Naked in the Roses: Laying Low

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Laying Low

As the days tick away, my lack of progress becomes worrisome. I thought it might be instructive to see this process through a map of the garden; in green are the bed areas that are now pruned. I'll update this once a week.

Our first ship date of the year at the nursery has kept me very busy since Thursday. Our first roses to Taiwan shipped today, and the red tape was excessive. But, I managed to get everything wrapped up and ready to go yesterday. Then, I walked out of the shipping room, stepped on a wet leaf and flew off the loading dock and down to the ground, mashing my knee and ankle.

Today was spent largely in bed trying to recuperate and get the swelling to go down. Right hand, right knee; they really are very necessary to the pruning process. So, it looks like I won't get right back to pruning. I was forced to cancel my presentation to the Pleasant Hill Garden Club tonight, but I am hoping that I will still be able to go to Ventura on Friday to do a Saturday morning demonstration/talk on pruning for the Gold Coast Heritage Roses Group.

Meanwhile, I've been thinking about your responses to my postings. I've had several lovely emails, a mixture of astonishment and gratitude over what I've been trying to do. Our poll is fascinating. Nearly half of you have nearly one hundred roses to prune. A nice average, but do you realize that between you that's about 9000 roses? Wow!

I'm shocked that nine readers have indicated that they each have thousands of roses to prune. What I'd really like to do for the next two days is sit back and read what they have to share about their challenges! I can't help wondering where their gardens are, and what they grow. I can guess who some of them may be; I've been an enabler for rose collectors for years now and have turned a few friends into fanatical rose lovers.

I do promise that tomorrow I'll get back to the nuts and bolts on this blog, and continue to share some thoughts on pruning roses—some thoughts that will make you think!

1 comment:

redwoodroseJanuary 7, 2010 at 8:35 AM
Hi Gregg, Sorry to hear about your fall. I hope it wasn't too serious. That was the last thing you needed!
Today I hope to prune my plant of Monsieur Tillier. It'll probably take me as long to prune as it took to do six other teas nearby - it is so huge! After eight years in the ground it's about ten feet wide and eight high. It is always the last tea to finish blooming and the first to start up again in the spring. Well, maybe second to take off after General Schablikine, next door. The base of the plant is as thick as my arm.
This month my goal is to make it a habit to prune one day, hike/run the next. I've found that pruning is a great form of stretching all those tight muscles, with all the squatting, bending over, and squeezing into places I've created with a little overplanting here and there!
I'm jealous of your dog. I need a gopher hunter here! My young terrier/poodle? mix would love to get a gopher, but hasn't had any luck yet. Did you train yours to catch gophers? My boy only digs when and where I give him permission, but never gets any prey. The other day he was mortified to see my eighteen year old feeble cat with a gopher in her mouth, sitting at the door. I wanted to take her catch and burn it outside, so I could spread the ashes around (it worked once before to repel them!) but I couldn't do it. She hadn't caught one in so long it didn't seem fair to steal her trophy from her.
Good luck, and thanks for keeping the tips simple!!
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Preserving a Garden of Old and Rare Roses—Can it be Done?

Preserving a Garden of Old and Rare Roses—Can it be Done?

In my garden I grow over 4000 rose plants of all classes and types. Like a museum of roses, the garden tells the story of roses from the most ancient to the most recent. But, unlike a museum, it is a living organism, always growing through cycles of bloom and renewal. Along with the roses live gophers, hummingbirds, pigmy rabbits, the occasional deer, and a host of other life forces—some welcome, and others not. The garden and its collection of rare roses are known by many rose lovers around the world, and have been shared with other gardeners and gardens for the past 26 years. Today it stands on the edge of disappearing, and in this blog I hope to share with you both the peril that threatens it and the effort that has begun now to preserve it.

The Friends of Vintage Roses
A garden is a temporary thing, it is often said, destined to disappear with its creator. But I do not agree. A garden is an idea that once experienced lives in the minds of those who can imagine it. It belongs to no one and to everyone. Once I understood this my garden began to live. It has lived for many years now in the minds of those who have visited it, and those who have only imagined visiting it. It has the power to elevate all of us to Cloud Eleven.

Roses are powerful life forces, pulled from the imaginations of artists over many centuries of human existence. They speak to us, and if we listen and can hear them, they have much to say. They transcend their creators, their admirers and their custodians---they transcend us and inspire us. Their powerful sway bore fruit in a gathering of people who wanted them and heard them calling---the Friends of Vintage Roses. This scattered group began to coalesce about a decade ago one May in the garden I had built. These people have pulled together once again for the roses to keep alive a vision, a dream and an inspiration. Their hard work and pragmatism account for the survival of so many beautiful beings, and they work now to spread the word, the joy and the delight of old roses.