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| VINTAGE ROSES |
Do you recall my telling you about the vintage roses that were killed by the two unusually cold and unrelenting winters of four or five years ago? Nothing was left of those roses for a few years; not even a "stump" or minor growth to indicate that grand old shrub had ever existed in the backyard wild garden we enjoyed for decades!
Then this year, in weeks following my Bob's death in April, that very fragrant shrub began to reappear; to climb its original trellis; and to BLOOM!
Like the surprising and unexpected bloom of the vintage native lilac that hadn't bloomed in our 25 years on this property, the old rose reappeared in the weeks after Bob's final exit from this earth. Our family attributed those two small miracles to Bob's own special brand of trademark mischief, post mortem. A lovely tribute to the gardening guy we teasingly referred to as our own Mr. Green Jeans!
The antique rose, planted long ago by the previous owners of our property, is a shrub that, year after year, would send out its first blooms sometime in June and bloom for just a month; at most. Not this time around! The reincarnated rose began its growing season in April, and it's still blooming now as hot July draws to an end. Every week, in fact, a new branch joins the main shrub, with a host of buds and blooms.
This photo shows the latest clutch of brand new blooms and buds.
Impulsively last evening, I walked down to that wild garden to photograph them for you.
Bob's own mysterious roses! They are welcome here!
