October 4, 2010

A Promise Fulfilled - Even in the Shade

A rose must remain with the sun and the rain or its lovely promise won't come true.  ~Ray Evans  --- No disrespect intended, but malarkey, Mr. Evans.

We all do it, right?  We head out to the nursery at the first glimpse of spring and we think I'm only going to buy what's on my list.   I'm not going to get caught up in the plant buying frenzy in my mind's eye...I'm going to remain neutral, impassive and calm.  Then we get there.  You know what happens.  We're calmly walking the aisles and the air has a chill but the sun holds the promise of spring and the next thing we know, we've spent $134.36 on plants.  Half of which probably won't work in the conditions of our gardens.  But we're optimists, right?  Right!

One such trip to the nursery this past spring brought me face to face with the "Livin' Easy" Rose.  And it was charming.  Of course it was in full bloom when it tempted me and I thought hmmm, this is suited to the Austin climate, resistant to bugs and such.  Hmmm.   Oh yeah, and it needs sun.  S*&#  You see, I really don't have a lot of sun and the sun I do have is brutal - shady until mid-afternoon then unforgiving until sunset.  But I justified the purchase by coming up with the idea to redo the front beds; yes, they have sun! 

Great plan but spring in Austin is but the bat of an eye before the heat sets in and with all the other projects that were already biding for time, the beds were not redone.  So the rose sits in the shadiest part of the garden until I can get to those beds.  It's survived the summer with minimal attention but she's definitely not the charmer that she was this spring.

Until this past week.  Four roses have opened in the last 6 days! Oh. My. Gosh.  You can grow roses in the shade!  Ok, I realize these aren't the best conditions but I'm just saying, they're blooming!  Just imagine how lovely they are going to be when planted in the sun!  I know, I'm sorry, I'm gushing.  But wait til you see these babies!

Just a little bud at first - was pleased but didn't have any idea of the show to come...

As you can see, it gets some dappled sunlight but not much more than 20-30 minutes.

Isn't she a beauty?  You can see why I was charmed, right?


Oh, yeah, I'm getting to work on those beds this fall for sure.

What surprises are you seeing in the garden this fall?

6 comments:

  1. Love that rose! Each of my children chose a rose for my rose garden and Livin' Easy was picked by my carefree, happy, "life's gotta be fun" middle son. You might enjoy reading that post:http://www.thisgrandmothersgarden.com/2010/07/what-lies-down-my-garden-path.html

    Your post is delightful and your pics beautiful.

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  2. Your captures the phases of the rose are gorgeous. Isn't it lovely to have rose blooms at this time of the year?

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  3. The "surprise in my garden" would have to be a second Soap Aloe sending up a bloom stalk (its first ever). Hopefully in a couple of weeks, I'll have two Aloes in bloom.

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  4. What a pretty post! Yes indeed, a charmer.

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  5. That is a beautiful rose. I know what you mean about sticking to the list at the nursery...it is very hard to do!

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  6. Ha ha - good story about going to the nursery with good intentions !! I think most of us have done that.

    I bought a wisteria last year on a whim - it almost died and didn't look anything like the picture by the end of the year. This spring I was close to ripping it out and consigning it to the compost pile because it looked dead - it must have heard me because it came to life and is finally growing - now almost 5' tall !

    Beautiful rose - what a nice surprise !

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