On the left are two roses which once graced my garden, top is "Twice in a blue moon", below is
"Just Joey".
Both were very beautiful and had gorgeous perfume, most of the reason I chose them.
All my ;life I have loved roses and started growing them as soon as we moved here and had a (tiny) garden of our own.
Driven by my passion for the wonderful perfume I added more and more roses to my collection, At one time having 28 roses altogether.
Sadly, since John's death and my subsequent neglect of the garden there has been a gradual loss of one after another of my most precious plants.
Some obviously needed pruning feeding and in dry spells watering which they didn't get.
Only the toughest have survived, despite my neglect to remind me of my duty of care to helpless and beautiful living things.
Inevitably I feel both guilt and real sadness at the loss of some of my lovely old friends.
This year, as those who are regular reader's of this blog will know, I have found a gardener, and very good he is too. So there is hope that when the last of the weed jungle has been cleared, and some pruning and space-making has happened there may be the chance to plant some replacements for my lost treasures.
Each time he spends a couple of hours clearing some space I am mentally filling it with some new roses but it will actually be some time before this actually happens. In the meantime I have my remaining survivors to add colour and fragrance to my days.
Sorry about the strange format, my computer skills are not getting any better.
Half my photos seem to be hiding from me currently so have to make do with those prepared to show themselves.
That's quite enough drivel for now. Back soon/
There is a very biblical touch in that gardener!! Our lifes are really not very different from that of a garden, well, in some ways.
ReplyDeleteI love roses, but I am the worst of gardeners, my husband , the caretaker, is better but at home he works in seasons, between those things grow bad.... These are such lovely lovely pictures, is this the way it looks now or some time ago??? It must be a proper paradise, at least nowadays, I remember your description of it some months ago. Please Ray, keep planting new roses in your mind, I think it's like singing in the shower or while baking, waiting for the next round with the churchchoir.
Our next great season is the Advent Sunday and the coming christmas. You celebrate Advent?? In my next post there will be some hymns and songs from this ending and beginning of the Church Year. This sunday we celebrate The Sunday of Judgement, with the underline: The return of Christ.
Good luck with those roses!!!!
The pictures of the roses are just a few of the many I have taken over the years but as I said, ,
Deletemost of them no longer exist.
I always try to get a close-up photo but have now forgotten how to add new pictures to my lap-top collection so am having to re-use old ones.
At the moment most of the bloom has finished for the year, but a few brave souls are still defying the onset of Winter.
Hopefully next year everything will look much better thanks to the care being lavished on it now.
They look wonderful! And you are much better than me at getting pics into your blog....I often set out to do it but fail miserably.
ReplyDeleteOh Jean if you only knew what a battle I have to try to remember each time I want to use a picture from my files, how to retrieve it and then how to get it to stay in the right place.
DeleteReally computers and I were never meant to meet.
I miss my roses, too, Ray. Here's hoping your gardener is just the thing so that you can start putting new ones in. The old garden roses seem to be the best for us who have these lapses in ability/time to care for them. In the end, my garden turned into the Darwinian version - only what could live with benign neglect survived. And then the new owners came and pulled everything up!
ReplyDeletePulled everything up ? How absolutely heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteIt would be like having your children forcibly removed.
I know we shouldn't get too attached to 'things' but my roses are family.
I must say I am looking forward to some new plants.
I love roses too, and inspired by you I think i'll put some on my allotment . Ive always loved Blue Moon but think its a difficult one to keep going, but will look out for one .Our Family always had Josephine Bruce and am not sure whether can still get it . So I'll be off to Rogers of Pickering where they are grown in a real field and choose some in the Spring .Thanks
ReplyDeleteTwice in a Blue Moon is a hybrid with Blue Moon being one of the parents. It is allegedly healthier than it's parent. I however, managed to lose both.
ReplyDeleteThe only blue I currently have is Rhapsody in blue which is better (as are most blues) in a soil with a low PH. Mine is really too alkaline but like you I love blue roses and have had many over the years.
Harry Edland is another good one.
Good luck.
The hard frost of the past week has done for all my roses. Winter is indeed here. Blessings from Dalamory
ReplyDeleteWe have been lucky here Freda in that the frosts so far have been light, but, this week the forecast is grim, so my remaining blooms will vanish.
ReplyDeleteI suppose Winter had to arrive some time, more's the pity.
Blessings likewise to you and yours.
Gorgeous roses, Ray. I too love them, hut am very neglectful. Only the strongest survive, like the Gloire de Dijon climber at the old house. I'm gradually planting a few here.
ReplyDeleteYes you're right about Gloire de Dijon, she is truly tough, but there are others equally so. Any future roses I plant will have to be of that sort of calibre,
ReplyDeleteSad really, not what i would have chosen.