Container Divas

Billy Rose, sat on a tack,Billy rose

Billy rows,in a canoe,Billy rows

awright, you paddle a canoe, I knows

Road  Yacht,  it  seems  that  you  have  been  hitting  the  sauce.....lol

In the UK we have an excellent charitable organisation called The Naional Gardens Scheme. Any member of the public can apply for their garden to be included in The Yellow Book- a guide to private gardens open to the public, some just for one day a year, others by appointment. Monies raised from the small admission charges, the sale of delicious teas - scones with jam & cream etc. are donated to charities. This organisation gives us the opportunity to enjoy a facinating variety of gardens, from large country houses to tiny town patio or roof gardens. One garden I recently visited had a charming notice planted by their superb wild-flower meadow, which read: Ladies & Gentlemen will not, and others may not pick the flowers.

Our lives shall not be sweetened from birth until life closes-hearts starve as well as bodies;
Give us bread, but give us roses. Joan Baez sang the ode to working people. When I worked for a wholesale florist 3 decades ago, I would take roses to the local tavern at week's end and the blooms when distributed with a smile would brighten up the face of every woman in the joint. My minature roses next to the tiger lilies by my front porch bloomed two weeks ago and the subject matter made me think this morn of them and how my mom hummed Nat King Cole's Ramblin' Rose.  

There were 4 miserable roses planted against a wall in the yard of my house in Arizona. The desert sun is bad enough, but when it reflected off that wall, the poor roses were fried. Surprisingly, they survived, but they were ugly 9 months out of the year.

So I decided to take them out one spring.

I told my teenagers I'd pay $5 a bush for them to do the work. I thought it was pretty generous... After 2-3 hours of pruning shears, shovel and hatchet, the bushes were gone, but the roots were still in place on 3 of the 4.

Roses had always seemed like such delicate plants... so much written about their care and keeping... that I figured enough damage had been done and they were done for.

Heh, heh, heh.

I planted new, heat loving vines between the mangled roots of the old roses to cover the heat sink wall, and delighted in the lushness. Until fall came with cooler weather.

Thorny canes started poking up through the vines. Most of them "root stock", thin with no flowers. But one... the one whose "nut" had been hacked with a hatchet... sent out new shoots as thick as my thumb. Big fat buds opened into stunning flowers.

That thing was determined to live. And so I let it. I cleared a space in the vines to let it come up, but let them continue to cover the wall. Between the cooler environment and sheer hutzpah, that rose is still going with minimal attention.

That's one plant I truly respect.

RY - I  just knew I could count on you for that early morning chuckle -- thanks

I once arranged delivery of a ton of well-rotted horse manure to a town-dwelling friend who loved to grow roses, as a Birthday present. She was delighted & had fun telling all her friends that she got a load of s***t for her birthday.
I have two old-fashioned rambling roses that flower repeatedly and are scented. Kiffsgate & Rambling Rector. Tough as old boots, thrive on neglect.
Kristina~ Your story of paying teenagers to do garden work reminds me of a farmers saying about employing young lads- "One boy's a boy, two boys is half a boy & three boys is no boys at all."
 
If anybody's looking at that Chelsea Flower Show link on grasses, beware!!! Grasses can be very invasive, either via their "runners" or by self-seeding. I've just spent an hour hacking back a bamboo that is intent on taking over the planet.
I'm enjoying playing around with the list of wildflowers on the other link, trying to make a poem without adding many extra words. Printed the list out big, cut out the words with scissors & I'm now fiddling aound like playing Scrabble. Well, it is raining.

Kristina; the first time I realized that summer "cold" was actually *achoo* allergy, was when we moved to our new house with those beautiful roses all along the side.....sadly, we needed to get rid of them and once they were gone, the only allergy left were my kids ..... something about them caused me to start to stutter, curse and ah, yes, admittedly drink.  But that's another story -- right now it's roses and I'm still ah-ah-ah-choo-ing

The hospital did this load of tests on my forearm to find out what I was allergic to. Spectaclar rows of red skin reactions - they gave me a computer print-out advising me to stay away from everything I like. No chance. I just take an antihistamine pill every morning & (top tip) provided you don't intend to drive or operate machinery, a glass or three with the anti-allergy pills is very ... relaxing.

Letter written to gardening advice coulum by early English poet?
 
O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,
 
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
 
William Blake (1757-1872)
 
 

Typos again! c-o-l-u-m-n That's better!

Hazel~that phone number you listed for mister Blake (1 757 1872) is not in service.

ROADYACHT!!!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I'M YELLING.
HOW'S YOUR HEAD?
LOL!!
 
YOU'RE CUTE WHEN YOU'RE TIGHT,
;)
 
me

RY~ I'll call round to visit & remind him to pay his phone bill & spray his roses with fungicide.

My roses grow with very little interference from me. They seem to prefer it that way.

MICHAEL:  That is exactly how I feel about my Lawn ... It has always seemed so futil to mow grass, the damned stuff just grown right back up again ... and when living within "City" Limits, one os not allowed to turn the Sheep loose in the yard, to keep it short, and Green ... We have the Grounds Keeper from the Club come and do all the grass around the places owned by the Mission ... Makes work and extra Money for the Grounds Krewe and I don't have to feel guilty about doing some poor devil out of Income .......  The entire situation gets along very well without any intervention from me ... That way, I can stay busy keeping the Beer cold for the Krewe, and keeping the coals for the Barbecue Pit white-hot, and keeping the Meats just right ...Slow, Smoky, and Sure makes for Fork Tender Meats, and Rib Meat that really does slide off the bone ....... Roses we buy ...

I need to interrupt our usual Sunday programming with this important question:
 
DID ANYBODY TOSS THEIR COOKIES?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 Yes. Did you catch 'em?

You!  You sly one...you can't imagine. 
 
The postman only rang twice today, Sunday!, and hands me this small box, and I don't recall ordering anything, and there's no name on the return, so I thought hmm, what could be in this size box, from a stranger...hmmmm...and I opened it in the dining room, which was dark...and I saw something in there that looked like something other than what it was, something adults might order (you know what I mean?) so I thought: OH NO! but then I had a brief second of clarity and I went into the kitchen and I saw what it was and -- oh sigh of relief followed by lots of laughter and explanation to husband.
 
And my husband thanks you, because now he can stop chasing little girls all over Walworth County, asking them if they have anything they want to sell him!!
 
And Sunday delivery, that really threw me!  The postman, who looks like that fellow in the old Newhart Show (I'm Larry, and this is my brother Darryl, and my other brother Darryl) -- he said he felt bad because he ran out of time yesterday and couldn't deliver it, and he made a special trip, today, because it might be something special.
 
And it sure was!
You're a love. Thank you.
 
(I owe you one, you know that, don't you?)

(suddenly in sunlight

he will bow,

& the whole garden will
bow)      e.e. cummings  Good night, mom. Good night, all. Good night, Mrs. Calabash.

There are those times when I can hardly contain myself, but I try. I have roses (one bush)...huge things that smell really nice, but they are plagued with rust, so I use my trusty squirt bottle filled with vinegar. That works well for a while and then I have to do it again. I don't know how, but these roses bloom almost year round. As for containers...I have three citrus trees in half wine barrels...1 lime and 2 mandarin oranges.
 
Containment..the gushing oil well in the gulf...I don't have high hopes.

JANE:  Great Stuff !!!  At least you are growing something useful, and not just showy ... I like flowers ... they're pretty and all that ... but I much prefer to have things in the Garden that can be safely and deliciously consumed ... Cauliflower (it  IS  a Flower), Nasturtiums, every part but the Rootworks is edible, and the leaves are marvelous in a Salad ... sort of Black Peppery and Minty at the same time ... Makes a delightfully different flavor if the leaves are bruised moderately and then macerated in Olive Oil for a week or so, and then use some of the Oil to make fresh Mayonaisse ...  And Dandelions, make an excellent Wine if the buds are pressed and soaked ... altho' one must have an enormous collection of the Greens for the pot, and it is necessary to blow all the fuzzy stuff off before boilin' 'em up ... and Pokeweed, which is good, has some nutritive value, but takes longer to cook because they have to be boiled for half an hour, rinsed and boiled a second time in highly salted water ...  But they are mighty good ... Get yourself a mess of Poke Salad in a bowl, some Evangeline Hot Sauce, a few chunks of Hotwater Corn Bread, and a big ol' glass of Butter Milk, and you can do alright ... a man can work right on thru the afternoon and never get tired ... We plant Pretty Flowers and Trees and Bushes every here and there, but the serious Gardening goes to stuff we can eat ... My Folks planted Victory Gardens all during WWII, and we have just kept up the tradition ... We grow and eat five different varities of Pepper, too ... Always good to have around ... but it is necessary to park all the vehicles under cover because the Birds that nibble on the peppers can ruin a paint job, very easily ...