Wahoo! It's Time!

I've been waiting.  And it's finally time!  Wahoo!

That's right - all spring I waited.  All summer long, too.  I've been waiting for the rain.  Yes, we've had rain!  Hallelujah!

Now I feel as though I can plant all those plants I didn't get to plant this spring or summer.  I've already started planting boxwoods around the main rose garden.

And I've got lots of plans for many more plants.  More roses, of course.  Some companions.  And replacements for poor plants that didn't quite make it.  And now that it has rained, I finally have hope that they will live and thrive.  In ground that is soft, moist, and nurturing, instead of the hard, dry, baked clay that it was before the rains came.

Wahoo!  It's time to plant!  And I'm ready!

My New Friend

Another rose picture, you say?

No, look closer!

I almost missed her, too!

She had been in a different rose bush just the day before:

I think we're getting to be friends!  

And I would have taken more pictures, but I saw this creature when I was crawling around in the rose bush:

I could just imagine it caught in my hair!  

So, I decided to say goodbye to my new friend, for now.  I'm so excited she has found my garden.  I hope she likes it well enough to lay eggs!

Until tomorrow, my sweet!  

PS:  If you want to know more about the praying mantis, check out www.theprayingmantis.org.  There's loads of information there!

War and Peace

Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed,
Poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed.

Oh, wait!  That's not the right story.  But, I am going to tell you a story today.  A story about a man named Francis Meilland.  Francis came from a long line of rose breeders.  His grandfather was Francis Dubreuil.  Around 1935, Francis Meilland cross-pollinated some roses, which resulted in a new rose that was absolutely beautiful.

Of course, he named this rose after his mother, Mme Meilland.  But, as you know, life sometimes gets in the way of plans.  World War II's ugly face began to show itself, devouring country by country.  Right before the German occupation of France, a piece of this rose was shipped off to the U.S., where it continued to be propagated.

And on the very same day that Berlin fell in April, 1945, this rose was introduced to the American public.  We know this rose as 'Peace'.

This rose goes by different names in different countries.  But it will forever be linked to war, and peace.

'Peace' is one of the best selling roses of all time.  Every time I see a bloom from this rose, I fall in love all over again.  When I was quite young, I took a tour of a rose garden.  I can remember thinking that Peace was the most beautiful rose in the garden.  And now I have it in my own garden.  Thanks to a rose breeder, some unusual circumstances, and a strong desire to save his creation.

I love its beautiful blooms.  But I also love its history.  May you, too, have Peace in your garden.

Gorgeous!

Are you looking for a rose that is so beautiful it will make you gasp?

I have just the rose for you!

Gruss An Aachen.
I bought this rose simply because I saw it in bloom.  This was a rose I had to have. 

It's blooming again now, and I am just as taken with its beauty as when I first saw it.

The color of its blooms range from apricot, cream, pink, to near white. 

There is so much I could tell you about Gruss An Aachen.  And I will.  But not today.

Today I just want you to look. 

And gaze at its beauty (and possibly gasp!).

Mmm, Mmm Good!

I have had a number of Green Lynx spiders in my garden this year.  They seem to drape themselves across a bloom, daring me to move them.  I don't.  Their long, hairy arms are enough to scare me away.

These are indiscriminate predators, preying on bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.  But they will also eat stinkbugs, wasps, and other insects we find harmful.  So I'll keep them.

They get their name by the way they pounce on their prey, like a cat.  They don't build webs, but do weave egg sacs, and guards the sac aggressively.  They live for about one year.  This Green Lynx spider is munching on a snack!

Here's another predator munching on a meal (before he becomes a meal himself)!  There are over 120,000 species of flies, so I'm not sure what kind of fly this is, but I believe it is some kind of Robber fly.  

What makes a fly different than other insects are the number of wings on their back.  Flies have two, other insects have four.  

Flies really don't really munch on their prey.  They inject a digestive juice into their poor victims and the juices dissolve the tissue, then the fly sucks up the liquid.  A fly smoothie!

The opossum is North America's only marsupial mammal.  This means the female has a pouch.  

The female is only pregnant for 13 days before giving birth.  The babies are only as big as a honeybee!  They will cling to the mother, and even after leaving the pouch, will ride on their mother's back.  When they fall off, they are instantly weaned and expected to forage for themselves.  If they're lucky, they may find a bowl of dog food!

Opossums have opposable thumbs.  Look closely at the picture and you can see them.

Raccoons in the wild live to around 5 years of age.  Their five toes on both the front and back feet are the reason they can get into almost anything!  

They will eat just about anything, too.  From frogs, fish, eggs, mice, insects, fruit or vegetables, they are not choosy.  I caught this one with his hand in the cookie jar, so to speak.  

Raccoons are smart and adaptable.  Be careful around raccoons - they can swim, climb and bite!   

It's a dog-eat-dog world out there!  Sometimes, though, it's a non-dog eat dog-food world!

Repose

Is the garden ever in repose?

No, not really.  Not even in the dead of winter.

Underneath, bulbs are starting to stir.  Seeds are emerging.  Roots are reaching for nourishment.

We may only see the outline of a garden.

But survival takes a lot of energy.

Fall is the time we think of the garden as going into repose for the winter.

But we are wrong.

Like a cocoon, there is more than meets the eye that we can't see.

Is a gardener ever in repose?

I think not.  Always thinking, always planning, always tweaking.

Always looking to the future.

A garden never sleeps.

And the gardener is always dreaming of spring.

I'm joining Donna's Word for Wednesday meme on repose.

Enchanted

Most of the time, I plant a rose without knowing exactly what it will look like in bloom.  I have an idea of what the color and form the blooms will be, all based upon a picture on the tag, a website, or google image.  But to really know whether I will love the rose is a mystery.

I had seen enough pictures of Buff Beauty to know I was already infatuated.   All the pictures I've seen show it to be a heavy bloomer.   Plus, the color of the blooms are an unusual dark yellow to apricot color.  I am a sucker for an apricot bloom.  And a buff colored yellow seemed unusual enough to make me want this rose in my garden.

So, I got Buff Beauty, and placed it in a corner of the main rose bed.  A corner to which I rarely venture.  This spring was the first it had bloomed in my garden, and yes, I was pleased.  But I was not enchanted - until yesterday.

Yesterday I experienced Buff Beauty in a new way.  I was behind the main rose bed, checking on the small hedge that I've been babying all summer.  Two of the hedge plants had almost died due to the drought, and I had been worried that I would have to replace part of even possibly all of my hedge.  Walking down the row, I reached the corner where Buff Beauty was planted.  I would not have stopped, except there was a weed that needed pulling.  That was not acceptable.  This called for immediate action!

I stepped into the hedge row, reached far into and under Buff Beauty, wrapped my fingers around the offending weed, and pulled.  As I did, I inhaled.  And I experienced the scent of Buff Beauty's soft, sweet fragrance for the first time.   That's all it took.  I was enchanted.  I should thank that weed for being there.  But that is below my dignity as a gardener.

Walking to the far back corner will now be a regular venture for me.  A beautiful color, lovely form, and a sweet scent.  Buff Beauty has it all.

Enchanting.