Everything's coming up Roses !

My favorite bloom,  2017

I love roses, my friends know this and must have heard my story before, but I write it now for posterity. When I first moved into my home in late 1990s the garden had a path running down the middle, and a grass patch on one side and a mound of earth with a tired old rose bush in the middle of the other side. It was winter, so the branches were bare...but come summer it bloomed with a set of old-fashioned beautiful pale pink roses. The following summer brought the builders who were helping to upgrade the house and redesign the garden. We decided on a  new layout, and moving the rose bush.
The message relayed must have gotten lost in translation, as one day on returning from work I found a lovely newly laid path running through where the rose bush used to stand, and no rose bush anywhere in the garden. I eventually found the mutilated pieces in the rubble skip, where the builders had tossed them after hacking it down with a chainsaw, including dissecting the established rootball into several pieces. 

I was angry, sad and horrified. For no particular reason, I had taken to that plant, and was hoping to preserve some of its charm in the garden's new layout. I gathered the pieces of rootball and some cut branches as advised by a neighbor, bought some rooting powder and tried to propagate a new plant in various tubs.
All but one stem died. 

This scraggy little stem went on to struggle for about 2 years, slowly putting out lots of green foliage to show it was alive, but no flowers till about the 3rd year when the buds came back, plentiful and vibrantly pink. I now enjoy the budding and flowering of each rose as the plant has grown and re-established itself; smaller, but well rooted, 17 years later in that plant pot !

The scent is divine ! 

The flowers are also very beautiful as you'll see from the photos. [Not photo shopped!]

Enjoy the buds of 2018 with me, I'm sure there's a metaphor or three in this tale somewhere !