You came back! You came back!

Remember how I said my Disneyland rose didn't make it through the winter? I was truly convinced it was a goner. All of the wood was dead. Fortunately my procrastination habit has finally paid off! I didn't pull it out of the ground. I'm not sure if it's because I was dreading dealing with the thorns or I was hoping for a miracle, but it sat there untouched.

Last weekend I went out and bought a new rose. I'm no rosarian (and I think I'll just go on record now and say I'll never be one), so when I saw one from a series called "Easy Elegance" with a big "Two-year guarantee" tag on it, I grabbed a pretty coral-pink one called Kiss Me. It came blooming and the fragrance is incredible. Hopefully I'll be able to make it bloom again, since it's pretty much done for this year, I fear.

Then I went out and bought another rose. I don't know why. I think it's because I secretly covet those English roses with huge petal counts. So I bought one. Windemere. It's sort of a cream color. I don't even really like white roses, so don't ask me what came over me.

Anyway, I was about to start digging to plant my two new acquisitions, and I look down and lo and behold what is coming out of the ground but tiny sprouts on my Disneyland rose. The old babe made it after all! My shock subsided as I realized I now needed to find another space in my garden for a rose, since I was planning on planting one of the two new ones in Disneyland's spot.

Anyway, now this girl who truly is clueless when it comes to roses but still oddly fascinated by them, or maybe by the challenge of them, has FIVE roses. I can't believe it. Since three are new this year I think the real test will be to count how many roses I have next spring!

Easy Elegance "Kiss Me" came to me flowering. Its scent is even more intoxicating than its blooms. But will it live? It's got a two-year guarantee (provided I can manage to hang onto the reciept that long), but who knows.

P.S. The title of this post is a Wizard of Oz reference, in case you didn't catch it or haven't seen the movie about 800 times as I have.

How'd I do?

Friday I posted a long list of weekend gardening chores. The weather this weekend was stellar, which we deserved after the previous weekend's 2.5 inches of rain. Here's how I did:

• Edge all beds - DONE. They look great. I don't like edging, but nothing cleans up a garden like fresh edges. (Note: I'm just looking at that picture. It looks like I might have been drunk while edging!)
• Finish weeding beds — Not done. Almost ... but not quite. Plus, there will certainly be more weeds to follow so this isn't really something you can just check off and be done with.
• Plant tree peonies — Done. I planted three: A dark red, a dark pink and a light pink. They came bare root and my understanding is that it's not a great time to plant bare root tree peonies (fall is better), but they were about $7.50 each through the co-op. There's no way I was going to pass that deal up. I hope they do well. I'm guessing if they think about blooming this year (unlikely), I should cut the buds off to focus all the energy into the roots, right?
• Divide daylilies— Nope. But I only have one that needs dividing so this a good after-work project.
• Determine if the Disneyland rose made it through the winter—Well, I didn't pull it out of the ground because I'm hoping for a miracle, but I think it's dead. I don't get what happened. I bought it potted at the nursery and planted it at the level it was in the pot. (Was that correct?) I'm pretty sure it's an own-root rose. This winter I mounded soil around it's crown, caged it and mulched it heavily (as in 18 inches deep) with shredded leaves. Not one stem is alive and there are no signs of life there. This happened with the last floribunda rose I planted too. I think I'm the only person the world who grows roses as annuals. I may very well replace that Disneyland. It was GORGEOUS last summer. And probably worth the $15 it cost even if it only lives one summer. I sure wish someone could tell me what I'm doing wrong though.
• Deal with "The pit of despair"—Nope. Still a pit. Still full of despair.
• Plant peas, lettuce and maybe beets — Check, check and check!
• Hopefully take a trip to Caan's garden center—Done! By about 2:30 p.m. yesterday I was so stiff I could barely move, so even though there was lots left to do in the garden, I ran up there for a bit of a break. Boy was I disappointed. They only had two of the six perennials I was looking for, so I picked up three variegated Solomon's Seal, and a Baptisia, and a hanging plant for my mom for Mother's Day (trust me, you do not want to be at a nursery specializing in hanging containers on Mother's Day weekend).

All in all it was a pretty good gardening weekend. But gardens should come with chiropractors!

A big weekend

Since last weekend was pretty much rained out, I have a long list of things to do in the garden this weekend. Here's just a few:

• Edge all beds
• Finish weeding beds (groan)
• Plant tree peonies
• Divide daylilies
• Determine if the Disneyland rose made it through the winter. It's not looking good.
• Deal with "The pit of despair"—the bed on the side of the house that I've done nothing with because hopefully some day we'll be putting a deck there. It has become sort of a holding bed but it's gross, so I'm going to pull the weeds that are there and cover it all in mulch. At least it won't be gross.
• Plant peas, lettuce and maybe beets (have to check the timing on those) in the veggie garden. I'm way late on the peas and the lettuce already!
• Hopefully take a trip to Caan's garden center. I wanted to go up for their Spring Expo last weekend but it was so miserable out, I just couldn't do it. This weekend they have buy 10 perennials, get two free and a sale on flats of annuals. Not sure I should be buying that many perennials right now and it's a bit early for annuals (and the "greenhouse" is getting crowded), but I'm sure I won't walk away empty handed.

That's a pretty ambitious list. Frankly, I'll be thrilled if I get the edging and weeding done.

So, what are you up to in your garden this weekend?

(Photo courtesy of Flickr)