The Lavender Lives and Rose Volcanos

Well, the second deadest lavender is making a concerted effort to live. Every day I check the three lavender plants. There used to be one teensy leaf-looking thing left on the most dead lavender but even that is gone now. All that's left is a little bump of dirt, just big enough to hold a tiny tombstone. "Here Lies Lavender Plant #3. It Smelled Nice, albeit Briefly." I'm hoping the plant is so desperately busy making roots underground that it has no energy left to stick out any leaves.

The expensive roses in the garage weren't doing so hot today. My beloved Graham Thomas actually had a slew of canes turned brown. How could I have let that happen to a $20 rose bush! Gasp. So late this afternoon, we planted them. Amazingly, those three rose bushes lasted 67 DAYS in buckets of water in the garage. Never again will I order roses without having a plan in place FIRST of WHERE I'm going to plant them. And we will "heel them in."

The last three roses are the highest climbers. We planned on putting them in the raised beds around the patio with something to climb. But the patio with raised bed is still in the Extremely Much Assembly Required stage. So we made three volcanos of dirt and planted the roses on top of the volcanos. Now all we have to do is put the patio in up to the level of the rose volcanos. I'm fairly certain we're supposed to create the raised bed first and then put in the plants. But today we put in the plants first and then we'll have to shovel the raised beds around them. The way I figure it -> if my dad can build a house first on the ground and then dig out a foundation under it second, surely we can plant some roses first and then put in a raised bed around them second.

After we planted the rose volcanos, the Chief Shoveler on the Rose Support Team accidentally hit one of the two remaining green canes of the Graham Thomas rose with a shovel and broke it. We were both silent for a minute. With solemn ceremony, I cut the precious stem off and then stuck it in the dirt nearby just in case it decides to grow. Besides, the Graham Thomas looked so forlorn with just one anemic branch sticking up that I figured it should be able to commiserate with it's freshly amputated limb.

On a happier note, I counted a total of perhaps 18 buds on the deck rose bushes! With more on the way. And there are now buds on the two Fair Biancas in the front yard too. Woot!