A rose by any other name.
You probably know that rose bushes have NAMES. I love the "Peace" rose, but it doesn't grow well in my yard. Over the years several different roses have been tried. Soil was amended to help, but in most cases the aphids and black spot fungus take their toll.
However there is one rose that I absolutely LOVE and it's name is "Rio Samba." I had one about 10 years ago that just grew and grew without insecticide, without fungicide, and pretty much without watering. Then, a neighbor had a tree company come cut down one of his trees. They let a limb SMASH through the middle of that gorgeous rose bush and it never recovered.
Maybe 2 or 3 years ago I saw a new one for sale and scooped it up. It has been planted in the same spot and has just been thriving. Again, very little help on my part.
From the picture I hope you will see why I love this rose so much. The blooms open up yellow, mature orange, and die red. And all of these colors are on the bush at the same time. If you click on the picture you will see how many buds there are waiting to open.
posted by Tim B. @ 2:17 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I never heard of such a flower. Sounds wonderful.
That rose bush is absolutely beautiful, Grandma Rosie would ge so proud of you.
Mom
I love it too. How beautiful! Good job.
Could you quantify 'very little' I would love a bush or two like that but somehow I doubt our ideas of very little are the same.
Well, I may fiddle with the bush for about 5 minutes a week, or less.
Almost every workday I make some coffee. I take the leftover grounds and rinse them off of the filter and into the pot. When I get ready to go somewhere I take that "swill" and pour it at the base of the rose bush. Again, not every day. but 2 or 3 times a week is normal. There is usually only about 3-4 cups of water in the pot.
Then, some other day, when there are a good handful of spent roses I take pruning shears, a McDonalds napkin, and a bottle of rubbing alcohol out to the bush. I pour a little alcohol onto the napkin and work it in until the whole napkin is wet. Then cut off a flower, wipe off the shears with the napkin, and repeat. The reason for this is that the shears could pick up a microscopic bit of fungus when you make a cut, which could be transferred into the NEXT cut if you don't wipe with alcohol. It takes about another half minute to take the spent flowers to the little burning area that I have set up.
That usually takes about 3 or 4 minutes and isn't even done every week. So, tops I would say less than 5 minutes a week. A bottle of rubbing alcohol from a Dollar Store could probably last for several YEARS.
Planting the bush took more time and weeding around there every month or so is another couple of minutes. I enjoy it because the look and smell is wonderful and it s easy to maintain. Keeping it weed free, in fact, could be done when I pour out the coffee grounds, and is easier than pulling a ton of weeds at once. But when the area is mulched the weeds don't grow there so readily.
Seriously, get one and play with it. If you don't like it, let it go or ask someone else if they would like to take it away.
Tim, There are some people who do not get that much nuturing.
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