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Depressing Exercise: Count the Roses You Killed

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Most of them died due to freak climate smackdowns, but still. I changed my gardening practices a few years after moving to this windy prairie environment, and I have some crazy holdouts in my garden… if I grow a rose here it will survive just about anything. But loving roses, I tried valiantly for years to grow -and lose- so many lovely roses. Thinking about this…thus started my decline.

It all started, innocently enough, with Angela, In The Cottage Garden. She is starting a lovely garden in Oregon, home of garden beauty (IMO)…I’m enamored with West Coast gardens. And it’s not her fault, but she asked for suggestions for roses to try.

Well, of course, I am cold-locked in Ohio, so I just love to think up any excuse to dream about gardens and that led me off on a rabbit trail, like little Alice following her dreams and imaginations. Here, however, is where I went down a dark path: I had the bright idea that I would make a list of all the roses I’ve grown. Right now listed in a text file, but eventually I’ll be changing and rewriting my roses pages, and then I will have posted the truth for all to see.


It was then I realized my crimes: I kill roses. I love them and kill them. How horrifying a thing to face! The creeping realization of what this means to my garden budget alone… well, let’s just not go there. Reality is too cruel.

You know, I’m not going to complain about how ‘THÉRÈSE BUGNET‘ takes over the garden… at least she grows and thrives, which I am now realizing is a rare event for roses in my garden.

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and yet, my plan is to choose the best candidates for survival and build my rose stock once again….
Redemption… or more criminal behavior?

Tags:  rose garden

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Comments

  1. You poor thing! You love roses, and they don’t love you back. I can’t say that I’ve actually killed any, but I constantly battle black spot on the ones I love so dearly. It’s a fight to the finish! i suppose I could buy hardier roses, but they just don’t appeal to me. They all seem to be the same color pink. Yawn.

  2. Oh, Ilona, don’t despair. Anyone who loves roses frequently kills them. I have 83 right now, but I’ve probably killed just as many. It’s just the cold that’s getting to you. Go look at some of last season’s photos for relief.~~Dee

  3. I love my roses too! I’ve often thought of creating a rose garden, and would if I had the time, and was brave enough. Some roses do require a bit more attention than others; some say the hybrid teas are more fussy, others worry with their climbers, and a lot of folks have old fashioned roses that have thrived for over a hundred years. It’s the delicious scent that is one of the top draws for me. I swoon over our Gertrude Jekyll, which is still recovering from a mis-timed replanting. And then there’s my “Dirt Rose,” a hand-me-down beauty I got from a Mississippian who collected discarded roses he found around town, it’s adapted to my zone 5 garden with no problems and flowers beautifully, and it’s scented. Ahhh, roses, I consider them the most erotic of all flowers! ;~)

  4. I’m sure that’s what will happen if I grew roses too. Be that as it may, I’m still determined to grow some (for the petals to use). 🙂