Hybrid Tea Rose
Rosa 'Double Delight'
(RO-zuh)
I went to get a few roses yesterday. The nursery had them but after waiting 25 minutes for a salesman (and having two people in front of me still waiting) I abandoned the idea. They had a nice selection of varieties. I took a couple of pictures while I was waiting. This one of ‘Double Delight’ came out the best, even though the flower is going by. It is a classic Hybrid Tea Rose with a strong fragrance and great colors. It hasn’t been disease resistant for me in the past. Roses are the only plant that I break my no-preventive pesticide applications on. It is virtually impossible to grow roses in Connecticut without a spray program. I take care of 3 small rose gardens (24, 20, 12 plants, respectively) and I have been using the Bayer All-in-One instead of spraying. In one garden not only am I battling black spot and aphids but deer too. They love to strip the buds right before they bloom. I remember one time the owner of the garden had been away on a long trip and the day before they were to return I noticed 50 or 60 buds in the rose garden as well as about 20 flowers that were blooming. The next day I asked if they had seen the roses and they asked, “What roses?” Sure enough I went to the garden and the deer had completely stripped every plant in one night. Lucky the other gardens are in a fenced in area.
This is what happens when you want the rose plant in the middle of about 200 of them. I stuck my hand down to make my perfect selection when the rose struck back. I actually found it hard to take a picture of my right thumb. Still hurts a little. I have since washed up and put some Peroxide on it.
Yesterday was a tale of two emails. I got an email from a customer saying they had just got home from Martha’s Vineyard and their garden was a ‘little slice of heaven’. They were more than complimentary about what a great job we had done, etc. I was happy they were happy. Of course a little later I received another email, tersely worded, about how we had failed to follow on a few items at another house. He actually had some legitimate complaints and he said them without being mean. I am going have to take care of him and try and make it up to him somehow. He is a nice person that really cares about his house and garden. Anyway that kind of knocked me off my little pedestal. This spring has been one of the strangest I can remember. It certainly got started late. The flowers have been wonderful although it is getting quite dry now. I turned up my water budget feature on the irrigation controller to 120%. Here is another Mountain Laurel bud. This is from a Banded Mountain Laurel.
3 comments:
Great macro of your thumb. How did you manage to focus and hold still for the photo? You can even see the fingerprint ridges. For some reason rose thorn punctures really hurt. More so than other kinds of wounds. I wonder if it has some kind of chemical to make it more painful. I envy rabbits who can just zip through the brambles with impunity.
It has been a strange spring. We are watering constantly now, which takes more time than I can spare. The bald cypresses are only now starting to really leaf out and some of the other plants have been slow as well or have not bloomed so profusely.
It wasn't easy to take that one-handed thumb photo but the macro lens helped. You are right about the hurt it still is a little tender now. I agree about the spring, just when you think you have seen everything a spring like this comes along. All part of gardening, I guess.
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