Naked in the Roses: The Itsy Bitsy Spider...

Saturday, February 6, 2010

The Itsy Bitsy Spider...

This pruning business, year after year, is a bit like the labor of Sisyphus, rolling a ball up the mountain, only to watch it roll back down again, and begin again. But today, despite rain which helped to cancel plans of the Friends of Vintage Gardens to help to mulch, we did accomplish minor miracles. Our rice straw mulch was spread over about 3/4 of an acre by me, Michael and Pamela Temple, Juan and Mario who helps out from time to time. It was a wet and exhausting day, but worth the suffering, at least until the weeds show up again, and we begin again...

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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.