A Rose Show Photo Contest

My rose society had our annual rose show and this year a photography contest. It does appear the the photo contest did stimulate a good deal of interest from the general public.

We had about 4 folks who entered the contest this year. The winnings were varied, but here's mine:

Honorable Mention: X-Rated, miniature, introduced in 1993. This is a nice little rose and was exceptionally nice for me this year. (Ribbon)










Third Place: Sweet Dream, Floribunda, introduced in 1988. This surprised me as I had always thought that Sweet Dream was a miniature. I had to change the class and status of this rose in my garden. It's a sound rose, with very small miniature sized leaves and blooms that resemble the miniflora (which is where I think this rose should be classed). (Ribbon)






2nd Place: Baronne Prévost, Hybrid Perpetual introduced in 1842. A very lovely, very BIG OGR with the most beautiful fragrance. It is a bit susceptible to black spot, but with a little care is strong and disease resistant throughout the growing season. (Ribbon)







1st Place: Soroptimist International, miniflora, introduced in 1995. A splendid miniflora that can be extremely good. It hold good form longer than most other miniatures and is a very bright and cheery color. (Ribbon)

Best White: Margaret Merril, Floribunda, introduced in 1977. When this rose is good it is really good! I usually have problems with thrips with this rose, often destroying the first flush of the season. A real headache for me. Thrips has got to be the one bug I seriously hate. Margaret also has problems with black spot, but this is easily controlled. Still, she is not a maintenance free rose, but I love her. (trophy award)

Best in Show: Rosa Eglanteria, species rose, introduction actually unknown, but somewhere before or around 1500. This fabulous rose is a show stopper when it's in bloom but it's the leaves and not the flowers that actually harbor the interest. The leaves when wet smell like Granny Smith apples, especially after a rain. When I first got it from a friend who was ill and wanted a good home for it, after a rain I'd walk outside and wonder who was baking the apple pie. In winter the plant still continues to shine with beautiful orange hips which the birds enjoy and can also be used to make rose tea. (trophy award)

I've gotten a number of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and honorable mentions, but this is the first time I'd gotten trophies. It feels good. The winning ribbons and the matching photos will go on the wall with the others. The trophy winners will be put on a different wall to stand out.

It's been a good day.

Feeling Abandoned

I grew up in a world where a silent religious war raged. Being somewhere inbetween the two waring factions, I've always felt pushed away, never really belonging to either. It is something that I've had complexes about, but I've learned to deal with them or at least surpress them.

Lately I've been feeling abandoned. At this moment, I'm not sure which feeling is actually worse, being pushed away or being abandoned. I'll figure it out. I always do, or at least manage to find a way around it.

A Huge Difference

This morning started out the same as most Sunday mornings, but as I was spraying the roses for fungus, it started to drizzle hard enough to send me inside. Later, I finished the spraying and came in just in time to help Husband.

A couple of weeks ago, we decided on which contractor we wanted to remodel the bathroom. This particular contractor came in 20% lower than the next leading, qualified contractor and even gave us more than everyone else. We checked him out thoroughly before signing any contracts. Even with all this, it appears right now that we'll have more than enough money for this project. So we decided to go and splurge on the one thing that the house desperately needed -- a ceiling fan for my office. We went to the local home improvement store and found a Hunter fan that fit the bill. It was only $100 out of the loan package, so it shouldn't interfer.

We put this fan up today. It took us a couple of hours until it was up and running but we were in need of bulbs for the light and fan pulls which is how I will be turning this thing off and on. Actually, the ceiling fans are basically left on 24x7 unless we turn them off to change the season setting and clean them.

The past couple of years, I've spent a lot less time in my office over the summer. The computer here gets so hot and if there's not enough air moving, or the A/C is on, it gets so stuffy in the room that it's hard to breath. The ceiling fan creates the air movement that is needed and helps to keep the computer cooler. It's actually pleasant working in here now.

Now that the pulls are on, the bulbs are in and the house is cleaned up from our construction, this fan looks like it's been here since day one. Being here makes a world of difference in comfort.

After the rain

Taboo, Hybrid Tea introduced in 1993 and rated a rather low to medium 7.3 by the ARS. I have to agree that this rose is more difficult to grow but the blooms (the first nice ones in 4 years) are gorgeous. This is one of the deepest reds I've seen and would rival the very tender (zone 7 and above) Francis Dubruiel. I'm hoping to keep this one a few more years and try to start own-roots from it so I could have several of these, enough to make a nice vase. Put a little baby's breath with it and you will have a most glorious vase. More than once, this rose nearly died on me. It doesn't seem to like getting moved and I've had to move it several times until I found a spot where it did well. It took three years in this spot until it started to establish but now (right now) looks strong, disease resistant and quite lovely.

It rained yesterday, starting right before I left work and continued throughout the evening. There was thunder and lightening with the rain, but it wasn't as threatening as it can get and the rain, though heavy at times, was steady and soaking. Just what we needed for this spring. You can see everything drinking it up, first to recoop what the dry weather had taken from them and now to grow and replace all leaves that have been lost in the past month. I'm expecting to see everything in the garden growing like gangbusters in the next two days. Don'tja just love it!

The weather reports have been telling us about this rain for about a week, so I made sure the systemic was put around for food and bug control. I'm thankful for it. It was badly needed.

So this morning, though the sun is out and it promises to be a hot and steamy day, the dirt is far to wet to be playing in so I will make myself busy with strawberry jam. At least one batch, maybe two. I have plenty of strawberries and many more out there screaming to be picked.