Musings

Lavaglut. Floribunda rose. Dark Red. 24 petals. Introduced in 1978. Rated at 8.7 out of 10 as a good garden rose. I have to admit, it's impressing me! It's a smallish rose with just as small blooms but it's a true workhorse in my garden. I have two bushes that I had gotten from the garden of a friend who has passed away and this year, each bush has been covered in bloom, rolling from one flush to the next without a break. The disease resistance is also impressive. Of course, I still spray it for blackspot and mildew but it is still cleaner than some others. I recall my friend telling me that these bushes are own-root, having gotten them from a nursery we commonly know for having own-root roses. My friend had them for one year, but never took care of them because his health wouldn't allow him. I've had them for one year, they've doubled their size and are looking very healthy.

I spent the weekend relaxing. No cleaning for this girl. Instead, yesterday we took a ride to the stepson's to pick up some barn siding he had for his dad. They live in a rather small bi-level house with three bedrooms which stepson had one for his office. Well, with a third baby coming, they need the office as a bedroom so he started cleaning it out and tearing it out. They will redesign it for the second daughter, Hanna, who will be 4 on her next birthday the end of this month. Any more babies and they will need to get a bigger house. It's hard to believe how rapidly these children are growing. Abigail Marie is 8. It won't be long until she's a teenager and driving. She's already had her first driving lesson at the age of 2. Abby has turned into a lovely sweet child. Hanna is a bit more tempermental. She has a temper that could melt lead and hasn't figured out how to handle it yet. When she finally starts preschool which should be soon, she will mellow out some.

While out, we also made the rounds to the local Home Depot and Lowe's. The last time we were at Home Depot, I was rather disappointed but this time I actually found two shasta daisy's that looked quite healthy so I got them for the back perennial bed. At Lowe's, I found a Julia Child rose, the very last one, on sale for half price and being a rose fanatic, I couldn't leave it behind. On returning home, we planted our new arrivals and got them safely secure before the storms came. They are doing fine today.

I've gotten a good bit of the deadheading done, but still have a good bit to go. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it this week and start over again. Weeds, deadhead, weeds, deadhead, weeds, deadhead and so on.