Septre 'd Isle and Fair Bianca in, Pat Austin out

This afternoon we planted three more roses. It would have been four but we had an "Information Exchange" over the placement of the fourth rose. It was unanimously decided by the Chief Benefactor of the Rose Support Team that we did not want to slice through the cable TV line. Nor did the Chief Benefactor of the Rose Support Team want to dig another 10 foot trench to reroute the phone cable a second time. Also, I could not properly portray my vision of a half-arch leaning toward the mailbox with a miniature porch swing hanging under it and glorious copper blooms hanging over it and some small flowers surrounding it. Therefore, Pat Austin got demoted and put back in the bucket of mud water in the garage.

We did get one rose in by the mailbox though, the second Septre 'd Isle. I figure having another Septre 'd Isle near the front of the property will give some kind of continuity to my color scheme. Since I did not buy the roses specifically for their color, a color scheme has been quite tricky to pull off. Adding more excitement, I've been told by the Rose Support Team that the phone cable is still buried perilously close to the new rose roots behind the mailbox. I did not witness this. Fortunately, I could not find anywhere in Roses for Dummies that you can't plant a rose near a phone cable.

Sweet.

Today's other two roses were both Fair Bianca, which we successfully planted by the front walk. I read that these white roses look splendid against a dark house so they should work well with our barn-red house. I've always disliked barn-red on a non-barn so eventually we'll paint the house some dusky blue hue. By then, all the roses will be well-rooted and the color scheme will look even better.

My mom called tonight to check out my gardening progress. She wanted to know what my roses were going to climb. I still have no idea. My husband said he would build a pergola. Based on his past performance, he should have started the pergola about the same time I learned to walk. So we're still undecided and the last high climbers are going to have to wait.

Climbers, Raised Beds and Pots

We don't argue. We have "Questions" and "Discussions". We have "Information Exchanges". We have "Opinion Shuffles". And it went like this:

The First Question: "Just how many climbers DID you buy? Why did you buy so many climbers?"
The First Information Exchange: "I'm not sure how many are climbers. Some have to go in pots."
The First Opinion Barely Disguised as a Second Question: "And WHAT are they supposed to climb?"
Note the emphasis on the WHAT.

I read that you should plan out your gardening on paper. So I did. I drew up a little sketch of our property and printed up mini pics of the roses I bought. I drew symbols on each photo so it would be easy to plan where to plant it. A zigzag up the side means it's a climber. A zigzag along the bottom means a hedge. A bigger zigzag means a taller hedge. A circle means the rose can be grown in a pot.

I completely guessed at which roses can be grown in pots though because David Austin's website doesn't list which roses are good for pots. I found out you can get roses for short hedges, medium hedges and tall hedges. You can buy roses specifically to grow completely over pergolas, unsightly sheds, old junked vehicles and relatives. There are climbers, bedding and shrubs. It's a rather ominous sign that David Austin's website does not specifically list any roses suitable for pots. Very ominous indeed. So I figured the smallest plants can handle a pot, right?

We're playing musical rose bushes here. Now that I have the roses, I'm having second thoughts about the pot-ability of some of them. We keep tearing the paper roses off the plan and gluing them down in other spots. At least we're not planting them and then changing our minds and having to dig them up again. Our property would soon look like the home of a whole herd of giant moles. They'd just keep shuffling around the yard, unable to make up their minds where to dig, leaving massive piles of dirt and pits. I'm running out of time, the remaining 9 roses are still languishing in water in the garage and the music is about to stop.

The Second Question: "Where are the raised beds supposed to go?"
The First Stalling Barely Disguised as an Information Exchange: "Well, first we have to figure out which roses go in pots and what the climbers are going to climb. Then we buy the pots n' climbing stuff. Then we put the raised beds under the location of the climbing stuff."

I should have bought Roses for Dummies BEFORE I bought the roses. Years ago. Before we bought the house. Somewhere around the time I learned to walk. As soon as I bought Roses for Dummies, I turned past all the chapters on the history of roses, rose identification, choosing roses etc and went straight to the chapters on climbers, raised beds and pots.

Alas, in buying the roses first, I have created serious Gardening Angst. My nice little Rose Adventure blog should be subtitled "The Angst of a Frantic Gardener." Yup.

Well, we finally got our phone back.

How to Prune Phone Calls.
Getting too many phone calls? Here's a great solution.
1. Decide to plant rose bushes near your driveway. There are usually underground cables nearby.
2. Get a nice sharp shovel.
3. Drive that shovel in deep to make a pit for a rose bush.
Chances are good that you'll slice through a cable or two. What excitement! What a perfect solution! Our phone didn't ring for a day!

That space up by the mailbox, perfect for putting the climbing Pat Austin rose, was also perfect for an underground phone cable. So our shovel sliced that phone cable clean through, all neat and tidy. Fortunately, our 20 yo son was a gem at splicing the cable. He had to dig up more of the phone cable to reroute it to get enough slack for the splicing. Which means my chosen spot for the rose bush is no longer chosen.

So now the climbing Pat Austin is going to have to lean way over in order to reach the mailbox 4 feet away. My husband says the mail lady will not want to reach through a mass of thorns to deliver our mail each day anyway. Hmmph. I think she should be happy to reach through those luscious copper blooms. I guess I'll have to make some kind of mini arch in order for the roses to reach the mailbox. And under the arch will be some other flower that doesn't need a pit deep enough to hit the phone cable.

Ok, I'm picturing a half-arch to the mailbox looking extremely funky. Which means the mail lady might not even notice those luscious copper blooms because of the weird rose half-arch. Hmm, the space under the arch would be perfect for a miniature porch swing. If you're going funky, might as well go all out.

On another positive note, we got the roses covered with mulch before the freezing weather hit. The temp on Friday night was supposed to be 32, the temp Saturday night was supposed to be 22. We covered the plants so you can't see any of the canes. I'm not sure it ever got to freezing. But tonight it's supposed to be 25. I guess we'll have to wait on planting the remaining roses a couple days more.

We still haven't figured out where to put the raised bed in the back yard. There is one tree in the middle of the back yard and all the rest of the yard is just barren clay with clumpy grass & weeds here and there. This is going to take some in depth thought and careful planning. Much like the planning that went into slicing the phone cable. Yeah.

First Planting

Ok, I found out that manure by black cows is no different than manure by any other color cows. Black cow manure is actually Black KOW brand. duh. That stuff sure looks rich. We dumped 3 bags of Black Kow composted manure, 3 bags of Top Soil, and a 3.5 cf bag of Peat Moss into a mound. Then the three boys and I stirred and stirred. We attempted our own version of a STOMP routine. 4 people, 3 rakes and a hoe. Slap, pull, slap, pull, stomp two steps to your right; slap, pull, slap, pull, stomp two steps to your right; repeat. Round and round the pile we went and mixed longer than was necessary. I don't think the neighbors have heard of Stomp so our extraordinary show was wasted. Too bad. If we were working on a hardwood floor, I'm sure we'd hear a real beat with a couple rake-collision clangs thrown in.

The first three roses went out front. I'm wondering if we put them too close to the road now. Oh well. I had no idea there was such a thing as "road easement". I mean really, who owns my mailbox which sits right next to the road? Who owns the little circle of flowers around my mailbox? Who is going to own the two rose bushes I plant right behind my mailbox? And when the roses climb up my mailbox, inching ever closer to the road, who will own the blooms? Very perturbing. Hmmph.

So we planted them anyway. I found out that the Queen of Denmark is "once flowering". The boys asked "Forever? You mean is just flowers once and then that's it for a hundred years?" Nope, it comes back once a year. Rats. Oh well, once is better than nothing. I also found out that I like the Queen of Sweden that I didn't get way better than the Queen of Denmark that I did get. Too late now, the queen is buried. And she's flanked by repeat bloomers James Galway and Septre'd Isle. I put the shorter Septre'd Isle in front of the other two. Hopefully, no one will notice that by July, 33% of the roses in that corner of the yard ran out of steam and only have leaves left. James Galway and Septre'd Isle will just have to put forth more effort to make up for the absent Queen.

We also planted three climbers. Zepherine Drouhin went on the northwest corner of the house, because the catalog says this one does well on a north wall. So now I'm wondering if the North Wall of a house in England gets the same, um, ambience as a north wall in North Carolina.

Blush Noisette was planted on the southwest corner of the deck. I hope it gets enough sun there. We'll have to put some kind of trellis up for the two roses to climb.

And lastly, New Dawn went in at the foot of the deck stairs. I'm really excited about New Dawn. I'll train it to climb the deck stair rail. I'm also optimistic that it's close enough to the deck that I can actually spit on those despicable deer from the deck if they dare get too close.

It was dark by the time we got to New Dawn. So my husband whipped out his handy dandy TWO MILLION MEGA WATT spotlight. I was jarred out of my peaceful, primal experience shoveling dirt when that blinding beam hit my shovel. I'm sure even the ants two feet under got disoriented. "What time of day is it?" squeaks one ant. "I'm not sure," says another. "Just go to the light, head toward the light," they intone.

Six in the ground, nine more to go.

Mountain O' Bags

That's what's in the backyard. Husband arrived home from work this evening with his pickup full and asked "Where do you want them all?" I had to decide where I wanted 10 50-lb bags of Composted Black Cow Manure, 10 40-lb bags of Top Soil and 4 3.8 cubic feet bags of Peat Moss. I had not considered where to mix the mass so we piled all the bags in the middle of the back yard. I suppose we'll mix the stuff together and cart it around the property to dump in all the rose pits we dug. Any remaining stuff can just stay put in the middle of the back yard and I'll call that my "raised bed".

I was worried about my roses today, wondering if they had turned into a slimey, limp mass in their mud soup. But no, they looked just great. And a couple have these teeny green bud-looking things along their stems. I was SO relieved that they weren't dead! Tomorrow I'll take a couple pics of the rose pits outside. I need to remember what this place looks like now so I'll enjoy the roses all the more in the future.

I don't know how we're going to mix the giant mountain of soil, peat moss and manure. Too bad Kitchen Aid doesn't make giant mixers. Yeah, I can see it now. My five sons and husband would be beside themselves with glee over such a monstrous, motorized contraption. "Bring 'er on back a couple more feet" I would yell to the flatbed truck backing the Soil Mixer Master toward my little mountain. "Ok, lower her down!" a son would yell to the crane operator. And then finally, the magic words "Let 'er rip!" Where upon the giant mixer, looking like a mutant egg beater/oil rig would begin to churn its way through my little mountain. Ah yes, I can dream.

Better get more gloves so we won't get blisters using the pitch forks tomorrow.

Gravel and Cascadia Petunias

Because of the inclement weather, all we got done today was shoveling about five inches of 5/7 stone in the bottom of each rose bush pit. I decided to make raised beds for 3 of the roses in the backyard because the drainage is so poor. But we already had one hole dug in the middle of the backyard so we threw gravel in it anyway. By the time I build a raised bed over that hole, the rose will be able to sink its roots 4 feet deep if it wants.

The other day I put a lot of Springhill Gardens plants in my shopping cart. There were about 150 flowers, shrubs and greens in all. Then I thought I better call my mom and ask if Springhill is a good company before I submitted my order.

"Dear, dear," she said without even telling me whether Springhill was a good company or not. "Where are you going to put all those plants?" she asked.
I told her my plan. "I'm putting them along the back of the property as a distraction to the deer so they'll leave my roses alone."

After my mom finished laughing hysterically, she said "Why not just buy lettuce? It's a LOT cheaper!"
"Oh! I never thought of that," I said, whereupon she laughed some more.
"J, I hate to tell you this and you're such a sweetheart but the deer will just munch all the lettuce one night and go for your roses the next night."

Hmmph.

I ended up ordering from Springhill afterall. My mom says Springhill is the only company she can find that sells Cascadia Petunias. I'm planning on making some boxes for my deck rail like my mom's. Those gorgeous petunias look like a white waterfall spilling over the railing. Truly remarkable. I also got some miniature roses to go in the boxes with the Cascadia. I'm not sure miniature roses are the best thing but it's too late now. I vaguely recall reading that roses don't like sharing root space with other plants. They better NOT argue.

Cold weather

Well, here it is Saturday and I planned on buying all the mulch, peat moss and top soil today because we have the truck and manpower available. But the weather is not cooperating. And the weather is supposed to get worse before it gets better over the next couple days.

The roses are still in cold water in the garage. I have two choices. To keep the roses in cold water or to plant them. If I keep them in cold water, I won't be able to plant until the icy weather passes on Tuesday or Wednesday. If I plant them now, I'll worry if they survive the possible ice. sigh. Do all gardeners stress like this over their plantings?

They've arrived!

It's too late tonight to give the whole background. I am NOT a gardener. The most I've ever done is a little weeding around perhaps 8 impatiens that I planted. So I'll just quote my expert gardener mom from a phone call a couple weeks ago... "15!!!!!!!! You ordered 15 rose bushes? Oh J, you should call and cancel some of them! You have a LOT of work ahead. You have NO idea what you just did."

Well, they're here. Resting in the dark, cool garage. 5 are covered with water in a cooler and the other 10 are in a big garbage can, their green, prickly canes barely peeking above the muddy water. I barely know what I'm doing. Um, actually, I'm fairly certain that I don't know what I'm doing. But I am hoping and dreaming of festoons of roses, bouquets of roses, glorious cascades of roses around my deck. The scent will fill the house. The scent will fill the yard and maybe even the neighbor's yard. Um, and probably attract deer, which I already hate with a passion and I haven't even seen one this spring yet.

Today we finished digging 7 big holes, each 2 feet across and 18 inches deep. Tomorrow we dig 4 more holes, buy manure, mulch and soil and gravel. This weekend we build the raised beds and install the trellis around the deck and build a pergola. Yep, I can tell I'm in for a wild ride this year. First I have to find out what a pergola is.