Yesterday morning at 5:15, the sun crept in my bedroom window and kissed me on the cheek for the first time this spring. I was immediately filled with energy and jumped out of bed to start my first really beautiful day of the spring of 2011. Rapture? I think so! After months of dreariness, clouds, fog, drizzle, and rain, what a special gift yesterday was…and a wonderful day to spend in my gardens; my green cathedral! I imagined my roses’ shaking off their lethargy and drinking in the sunshine they had been starving for all this season, and I joyfully pinned three loads of washing out on the clothesline and breathed deeply as I watched the laundry sail in the breeze. It was a heavenly day!

Spring

This morning, after a foggy start, is almost a carbon copy of yesterday. The air is soft and the sun is warm, and my first roses opened…a magenta rugosa I rescued from the bulldozer in the Heritage Garden at the park last year, and ‘Clair Matin,’ a climbing rose we grow as a large shrub here in Connecticut. My ‘Clair’ had a tough winter as the snow plow piled tons of snow and ice upon her during our classic winter of 2011, and was pruned hard this spring.

She is lovely nonetheless, and will be back to her huge self in a heartbeat. Her first bloom every year is clusters of five-or-so 3″ blossoms at the ends of the canes. Subsequent bloom, though, is intersperced along each petiole singly, so the ends of the stems look like apple blossoms. She is an all season bloomer, and I just love her. She is one of my roses that was attacked by voles in the winter of 2010 and had a rough summer last year. Apparently, though, she has grown new roots and has restored herself to her previous vigor! Roses…I love them. They are soft as silk and as tough as nails at the same time!

Rose Show

CT Rose Society’s Rose Show is in just three weeks! Maybe I won’t be bloomed out for a change as the cold spring slowed things down a bit. If you have never been to a rose show, you really should attend one. Ours is always gorgeous…the best roses in the area arranged by the thousands on tables to be judged. It is a spectacular display! Next week, I’ll let you know how to get your roses ready for the show table. Now, I’m back to the garden!

Happy Memorial Day, and God bless all those, dead and alive, that have protected us always…we lovingly remember them all.