Friday, Nov. 15, 2002 – 5:30 p.m.
2002-11-15 5:30
Catalogs…
Well, its that season again.. no, not the holiday season… Well, ok, yes it is getting to be the holiday season with all the merchandise for sale and Christmas catalogs and the like… However, I am refering to a particular kind of catalog: the rose catalog. The catalogs from the rose vendors are starting to come in. You see, the late fall is the time you order bare root roses from the suppliers so they can ship them in Feb-April of next year (so they show up at about the right time to plant them). So it means it is time to drool over the pictures of new roses and try to decide what, if any, to order.
However, before you order a bush, you should really know where you are going to put it. That assumes one has room in one’s beds for new plants. At this point, I have one spot I definitely know of; the St. Patrick never grew so that spot can get a new bush. I am also thinking that I will “shovel prune” (i.e. dig up) the Angel Face. It just doesn’t bloom and is a rather puny specimen anyway. Of course, there are the two bushes that I can’t identify since they were mislabelled when I bought them. I could take those out (and put in the plants that I was SUPPOSED to get. However, the bushes themselves are quite prosperous. They grew very well and have produced good blooms all season. I hate to get rid of a nice health bush just because I don’t happen to know its name… that would be Rose Abuse!
New Bed?
Of course, one way to resolve where to put bushes is to build a new bed. At present I still need to build the 4th corner bed of the rose garden. Maybe I can get some time over Thanksgiving to dig out the existing grass and put down timbers, assuming the weather is resonable. It would really be best to get the bed done and filled so that the soil has a chance to settle and work (and hydrate) before I put plants in it.
Rain!
Well, the months of October and November (so far) have been pretty wet. We have now back on the plus side for rainfall for the year [YEAH!] but we are still at a deficit from several years of drought. The weather predictors are saying that because of El Nino we will have a cold wet winter which I guess would be good but I am not really looking forward to it. All the more reason to get the bed in!
Well, I did get one last harvest of blooms last week and have been enjoying them in the house all week. I am in a bit of a quandry as to whether to pick the existing blooms (essential continuing to dead head) or let them stay on the bush. Hmmmm… I will have to think about it…