"Sine labore nihil"

(Nothing without work)
I have been missing my helper... without Madame Lash here cracking her whip I can be VERY slack!! LOL...

Seriously tho... a few things have been happening in her absence... Victoria brought me around some orphans the other day... 4 standard Iceberg roses that her neighbour was throwing out... I really hate seeing good healthy plants end up in the bin. Most of my roses came from Victoria's garden. When they were renovating and extending I dug up all of the roses that I could and transplanted them here...couldn't bear to think of such a collection going to the tip. A surprisingly large number survived. I remember the last day of the retrieval... I was scurrying around trying to keep out of the way of the excavator in 40+ degrees of heat... I was obviously a lot younger then!

There was one grand old rose that I was determined to bring home and give another chance at life... 'Peace'... sentimental ideology on the rampage here folks!! The rose was as big as a lemon tree and I seriously doubted that even if I could some how get it home whether it would survive. I needed the excavator to cut it free...3' diameter root ball which I then trimmed to get into the car. The bush itself I had previously pruned radically [>3' off all round]to a similar size. It was then carted home hanging over the tailgate of the car [root ball was in the car] and placed directly into the hole that was waiting for it. I treated it for shock and coddled it like you wouldn't believe.

As you can see she is a very grand old lady... very gnarled and still hasn't had her winter prune... Despite her neglect she has great big buds forming everywhere and will be a riot of big blousy flowers in a a few days. This foliage is about 5' of the ground... as you can see I am looking upwards. Next year I am going to try and prune her right back and remove a lot of the old wood.

I was relieved to see this standard rose start to shoot madly... I really cut it back harder than I have ever cut a rose back before and at the time I wondered if I had overdone it - such a relief to see all the fresh 'disease' free burgundy growth. This is the white flowering rose in the corner of the bed in the picture in the previous post.






This makes me SOoooooo happy... I have foxgloves outside my bedroom window again. Such Joy... There are two deep burgundy coloured ones in the foreground and a paler one [lavender throat] in the background. I will take another photo in a few days when a few more of the flowers on the spires have opened.

and now I need to put my money where my mouth is... go and prove my devotion to my garden by doing some work...