Rose is a Four Letter Word

For more than forty years, I have been buying plants for two gardens that Kees, my husband, and I have created in pursuing our golden dreams. One is situated in Hobart, the capitol city of Tasmania, Australia and the other garden is situated south of Hobart and is a very large country garden. We must have happily planted hundreds of plants and personally been responsible in a few nurseries making a profit

When choosing the plants for the gardens, I unconciously think of the following criteria:

1 - I imagine the first question I ask myself, is: Do I like the flower, the colour, the foliage, the form of growing and the perfume?

2 - Are the soil and the weather conditions in our gardens suitable for the plant?

3 - [And this should be the first question but I am being very honest with you!] Is there room for one more plant?

4 - Is the plant easy to look after or does it have picky desires and a weak constitution that will welcome all the viruses and diseases under the sun?

5 - How will the plant look in Summer, Winter, Autumn and Spring?

I wrote the words "unconciously" but I also stated that I would be honest with you. Here is what actually happens.

Kees and Gay enter the nursery to order pine chips. Kees chats to nursery owner. Gay makes a bee-line to the only plant that is being kept by the nursery person for propagation

Gay talks to nursery person. Nursery person admits to having put away, for observation and in a secret place, a few specimens of the plant.

First purchase takes place.

Kees sighs and goes and gets a trolley.

Gay, falling in love with many of the new plants, loads up the trolley.

Gay comes back to the nursery owner and examines all the pots to discuss growing conditions and size of the plant.

Kees reminds Gay to ask herself the No.3 question above.

Gay relunctantly pulls out one plant.

Kees pays.

Scenario over.

Well you may ask yourself "What has that to do with "rose" being a four-letter word?"

If we took any notice of No. 4 and No 5 questions above, we would never plant a rose bush in our gardens. No other plant needs so much work as the rose. It is true that the thrip helps hide the black spot and the plants will be only leafless stalks for six months of the year. So ugly in Winter! Above all, as anyone who has tried to prune a "Mermaid" rose or train a rose up a wall of the house, the family rose will take up more of your precious gardening time than any other genera in the garden

Go To Page: 1 2 3