Pictures of my Blooming Roses

Roses...and how I learned not to kill them

Roses are such beautiful flowers and every time I see them at the Garden Center or blooming somewhere I think that I too could have a rose garden. Fate seems to think differently. I have had quite a few rose bushes of all sizes in the past 6 years but each have met with a terrible demise. The most current deaths were on behalf of my then 1 year old lab/hound mix puppy, Willow. She thought that the roses were just sticks stuck in the ground. So she pulled them up and ran around with them. Stopping every once in a while to gnaw on them. By the time I saw what she was doing I had lost 4 roses. I know, I wasn't paying very much attention to her. Normally I was doing something on the other side of the house. And she did this in multiple days.

I also tried miniatures roses, because I gave one to my Mom one Mother's Day and it grows like crazy. It is about to take over. Because of this miniature rose bush I have was given hope. But none of my miniatures wanted to survive let alone grow into the size of a small building. So I had pretty much given up. Then my friend, Jen, gave me a cute red miniature for my birthday last year. I tried keeping it in the pot but it wasn't doing well. Not really a surprise, given my past history. So I just plunked it down in the garden. I expected it to die, but at least it would die in good soil with plenty of sun.

Surprise, surprise it didn't die. But thrived! The interesting thing is I have mostly ignored it and this spring the flowers are at least three times bigger than a normal miniature rose's flowers. The stems are strong and the leaves are big, green and healthy. I couldn't be happier.

My other rose that I decided to try, was one I bought on clearance from Walmart. I think it was priced at $3. I am a sucker for plants, so I bought it not expecting too much. It is a white miniature rambler, and when I got it didn't look much like a rambler, more like a dead stick with some leaves. I popped it into the ground where it got decent sun, mostly afternoon rays, and kept it watered during our Kentucky drought. I had purchased it in the fall, so I didn't really know if it would survive until the next spring. It did, but only really grew one really long stem. It produced some roses a couple of times in the summer, but nothing like my mom's. But it was surviving and from the looks of it, it was going to thrive.

So this year, I happily waited to see if the stem would get longer or if I would get other long stems. It turns out it decided to fluff up and produce a bunch of new stems, leaves and now a mass of miniature white roses. They are just getting ready to bust open. When they do I will be sure to post pictures. It is going to be a beautiful sight.

Because of the lessons I have learned caring for these two almost dead roses I have decided the best way for me to care for roses is to ignore them. When I try to keep them trimmed and in the perfect place I only kill them. Maybe I can't grow the really beautiful tea roses, but I am enjoying my miniatures. And because of the success of my miniature and rambler I purchased two climbing roses. These really have me excited!

Strawberries...

This weekend was a wonderful weekend for getting out in the garden. I finally got everything into the ground. Even my barely there tomato plants. They seem to like being in the soil better than hanging out in their little grow pots. Of course, yesterday we had a downpour come through. When I checked on everything this morning they seemed no worse for the wear.

I couldn't be happier with my sunflowers. I started all of them from seed; indoors on a wet paper towel in a ziplock bag. Once they all had started their roots, I put them into the ground. About four days later, plants were popping up. Now two weeks from when I orginally put them in the ground they are stretching for the sky. This crop really has me excited. First of all I love Sunflowers, I think they are a happy plant; and secondly, they will provide seed for the birds this winter. This is an optimistic outlook, because I have a feeling that some birds might get to them before I do. Oh well, there intent is to feed the birds, either in the winter or in the summer.

Another of my crops bore fruit, literally. One of my strawberry plants gave me two small strawberries today. I was very excited and had to show everyone that sits near me at work. Then I promptly ate them as a snack, and boy were they delicious! I can't wait to get some more off of my two plants. The are Ever Bearing Strawberries, so hopefully I should have strawberries all summer.

Starlings

It seems that Starlings are everywhere! They are a pretty bird and I was completly enamored of them...at least up until a few days ago. It seems that I have a Starling nest at the top of one of my trees and the daddy is very, and I mean very, protective.


I have noticed that every time one of my cats, Jackson, goes outside that there was endless bird chatter. Jackson has been known to take a few birds out but lately he has been less adventurous in his captures, so I immediatly wonder what Jackson is doing to this poor bird. When I stepped outside, I see that Jackson is just laying on the walkway cleaning himself and a bird is on a branch on the nearest tree just giving him what for. Jackson looks completely undisturbed, but the bird is having major issues.

Okay, so the bird doesn't like Jackson, not many birds do. As I turn to walk back into the house I see this bird dive bomb Jackson as he sits there. He misses and Jackson doesn't flinch, which says to me that this has been going on for awhile. My first thought I what has Jackson done to this bird to tick him off so much, then my next thought is "where is the nest?" After a little seraching I find that the nest. It is on top of a tree, in the dead truck. Completely out of reach of Jackson; Jackson doesn't have front claws when a past owner decided they wanted to make a ramboncious outdoor cat and indoor cat - they lost. So Jackson does climb well, especially not a twenty feet up with no branches. But the birds don't seem to realize this.

I leave them to settle their differences. The bird, which I have found out is a Starling, feels like he is protecting his mate and their nest and I think Jackson is enjoying the fact that he is annoying the birds, because otherwise he would go in hiding and not hang out where the bird can get him.

This is going to be an interesting spring, as I watch this interaction.

Gardening: The Art of Getting Dirty

I am an amateur gardener and enjoying every minute that I can get my hands dirty! Since I was a kid I helped my mother or my great Aunt Lula in the garden, well, I can't say I really helped, I was probably more of an hindrance but they tolerated me anyway. I was never there out of a great desire to get play in the dirt but more because the yard needed to be done or it was on my chore list. It just wasn't my thing.

At least that was the case until I moved out. Then I started to miss the flowers and foliage. In my first apartment my balcony was cluttered with spider plants and random flowers I would pick up. Then I moved into my first house (duplex) but it was in the shade. No big deal, hostas and inpatients were the order of the day. The lack of sunlight available didn't stop me from trying to plant a rose bush and strawberries. The few strawberries I got were eaten by birds and the rose did its best to stretch to the sunlight. All that work was paid with a few roses every year, one at a time.

Then I moved to Kentucky and out to the country. I have space and light! The first year I went hog wild and tried to plant everything that was affordable and I thought was pretty. There was no planning what so ever. As you might be able to imagine I had some interesting results. For the most part the seeds got too hot (I tried a green house but couldn't keep it moist enough) and wilted, or I picked the wrong plants for the sunlight I had. The one plant that didn't fail were my hostas. You have to love hostas, they always seem to produce beautiful green leaves no matter how you or your dog tries to destroy them.

The second year was better. I understood my sunlight and had a better grasp of layout. I put in 7 clematis, inpatients, petunias, roses, columbines and some other misc. annuals. The end result made me smile. I was on my way to gardening glory. I should mention that I lost two of my roses, through no fault of my own - I know everyone says this but I am telling the truth :) -Willow, a puppy at the time, thought it was good fun to pull the roses out and use them as fetching sticks. Lesson learned, puppy stays away from anything resembling a stick.

This year after some good rain and wonderful sunshine my perennials are doing well and all of the seeds I have started are breaking ground. Most of my clematis' have bloomed profusely, my hostas are up and bigger then ever, my surviving rose is branching out in all directions and the bulbs I planted in the fall added much needed color during the deary start to spring. I can't wait to see what the rest of garden does this year. My co-workers are tired of hearing about each bloom the opened and each seedling that came up. You would think they were my children. :)

I also started a vegetable garden for the first time. This is a true experiment because I have only grown tomatoes in the past, which is a fairly easy plant. This year I have planted potatoes, corn, carrots, lettuce, broccoli, watermelon, pumpkin, cucumber and of course tomatoes. Keep your fingers crossed! I am hoping the results will be edible.

Agnes and the Hitman - a fun read

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384457.Agnes_and_the_Hitman">Agnes and the Hitman by http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19005.Jennifer_Crusie">Jennifer Crusie

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/55944098">

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I enjoyed this collaboration by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. I had read their first one, Don't Look Down, and enjoyed the mix of genres. So when I saw this book at the library I just had to check it out. This is one that I will be looking to purchase for rereads.

They do well at mixing the genres of military/goverment espionage/mafia with the flirty fun of a quirky romance. I enjoyed the primary character, Agnes. I felt she was relatable and not perfect. The plot was a bit transparent but then again I didn't pick up this book to overcharge my brain.

I would recommend this to females who are looking to smile and laugh while they read. A good vacation or "get away from the kids" book.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1444670-courtney">View all my reviews.