The roses have started to bloom!

The white are a wild rose bush I found growing elsewhere in the garden and moved. The red are old fashioned ramblers that came with the house.

Heirloom Plants

It may not be much to look at now but the rose bush pictured above is destined to be one of my favorites, or perhaps I should say,  always has been. 

My brother is selling our family home so this past Sunday he and I met to perform a final walk though and see if there was anything we wanted to take with us.  The house had been cleaned out long ago but one thing I hadn't though of until the very last minute was my Aunt Mary's garden.

When we were growing up, we lived in the middle apartment of our three decker with my Aunt Mary above us and my Aunt Connie and Uncle Paul below us.  They all tended our back yard diligently.  Over the years since their passing a patio and lawn encroached on the original flower borders they had set up but a few plants survived the rose bush above,

along with some common orange day lilies

 and variegated hostas that  grew by our back door.

The hostas have been planted by my current back door, mirroring their original spot.  The day lilies are now in a bed viewable from the window above my kitchen sink (a spot I spend a lot of time in) and the rose bush is by my front gate, where it will greet me every time I enter or leave the house.

New roses ordered for Spring!

Cardinal de Richelieu

Pompon Blanc Parfait

Variegata di Bologna

Winters coming, followed by Arlene Francis!

Soaring Flight

And in advance of it's onset I've been spending a lot of time in the garden cleaning up leaves from this season and prepping for spring. Last year at this time I was widening flower beds and adding Hostas, the previous year Id ripped out the front lawn and replaced it with a bed of bulbs and Vinca.

Darlow's Enigma

The current project is to add more roses. I inherited a few roses form the previous owner when I purchased the house. Of unknown origin and some being in very tricky places for roses to grow I'm wondering if more than a few had been self seeders. In any even this time I am doing it right. I've been mapping the garden and picking prime locations. I've been prepped all the beds for next spring, spading, loosening and enriching with manure and fertilizer. However, the most fun has been been pouring over rose catalogs with the avidness of a teenage boy and a newly discovered porn stash.

Alchemist

Celebrating the new job and FINALLY being able to refinance I'm allowing myself to splurge . As of last count we're talking 17 rose bushes, mostly antique varieties. The biggest find was tracking down a grower who still offered the Arlen Francis Rose in stock. Bred by Eugene S. 'Gene" Bourner in 1957 and named after the Love Arlen herself. Alas, is no longer a popular selling variety you but can still acquire one by requesting a cultivated bare root.

Arlene Francis

Arlene Francis

It's long been the holy grail of roses for me, mostly for sentimental reasons. My Aunt's Mary & Connie, who had introduced me to the joys fo gardening had grown yellow roses, as well as introducing me to Arlen Francis through our nightly viewing of What's my Line.


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