A Must Read

I have room for one more shade tree. I want this shade tree to be a special tree; a native tree; one that would envoke the company of the creatures that live in this area. I'm figuring it will be some time until I find the tree that I want for my back yard. In my search I found this:

http://www.elmpost.org/chestnut.htm

I saw this tree and almost cried. I've never seen one of these trees before, not in person anyway and the majesty of it even in the picture is awesome. It's the story of the species of tree that is so very sad. After knowing what I missed, dare I ask if we have learned from history? To have one of these majesties in my back yard would be an honor, though it be a dream. Maybe my grandchildren will be able to see these trees in their mature form again, but I won't. Even if scientists are able to develop this tree with disease resistance, I could never live long enough to see them come to their mature state. This made me sad for never being able to know something this beautiful and for the eco system that perished along with it.

This really strengthened my resolve to plant plants that belong around here. Beauty Berries instead of Butterfly Bushes and native trees rather than the imported ones from other lands. In my area there are lots of woods. No more chestnut trees, but I live in one of those pockets that weren't infected by the Dutch Elm disease and the elms grow nicely and strong around here. I planted a wisteria, native to Eastern US, rather than the Chinese or Japanese varieties. It's not as fragrant, large, nor are the flowers quite as showy, but it still has the effect desired. I really like the plant. I'm also taking my shade tree selections from the varieties I see in our woods; Elms, Ash, Poplar, Oak, Maple, Sycamore and Sassafrass.

This story is about a loss that this country will never be able to recoop from. To much has been lost. Now, we're desperately trying not to loose another very important part of our eco system. I hope this time we are successful.

Night Shots

Back In The Day

Working days gives one a whole different look on the world. The team that I work with enjoys joking and sharing trivia mostly as well as knowledge. One girl who has since retired, always enjoy every question by asking Jeves (Ask.com). She was a wealth of information and trivia.

One of my favorite sayings that flies around the prepress room is "Back In The Day." I find this an interesting comment and it's usually associated with a time when I was young, single and before.

Name a few things that were "Back In The Day." A few things for me were....

The TV shows, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeanie and Bonanza
White Wall Tires
The soap opera, Dark Shadows
Going to hops
Music from John Lenon, Beach Boys, Monkeys, The Osmonds and Dianna Ross
The Moody Blues
Woodstock
57 Chevys and those back seats

All these things were "Back In The Day." Let me know what you remember.

All Partied Out

This little rose looks like Cherries Jubiliee, but I can't be sure. There was no name tag with it but it quite lovely and I do wish I knew the variety of it. I'd like to have it for my garden. That says a lot since I'm not much for striped roses.

This week was a week away from the job. Oh, I'd been planning things for some time for this week. It started out with a cocktail party at a neighbor's house. A very lovely evening was to be had. The following day, Sunday was a party with my family where we decided on some things that needed the attention of all of the siblings. Also, my sisters wanted to wander through the garden to see what I had planted there. It was another lovely day, but exhausting. Then Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were days spent on repairs and finishing some projects.

Thursday, we had old friends over for dinner. Oh, what a lovely time we had. This particular friend was someone I'd lost touch with for many years. I think it was decided that we shouldn't lose touch again, because we immediately set a date for the next dinner party. Dinner, Thursday, was held out on the deck with Linda and I wandering around the garden for at least an hour before settling down to eat. Dinner lasted for about 3½ hours before we said our goodbyes until the next dinner, next month.

Friday was a trip up to Hershey Botanical Gardens on a camera run. We have a huge National photography contest coming up and we needed material to enter. I have a lot of roses in my garden, but none that I would want to enter, so we took this trip to Hershey Botanical Gardens to get some material. We took 124 photographs of roses, and going through them I've gotten a good number of possible entries. I was surprised to see that Hershey Botanical Gardens had raised their price of admission this year from $5 to $10.

I was impressed with their roses this year. Usually when we go, I find only one or two that I think I would like to have in the garden. This year was different. I don't know if they started spraying their roses, or if the dry year has been good to them, but those roses, all 2000 of them looked great! Husband and I were in agreement when we saw several that MUST be in the garden. We also got some great ideas for annual beds. Right now, though, I have some tulips and daffs that need planted and they will come first.

Friday was also the day that everything else happened. The contractor who had done our bathroom remodel for us came with the finishing touches. The repair man showed up with our lawn tractor that had been in the shop for service. It was a busy day.

Tomorrow, Sunday again, will be a party with the kids and the grandkids. This too, I'm sure, will be a wonderful party. But, I must say, after this, I'm going to be partied out for awhile. There is a lot of getting ready for entertaining and I'm quite tired.

Tuesdays will be back to the job. Maybe the next week off the job we'll go to Longwood Gardens. I'd been there only once this year and another trip is warranted. We'll go on a Tuesday when admission is discounted. Admission is a bit pricy at Longwood, but it is well worth it. The place is wonderful.

Fall Roses

Tomorrow is the auction for HOSPICE. I plan on attending that. Will there be roses there? I don't know. If there are and I'm interested, I'll bid on them. Actually, I'm going to take a chance on the door prize -- a car. The car I have is a good one though it is 11 years old now. But if I could get a new one for the same payments that I have now, I'll take it. Oh, BTW, my car has been paid off for the past 6 years or more. Any plants I find that I want for the garden is just an added plus.

However, it has been decided on two new roses beds for the garden. They are small ones. Husband is building an entry arbor for the patio. There will be room for one climber. For this spot, I've chosen Dublin Bay - 1975, McGredy, Bantry Bay x Altissimo. http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/pl.php?n=1635

The other rose bed will be the border of the garden (that will soon be turned into a nursery for beginning plants). There might be room for four roses there, but for now I've chosen two to put back there.

City of York - 1929, Tantau, Professor Gnau x Dorothy Perkins http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/pl.php?n=1205 I love the fragrance of this wonderful climber and have been searching for a spot for it for years.

Summer Wine - 1985, Kordes, parentage unknown http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/pl.php?n=6022, yet another rose that I discovered years ago and have been looking for a place for it.

For the new patio arbor, Husband wanted red. We have two beautiful yellow growing nicely and starting to impress me called Scent From Above - 2005, Chris Warner, Laura Ford X Amanda (Breeder unidentified) http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/pl.php?n=46190 as well as my most precious, light pink/white blend, New Dawn - 1930, Summerset Rose Nursery, Sport of Dr. W. Van Fleet, http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/pl.php?n=4460

I told Husband I wouldn't order these three new roses until after the HOSPICE auction, but I just might go ahead and order them anyway. I want these three roses for the garden. Two of them I've wanted for years and the third, well, that might be the only one that could possibly be donated to the auction, but I don't think so. Even so, the ones I order will be own-root which I strongly prefer anyway.

Today's Job

Queen of the Prairies, found rose, Hybrid Setigera.
Hybrid of Rosa setigera Michaux, (1843) by Samuel Feast.

It was two springs ago. I was at a usual haunt, the Landis Valley Historic Herb festival always held Mother's Day. There are tons of vendors there selling just about everything that has to do with gardens. I love going there. Lots of plants of every kind, but especially herbs. I get many of my speciality herbs such as Lovage and the lovely yellow tomato, Golden Queen.

One of the vendors there is an heirloom rose grower. He comes every year and sells such beauties as New Dawn, the Apocarathey's Rose, Rose de Rescht, and others. Two springs ago I got a found rose called Queen of the Prairies. It was the only one he had so I got it. Being a found rose, there is no record of it's history, or it was once lost and then found again in someone's homestead, back 40, completely forgotten about until a rose lover found it one day and took cuttings. It would be a rose no longer in production.

It's amazing I even bought it. The woman who sold it to me had very little knowledge of it and was very vague about it's origination. She said she found it in someone's back yard and took a few cuttings. It intriqued me. It was so very tiny Husband was afraid it wouldn't make it. I knew it was an old rose, but really wasn't sure if it was a climber, rambler or what. I planted it in the back 40 of my property where it was instantly forgotten. On occasion I would remember it and check on it but in all honesty, it more or less was neglected (and I don't hardly ever neglect a rose).

This spring I wandered back there to start the spring clean up which was horrendous. Since I had switched shifts at work last year, I had completely neglected that entire bed. I began cleaning out the weeds and ran across this tiny rose. I was totally amazed that it had not only survived the winter, but had no winter death on it at all. It had already begun to grow, even from the utmost points of the two little canes.

This morning it was time to tackle this now monster as it grew way out of control all summer and was throwing canes up to 20 ft. long everywhere! Husband tried to tie it to the fence but to no avail (he wouldn't prune the thing) and ended up running over some of the longer canes with the lawn tractor. I went back there armed with gloves, twine, sissors, pruners and a shovel. This rose was between to maiden grasses and a ton of weeds, some larger than myself. The shovel was for the largest of the weeds. The twine was to tie up the rose; the sissors to cut the twine; and the pruners to prune the long, thick canes.

The longest of the canes that were sheared off by the tractor, were pruned to good growth and tied to the fence. The wayward canes that simply shot out without any kind of mission, were pruned off completely. Canes that didn't seem to want to go where I wanted them to were also pruned away. In the end, I had a huge rambler of about eight canes that stretched over 25 feet of fence on two rails.

It did bloom for me this year, though it was so out of hand, the blooms were hard to get to. I do understand that as this rose grows and matures, it's blooms will get better. For now, it's turned out to be one amazing plant. Like my every precious New Dawn, the Queen doesn't get black spot, powdery mildew or seem to suffer from the usual insects. All it does is grow. This year it has bloomed only once but if it is what I think it is, one a year is all the bloom cycles I'll get from it. But it blooms before the grasses get going and it will undoubtedly be quite the beauty next year.

Husband wants a bunch of the Queen simply because of the amount (or lack of it) of care she's needed. Though not many prickles, she is still a handful. I'm really glad I did buy this rose. I will return to Landis Valley next year to seek out the Heirloom Rose grower and tell him that the Queen of the Prairies I purchased two years ago turned out to be one of the best roses in this area since New Dawn.

I am very impressed.