Pink Roses

The roses have been spectacular this year.   This pink one blooms at the roadside and this year we noticed that we had not one, but three of them.   

Seriously adorable.

Look how cute those rosebuds are!

If you've still got some roses, try making some Rose Petal Jam.  

Or harvest the petals when at full bloom and after the dew has dried off of them.   Spread them out on paper and let them dry until they're crisp. Use for potpourri.

If you're in a humid climate like mine, then dry them until they're leathery, and combine them with some rock salt and dried orris root [powder or chopped].  That potpourri will last for 50 years or more. 

Tent Caterpillars Revisited

Remember the tent caterpillars I talked about a couple of weeks ago?   Kind of eww, kind of cool.


We've got rather a lot of them this year.  They've emerged from their tents and are eating everything in their path.    These guys are on a chokecherry tree. 

All that was left were a few blooms on the tips of the branches.  The caterpillars had eaten every leaf.   Look at the pic above again.   See what I mean?

Then they dropped to the ground where they gathered by the hundreds [at least] on the multiflora roses.   The roses are pests, too and heaven knows there's enough of them to share, but it's still kind of eww to see that many munching crunching caterpillars all over them.

You can hear the munching and crunching. [shudder]  At which point the eww factor far exceeds the cool factor. 

Nest in the Roses

We noticed this nest in the middle of a huge rose bush.  It must have been quite safe from most predators.   

Rosehips

Since our property is covered with multiflora roses, in the fall we get loads of rosehips.   They're beautiful and the only thing that keeps me from spraying every rose bush that I find.

They're pretty in bunches, in a vase.    And the birds love them.    Wait until you see them with snow!

Roses

Rosa rugosa

It's not easy for us to grow roses here.   The problem is, in a word:  clay.

Clay and roses don't really work together.   Roses need good drainage.   The first rule of planting a rose is to dig the hole, then fill it with water [before you put the rose in] to see how long it take for the water to drain away.   The better the drainage, the happier the rose.

When we moved here and started digging the garden beds, I double dug the bed I wanted to put roses in.   Double digging is where you remove the top soil, then dig down another foot or so and loosen everything up and amend the soil, yada, yada, yada.

The trouble was that we were digging down into clay.  My dad came over, took one look at the hole and said, 'You've dug a swimming pool.  That water is never going to drain.'    He was right, dammit.   It rained that night and that water stayed in there for freaking ever.

We tried roses on the terraces, but they didn't like that either.    Then we transplanted some old roses that Eric rescued from a job and they did fine.   And we got some rugosas and they've done fine, too.   Roses can do just fine here.  We just had to find tougher roses.

And don't get me started on those blasted multiflora roses that they wild planted in the midwest to feed the birds.   They grow here, too.

Last week, Eric and I went to war against a giant multiflora that turned out to be a linked community of them an acre across, with canes 80 feet high and thorns the length of your arm.    They were smart, too and fought back.  I have verily been wounded by one!   The blood!  Oh, the horror!

OK.

I might be exaggerating a little. 

But only a little.

The roses were linked.   There were about 8 of them.   The canes were only 15 feet or so high and the thorns were the big scary rose bush size.   The rest of the story is absolutely true.

I swear.