Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Lady Banks Out of Control


Just a quick post in between all the annoying deadlines to let you know my Lady Banks Rose is having another spectacular year. I cut this thing back to almost nothing 2 years ago when I got tired of the postman leaving notes every other day saying "please cut back rose bush" and then a gain when we had a huge storm and it got so wet and heavy it took over the whole dogwood tree it is climbing on. But she comes back every year with more vengeance.

It is a great year for all the Spring bushes around here. Whatever we didn't lose to drought is just gorgeous. Maybe bushes like a little drought every now and then. If I had the time I would look it up in my gardening book, but I really should be sewing. So, on that note, I'm off to tackle chiffon.

3 comments:

Kim said...

My jealousy knows no bounds.

Kim said...

Dear Karen,

Your observation that plants flower more heavily after a drought is accurate. When a plant thinks it is about to die it puts all it's energy into reproduction. In the case of your rose bush, the gorgeous flowers are just the plants way of saying, "Oh, please! I don't want to die!" It doesn't know you won't be planting the seeds produced by those flowers. And I think it's best if you keep that information to yourself. The bush is already stressed out enough between the drought, the big cut-back, and the mailman's unkind thoughts. It's OK to keep secrets from plants. I checked.

Sincerely, Your friendly not-so-local Master Gardener. "We are here to serve."

Karen Meyers said...

Would you like a cutting? It would just be a tiny little cutting and I wouldn't have to lie to my rose bush anymore.