That Roses Link Does Not Work....Hmmmmm

Well if you'd like to see that pic of my Denver home and roses do as I did...go to Google and type in:
1684 Willow Street Denver CO 80220


That was my first home (not counting my mobile home I owned in Tampa in the 1980s) and nice that I paid $53,000 for that little 829 square foot house in 1987, its equity (I made countless extra principal payments over the years) bought THIS home for $60,000 cash November of 1998, and I sold it for $153,500 JUST before the bottom fell out. Oh those were some hard yet heady years out there, trapped in that horrid climate by a VERY upside down mortgage for many years until things turned around. But how that home made my current ease, and love of Old Roses possible, is sweet poetic justice. John

Own Root Roses Still Thriving At My Old Denver Home!

Thanks to a heads up from my long time customer and friend Donna Bevis, I learned of this photo taken some June (which year I'd love to know) of my home in Denver where I fell in love with own root Old Roses in 1989. I moved out November of 2002, it was a poorly maintained rental for two years, but just look at all those roses! This picture evokes a whole ocean of memories. John

http://www.homes.com/Home-Prices/ID-500012432738/1684-WILLOW-ST/

'Conrad Ferdinand Meyer' in Tampa

Despite humid heat hitting the upper 90s, my three year old plant in a 15 gallon Water Wise Container Garden has sent out a wave of new growth and this first bloom. That smell!!! In Denver my plant was utterly cold hardy and HUGE, You can buy it from the good folks at The Antique Rose Emporium   1-800-441-0002.  John

New Roses for Former 'Mermaid' Bed

Today I plan on choosing from my inventory out back likely candidates to be planted in 5 gallon Water Wise Container Gardens then buried in that bed that currently is home to "Pink Cracker Rose", "Walnut Street Yellow" (a Wichuraina Rambler found in Boulder by Mikl and Eve Brawner of Harlequins Gardens nursery there) and a recently purchased own root Mystery Rose that I suspect is 'Belinda'. I am leaning towards 'General Jacqueminot', 'Mrs. B. R. Cant', 'Nastarana' and a few other shrubs, plus will choose two climbers for the two naked rebars in that bed. I am planting annuals and perennials in between the roses, with daylilies and Louisiana Iris in buried 4 gallon Water Wise Container Gardens due to their thirsty natures. I recently had a big pile of beautiful mulch delivered by Independent Tree Service here in Tampa and am swathing the front beds with it, then redoing the pathways with nice fresh red pine needles I rake from my neighbor Theresa's yard.

One new problem is troubling...the heat and the rain we HAVE gotten has made a weed I LOATHE re-emerge in the bed nearest my front doorn and the adjoinng path...nut sedge! Once again I can pull and pull and it persists, coming up right THROUGH the carpet in the pathways....arrgghhh! I will likely resort to my home made answer to Round Up that is based on pure glyphosate but with NO scary adjuvants.....I have for years called it "Weedz-B-Fucked" and I feel okay using it after spending 18 months in Denver investigating Glyphosate vs. Round Up. I'd LOVE to eliminate that damn sedge once and for all.

I am likely cutting down then digging up 'Newport Fairy' as not only did it not bloom at all this spring despite a cold winter, it is HUGE and has die-back. I can just imagine 'Crepuscule' in a buried 5 gallon Water Wise Container Garden in its place.

Now off to tackle weeds and progagate Moringa Tree and my own hybrid roses plus pot up edible passion fruit vines and more.


John