Lessons From The Garden

This impossibly perfect and beautiful rose (Mt. Hood), blooming away, with hardly any attention, or water, or pruning. And indignities of indignities, growing in a trash can! What a trooper, eh?! We dug this rose bush up last year, when we thought the new patio/deck supports were going to get done, with cement pouring and all the mess and destruction that entails. The rose bush would have been decimated, so we dug and dug and got it all out and plopped it in the trash can to move to another part of the garden.And there it sits, next to the holes dug for deck post supports, surrounded by the dry weedy patch that is dug out to become the patio under said deck. Eventually. As we have postponed cement has gotten even more expensive (along with the fuel to transport it, duh). Hmmmm. Maybe I should put the rose back in the ground? It seems pretty happy in the trash can. I guess I could probably learn something from this couldn't I? Bloom where you're planted and all that. Thriving in adversity. Producing beauty no matter what your circumstances.

Then there are the smug daylilies that didn't have to get moved or messed with. They are unfortunately quite crispy today after several 100F+ days in a row. I need to plant some different colors, all of mine are this very agressive red/orange which I like, but I'd like to see some variety out there in the border. A garden lesson here too I'm sure, how about: "Don't always do the same thing, you'll bore your audience."

These roses are always a surprise every year. I never know what exact color to expect, or how much they'll be scented. This year, much more orange-ish and very heavily perfumed. I've got three on the table near my computer and it smells so heavenly. Another lesson to learn: always keep 'em guessing!
The Rose Of Sharon tree/bush is struggling mightily in its battle with the onslaught of Jasmine. The Jasmine is trampling this lovely plant in its effort to get up into the oak tree that is nearby. Whatta garden thug, good thing it has such great flowers and scent! I can learn from both of these plants: Never Give up! It is always worth trying! Side note: I'm so glad I looked this up to stick a link in, turns out the flowers are edible, as it is a form of hibiscus, I'm so making some hibiscus tea, more on that later...
The fence is aswarm with the wild sweet pea that grows in spring and summer. It has no scent unfortunately, but it is a great looking flower that will grow in places that I'm not attending to. The cypress/junipers marching along do pretty well for never getting watered. I like how they define that edge of the garden.

Up behind the sweet pea is the enormous cherry tree which actually produced some tasty cherries (the ones I was able to snag before the birds). I guess it is a self pollinating variety as it is a lonely only. This is the last fruit tree in the line, so it has been skipped for pruning several times, thus the rampant growth. It has taken advantage of us, jumping ahead of all the contained/restrained apples. But I love the quality of the leaves, so different than all the other fruit tree leaves, and it makes a great rustling sound which I can hear in the evening as I drift off to sleep.

A final lesson: Sometimes it is a good thing to be neglected.