Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Wall of Roses

If you like roses, you might like these next few photos. One is of my Eden, at the end of its first magnificent bloom.  Eden blooms right up into December, but the first bloom is the most magnificent and it always seems to coincide with the opening of the Devon Horse Show and Memorial Day.  Eden will continue to give me roses, but it cannot replicate this kind of show twice in one season.



The other photo is one of what I call "The Wall of Roses".  None of us knows what the name of the rose is, but this bush begins in one garden and extends down nearly to mine.  It only blooms once a year, this week, and it's like trying to count the stars in the sky at night, which is nearly impossible.  The roses don't give off a scent and their color is white, though occasionally a carnation pink one will pop up.  It's propped up by an old pear tree and is one reason to look forward to Spring.



I have another bush that's not quite in its prime yet, so as you can see, there is never any shortage of roses here.  For that reason, St. Therese has to use a bit of ingenuity when she answers my prayers, so on two occasions, when granting a particularly heartfelt and difficult request, she skipped the roses and went to the lilac bush.  The lilac bush only blooms once, but one day in July, there was part of the bush, in bloom again.  My neighbors were even astounded.  When I wondered aloud if this was the answer to my prayer, I received a loud "yes" when I went out the next morning and found that my potted wisteria bloomed again.  Getting it to bloom once takes a miracle, so to see boughs of its heavenly-fragranced flowers hanging where no bud had appeared the previous day was almost too much.

My mother always tells me the difference between a miracle and a coincidence is faith.  I have too much faith to believe in coincidences.

6 comments:

  1. Whoa. I'm envious.
    What about blackspot? Is Eden impervious?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Julie
    I have never had a problem with Eden getting blackspot. Now my Christie-Todd Whitman rose bush ( I know, what a name!) is infested with it, yet it still manages to produce heavenly-scented gorgeous roses. When "she" blooms I'll take a picture.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Such beautiful flowers! I didn't know you were such a rose gardener. How big of a pot do you keep your wisteria in? I have one that is in a pot for the 2nd year because I still need something for it to climb. I think I need a bigger pot now.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's really a disgrace that my roses thrive so much because I do so little for them. My husband does most of the pruning for me and aside from banana peels at the base of the shrubs, I don't add any kind of fertilizer or use any kind of special sprays or food for them.

    I put the wisteria in a pot because I've seen the damage that a vine with a mind of its own can do. Mine is in a 20-gallon rubber pot. I do nothing with the wisteria either except give it a small trellis to cling to. This year it made buds but it didn't bloom because my husband and my neighbor moved it and disrupted it. I also grow clematis in pots - Gypsy Queen and Nelly Moser - but I didn't get a photo of either.

    Eden, by the way, is a climber, but where I planted it, there is nothing for it to climb up and it all but destroyed the trellis that I bought it, so now we keep it pretty trim and when it gets unruly, my husband will use some sturdy string to tie it, thus earning the nickname "rose wrangler".

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh! It all looks lovely Joyce! I have a teeny little bed in my cubicle out back, but because it gets lots of protected sun, things really thrive there. I bought a few little potted impatiens and begonia at the Acme and they make it pretty out there. Oh and lets not forget the mint invasion :) I should put basil in again...we really enjoyed it before..
    Any word on the tests? still praying! Hope you are keeping cool in this weather, yuk!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Kelly
    His appointment with the doctor is tomorrow, so we'll see. Not soon enough, but we'll see. We've been having some morbid conversations, and then I catch myself, like "tell me again how much life insurance you have?". Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. "And they let you get away with that"? LOL

    ReplyDelete

Comments which reflect true Christian charity are always welcome. Comments which attack the Pope, the Church, priests or other bloggers will go in the dustbin, especially if they are anonymous. Thank you and God Bless you!