First, The Roses!

This might be the year of the roses for me who knows! I don't think my roses have ever bloomed as good as this or maybe I'm just noticing them more because I missed them so much over the winter. I call these my magic roses because they change color. They bud and open yellow and get pinker as they age. They never disappoint me with their bloom each year.

Music Box

I used to dream about having a rose garden in my side yard. When we moved in 38 years ago the only thing in that space was a bunch of weeds and a trash barrel, I kid you not. It wasn't long after that I started to plan my rose garden and high hopes began to spring up. 

Music Box

But every tea rose I planted over the first five years or so did not make it past the following winter. I just didn't know what kind of roses to plant. So I planted other things. Rose of Sharon grew great, lilies, various flowers, annuals and perennials came and went and then one day I discovered a barely blooming rose on the fence under one tree in the front yard. It wasn't getting enough light so I dug it up, divided it into 4 smaller plants and planted them in the side yard.

Music Box

I later found out because it wasn't getting enough sun, it didn't want to bloom. But in the side yard, it took off. And I mean it climbed over the garage next door. It took it 2 or 3 years to get established and then it went crazy - all four bushes grew crazy. So I looked it up and it turned out to be an old fashioned English cottage rose named "Constance Spry". It said it was a huge invasive rose to be grown not for the faint of heart. The flowers are cup shaped and very fragrant. It said it will cover your cottage if you don't keep it cut back every year. And they were right. These monster roses I planted turned out to be ten to twelve foot tall and the did go over the gutters of my neighbors garage and onto their roof so I had to cut them back after a few years. This is the kind of rose you see in fairy tales where you can't get through the thickets of thorns to get into the castle to save the princess. They were too hard to manage back then so they had to go, and they only bloomed for about two weeks out of the year and you had to wait another whole year to see the show again. Digging them up was a war with the thorns!

Constance Spry

I eventually cut them down, dug them up and got rid of them, all except for one I moved to a different sunny spot in the front yard and I keep it cut back to a shrub. I have two deep roots of it that still spring up in the side yard and they just will not die! A cottage rose never again! Be careful what you wish for.

Snowdrift

Then I eventually a few years ago discovered shrub roses named Easy Elegance and boy are they. They said they were so easy to grow that anyone could do it. Guaranteed to grow! Hard to kill! That's for me. I remember they were expensive but I managed to get two of them. One is called "Music Box" and the other one "Snowdrift". They are the most gorgeous things I've ever seen in my life and they smell good. 

I have a knockout rose that grows like a shrub too but doesn't get very tall and it is covered with pink roses like a rose fountain every year at the first bloom. It blooms all summer but not like the first flush. This picture was taken right after a rain. It looked better the day before.

Pink Knockout Rose

And I have one yellow rose that got planted over - I forgot it was there when I planted a Chinese Lilac almost on top of it. It blooms one yellow rose on a four foot stem every year and that's it. I think I'll have to move it because of the lilac taking all the nutrients out of the soil and it can't get what it needs.

Music Box is my favorite and the roses are the first to bloom this year because the Iris didn't. I'll have to dig them up and divide them if I want Iris blooms next year on those. A few of last year's geraniums are starting to bloom and then I think the hydrangeas will be next since they have buds coming on right now. 

I'm busy planting my fancy geraniums in boxes and hanging baskets. My orchids and African violets are busy blooming indoors and I can't wait for the new geraniums to bloom since I started them last fall from seeds. They are not just regular geraniums, they are fancy bi-colors. I think they will be gorgeous.

And of course you know I tucked a few tomato plants, bell pepper and my favorite herbs in there too.