how wonderful it all is.

When I got back to Texas, I checked her blog and sure enough she knew she was featured in Country Sampler,  I just haven't had time to read blogs lately so I didn't know what she was up to.  Also, I noticed she's having doubts about PINTEREST.  I would say "Great Minds Think Alike" but there's probably someone out there who owns that little ditty.

It's good to be back home. Once again I've traveled and my blogging friends were on my mind.  Hope your March is off to a great start. 

What's new with you?

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Strong Roses

Long ago and far away we lived in Germany. It is a beautiful country.  I met several Germans who gardened like there was no tomorrow. They planted the plants much closer together than the instructions say to plant them. This trick makes annuals look full and lush.  Pride of ownership showed in the beauty of even the smallest window boxes that I saw. I love all kinds of flowers, especially roses, it was in Germany, while on family vacation in 1998, that I fell in love with pink climbing roses.

Scanned a photo from our German days, this was taken near Berchtesgaden, 1998.

I didn't count to see how many roses were in this arch. Today I am guessing four.  That summer day I stood there and just stared. I remember taking this picture.  I don't remember a fragrance. Too bad, that's how I select my roses. I just knew that someday I would have an archway like that.

The garden fairy has yet to show up at my place, so I'm trying to recreate that beautiful arch in my own backyard. 

What I have is... well, it's just not there yet. 

I am such a dreamer, but that's a good thing.

Not sure if you can see it, but the right side of this arch is a bit twisted, these roses have already started to grow.  Everything around here is starting to bud and with all the sunshine we've been having I am ready to tackle my winter clean up projects.  Tomorrow most of these weeds will be gone.  They've been protecting a primrose but it's just about time for it to be at it's best so I'm cleaning up the area and getting ready for a spring that already seems to be here.

I usually prune the rose bushes the first two weeks of February, that is when we (normally) get our coldest weather. This year I started trimming in January because it does not feel like winter here. In fact, my climbing roses (which I trim up after their first big bloom) are putting on lots of new growth.  This two year old rose is so strong it's moving my arch. 

New growth on roses January 2012.

So my work this week is to untie the rose canes, straighten the arch, and then retie the little strings that are helping the roses to grow the way I want them to grow.  Sounds cruel?  Hey, I taught my children to pick their clothes up off the floor - I am going to teach these two roses to 'climb' this arch.

I'm off to garden.  If you have snow, lucky you.  I'll be searching the blogs during my lunch break looking (and wishing) for the snow.  But since I don't have it, I might as well get busy - time, tide, and weeds wait for no one.










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