A dark house and a haunting whistling wind

It’s early March. It’s completely dark in the Vanable household. The wind is whistling a haunting tone through the cracks by the window – a tone usually reserved for hurricanes and blizzards, but it makes its appearance loud and clear in the early morning hours today. Tension levels in the household rise, and it will be a couple of more hours of complete and total darkness, until, thankfully, the electric gods restore the electron flow to the lights and other electric devices. As they return to life, I breathe a huge sigh of relief that we won’t be suffering the same fate as our fellow Americans in Texas last month, who lost power and water for many days in a major disaster caused by a polar vortex that enveloped the region.

A supermoon gone and total darkness

Outside, the remnants of a once larger-than-life supermoon that cast an eerie orange/red glow earlier in the day vanished. Complete darkness now envelops the garden area. There is no way to see if anything is amiss out there from these high winds. But, I know that a blanket of snow safely tucks in my roses. Snow is one of nature’s best protections from high winds and freezing temperatures.

A March Lion, fluctuating  temperatures, and confusion

Mother Nature is still laying claim to winter through her March Lion, and she roars her displeasure that warmer weather and an early spring will soon be upon us. In a few days, the temperatures will reach the mid-50’s, but here in New England we know not to trust that these temperatures will be here for any longer than a few hours. We know that they will dip back below freezing before we know it. Many years I have seen the March Lion taunt us. And, many years we have been able to endure his pain, and embrace the outgoing March Lamb and all that he leaves.

While we may sometimes be confused as to what clothes to wear when we get ready for the day during late winter, our roses can be just as confused. Many times during these warm spells, the roses break dormancy and start sending out new growth. This new growth is then exposed to the subsequent freezing temperatures and high winds. These high winds often desiccate the delicate canes, and this new growth is lost. The best that we can do now is to be patient, hope that our winter protections on our roses are adequate, and wait for warmer weather to come.

A year of writing at Planters Place

It has been a year since I started writing this blog, and it has been such a joy to share with you my exploits and ramblings in the rose-growing world. It also has been a year since the World Health Organization officially designated the COVID-19 virus as a pandemic. President Biden addressed the nation on this historic anniversary last week and mourned the death of over 500,000 people in America who have succumbed to this horrific disease.

COVID-19 and the rose-growing world

The world of roses has not been unscathed in losing its members. Last April, I learned that Dorrie Nichols, granddaughter of the late Dr. Walter D.  Brownell (one of my favorite hybridizers and the driving force behind the line of Sub-Zero roses from the 20th century), succumbed to complications of this horrific disease. Dorrie was our link in the rose-growing world to this golden era in roses and her family’s contribution to it. She shared many first-hand experiences and passed along much knowledge about her grandparents and their wonderful roses when she was alive. Any additional information that she may have provided to us is now lost forever.

Dorrie was only one of many in our hobby that were lost. This blog is much too short to list all of these special people. I would like to memorialize them, their contributions to the rose-growing world, as well as the many hundreds of thousands of other people around the world who have lost their battles with COVID-19, with a paragraph of silence. While nothing you or I can ever do will ever bring them back, we must never forget them, and what they meant to us. If anything positive at all can ever be remotely gleaned from this past year and its problems, it is the importance of family (and our rose family) to us.

A Paragraph of Silence

Temperatures start rising only to fall again

Right on cue, a few days after that morning that we lost power, the temperatures started rising again here in Rhode Island. Before I  knew it, it was in the 50’s. I was up late again, and I was contemplating ditching the original opening that I wrote about the March Lion. But, he started whistling that all-to-familiar tone. He was not ready to lay down for the summer and give up his grasp. For now, the Lamb remains asleep.

Testing our patience and a world reopening

March is definitely a month that can test one’s patience here in New England (especially those who grow and enjoy roses). Usually, we get together with fellow rosarians from the region now. We have a fun-filled weekend full of seeing old friends, meeting new ones, and talking roses, roses, roses. But, last year (and this year) we were not able to get together. Now, with not only one, but three vaccines approved for emergency use, that will soon change.

Already our Annual Yankee District Fall Rose Show and Lobsterfest three-day weekend is being planned. A delayed 80th (now 81st) Anniversary of the New England Rose Society with guest speaker, Ping Lim, is back on, and an ARS National Convention is being planned where incoming ARS President, Diane Sommers, will be installed. The social part of roses and rose societies is almost ready for its triumphant return. I’m ready to embrace it (and all of the wonderful people in it). There are new social norms being formed as I write this blog, and with any luck, these new social norms will allow our national economy to flourish once again.

Spring forward

This past weekend we sprung our clocks ahead and started Daylight Savings Time. This weekend will be our first day of spring. Not too much later our March Lamb will usher out this month, and it’ll be time again for roses. I’m ready. Are you?

Epilogue

I wrote this blog with my gold Waldorf fountain pen that I fixed a few months ago. I bring it to and from work daily, and fill it with a bright blue high impact ink made by Shaeffer. My main use for this pen is using it as a contrasting ink that will stand out on job tickets and during the editing process of books, this blog, etc. When I bought this pen, it definitely needed repair. I do like the fact that it was successfully resurrected and made useful once again. What I have been noticing lately is that the gold plating has been wearing a great deal more than I’d like. Oh well. I guess I didn’t buy it to look pretty in a box. I bought it to use, and wearing out the gold plating is part and parcel for doing just that.