Now Pat, you were threatening to give up two years ago, and you know you still have the best roses in North Alabama. Long may it be so.

Very sorry about your mess. That was quite a line of storms yesterday with gusts up to 60 mph predicted for some parts. Certainly not y'all's fault. We missed the wind, but had two inches of rain in a couple of hours last night.

So sorry about your roses. Did you at least get a few pictures before the arbors fell? There is really nothing like looking out your windows and seeing paradise at your doorstep. And your garden is paradise from what I hear. Don't give up; I need something for which to aspire.

Joanne

I am sorry to hear this. I regret not seeing those beauties before the disaster.

Carla

Patricia--That is so sad-----We all know how much you love your roses and how much work you have put into your gardens.

Please don't give up but I do understand how you can be tempted---

thinking of you.

Florence

Pat, I know how you feel. We battened down the hatches yesterday eve when it looked like the wrath of God was coming down on us on the radar. But this time the worst of it missed us, thankfully. Just lots of rain, for which we are grateful. But when I went to work this morning, I saw a house 1/2 mile away burnt nearly to the ground from a lightning strike. You just never know.

My TG trellis is a total loss but I'm going to prop it up for the summer and cut down in the fall. But the rose will come up again.

I'm sorry for your loss. I hope the soil pathogen isn't serious and you can plant more roses. They'll be small for years so you can handle them.

This has been the most eventful spring I can remember. Even topping the Easter Freeze of 2007.

Patricia dear, I think i understand your frustration and anger with no one to hit or yell at. I'll love you no matter what you decide, (well maybe, if it is the outcome I want).

It's got to be about 5:30 where you are so I guess a Mint Julep is called for.

You know know those queens will make a great comeback! And, so will you.

carol

Did they suggest any control for the soil-born pathogen?

I am so sorry about the wind damage.
I confess that we once had a Fortunes Double Yellow blow over.
We stood and looked at that prickly mass, shrugged our shoulders and went for loppers.
Cut it up, and stuffed it in the trash.
Some things are just too much to attempt.

Jeri

You are all so sweet. Carol, Kendall Jackson was just fine today. Made me feel better and the world looked better, even my garden. ;-)

I don't know if any of recall the year that my Mermaid broke all the way to the ground and came out of the ground and now it has grown back from roots left behind to a monstrous size, so I know that I can cut these back and they will return but I am not sure what to do about structures on which to grow them, my main concern.

Oh, yes, Jeri, a lopping we will go.

Sorry to hear about the storm damage. I agree about cutting things to the ground or pulling them out to start over. No one should work in one of those huge thorny messes

The report on Crepuscule is interesting. A rose that big doesn't just up and die for a trivial lreason. It was killed. Did they know which soil borne pathogen?

Patricia, another bottle of Kendall Jackson and then in a few days a trip to Roses Unlimited will have you back dreaming of roses in your back yard.

Are you getting to go for their open house, anyway? I hope so. Can your family and gardener just lop the roses and lift the arbors and then you can plant something else luscious in its place?

You know if you plant grass you'll be wanting to dig it up in a year!

We have gotten about 8 inches of rain but missed the high winds and storms. I hadn't checked the Birmingham area to see what else went on. So sorry you're going through this AGAIN!!!! You are a real and true gardener and folks like you don't give up!

Gean

Well how terrible and discouraging. I remember another time when you were ready to give up and you didn't though. Did the Petals From The Past garden make it through the storm unscathed?

Pat,

This is discouraging news....but dont give up. I know a place in SC where friends can gather and Kendall Jackson is always chilled and ready....should you be so inclined. ;o)

My thoughts are with you as you clear out the tangles...sometimes our gardens rearrange themselves and we end up with new suprises. I hope you will keep your roses Pat....you are much too good at this to quit now.

Ronda

Patricia dear, I am so sorry that you had so much damage in your garden! I have been sitting here thinking how I would feel if I had that kind of damage in my garden, and my heart goes out to you! I hope that somehow you can reclaim your paradise. I wish that I could be there to hold your hand and help you! It sounds like you are willing to go out and cut them back. I have two large structures that are in need of repair and I am going to press the guys to fix them soon! I hope that you get some help with your stuctures soon. There are times when I wish that I could build stuctures myself...but I don't see that happening any time soon...I am 70 now ;-).
I will be checking in to see how things are working out for you!

Love and hugs, dear friend...Missy

Pat,

I'm sorry you feel discouraged. I continually tell myself that this is just not worth it. Especially when I look at the bloomless bushes following another midge attack or the clumps of beetles chomping away. Daylilies and viburnums are so much easier.

But, I know you will recover. And continue. No matter what. Because we both know that there is just nothing that compares to a rose.

Patricia, hang in there, I know that damage to your garden & the loss of Crepusule was quite a blow. I can relate to you, as it seems pounding hail or high winds or near tornado's are the rights of spring around here.

I hope you don't go the burmuda route. You know how we gardeners curse that weed ... if you gotta do it, go with St Augustine & some smaller roses in pots on the patio :-)

Randy

Patricia, this is really sad. I feel your pain. But at least these roses have chance to recover. It is worse when you discover they have RRD or something like happened with your mature Crepuscule. I feel very discouraged every year when I see all my roses blooms and leaves destroyed by JBs. I feel like I want to give up, but then when it is over you keep going. I believe you will still garden, it is in your blood.
(((Hugs))).
Olga

You know, Pat, it is very difficult to grow most roses in the south. If they are somewhat blackspot resistant (and few are), up pops RRD. The roses get broken by ice storms, hurricane force winds, and the bushes always are odd shaped from losing canes to injury or canker. We have damaging late freezes on a yearly basis lately and don't even get me started about JB's and the host of other rose eating/bloom ruining bugs that flourish here. I've threatened to bulldoze my garden many times. The thing is, I love roses and so do you. I may not always grow the numbers I grow now but I will always grow a few. You love to garden and so do I. I'm pretty sure that Bermuda grass doesn't fall into the area of gardening :-). Don't give up. Remember the times that you step outside and are surrounded by the scent of roses and how much pleasure it brings to see that perfect bloom. I do know how you feel.

Carol

You have my sympathy too, Pat. I am very curious about this soil-borne pathogen. Did they say if it will spread, or if there is any treatment? Does it affect only roses?

Linda

I understand your dissapointment Patricia and that sinking feeling. I hope other gardeners will learn the importance of sturdy arbors and takes the time to anchor their arbors and supports properly, before storm or hurricane force winds knock them over. It is really discouraging to see all the hard, bloody work destroyed. (I sometimes remember Fay Weldons ending words - in her book "Life and Loves of a She-devil" - about nature getting away with far too much and the need for it to be controlled.

Patty, when I think of you, I do not envision masses of Bermuda Grass. They are an inadequate ornament, a sub-par backdrop for a woman like you. They don't have your color, your warmth, your splendor as a person. Nope, I'm sorry to tell you but you need roses to be viewed in the proper setting. You with a garden of grass would be like a rare blue diamond set in aluminum. I know it is miserable, I'm so sorry it happened to you but I want you to get somebody to prune back those babies, pull out the timber, clear it away and just let the small bushes rest and grow. In six monthes when they are coming back you may be ready for them.
People often look at my garden and say, so much work and I say it is what I love. My garden was only Bermuda grass when I moved here, bare and unfriendly. At one point the mailman said to me "your garden is so beautiful and because of it, the whole neighborhood is better." That is our gift, Patricia, to make the world more beautiful. Not everyone can. Whether you get two talents or ten, what you do with them is up to you. You got it girl. Despair and doubt are no friends of yours, don't you listen.
love,
la

Looks like Pat is in for more bad weather. On it's way to me later. Yikes, will this ever end!

{{gwi:265682}}

A tornado just passed over our house, Pat, and a 40 foot tulip poplar uprooted, narrowly missed crushing our neighbor's living room. Lots of rain...

Stay well, buford and Miss Pat...

duchesse, wow, glad you are ok. It's been wild hasn't it.

Thanks, buford. We ran into our tornado closet when the sirens started blaring and when we came out there was a tulip poplar missing from our yard. It's amazing our neighbor is still alive and her home intact. She heard a whoosh and that's all.

In our closeet we didn't hear anything. Glad to be alive and no one hurt. Hope the storms miss you.

I worry that our wishes for rain for the past three years got put on Nature's backburner, and now is making up for that.
Mississippi and Alabama seem to be least blessed right now, with parts of Georgia getting positively soggy.
Us, with hills, now just have soggy bottom land.

I hate the feeling of looking out and realizing that something's missing. No wonder our local caves were inhabited.

Pat, the big ones will come back. Their roots have it in them. American Pillar will be climbing trees in these parts long after we've shuffled off this mortal coil.

I was doing a websearch earlier today and found a nematode pathogen that seemed specific to a particular noisette. DId they give you a name for your soil borne disease?

And a wish for all of us....may we live in boring times.

Thanks duchesse, the worst seems to have missed us for now.

The roses (and everything else) are loving the rain. My yard looks so lush right now compared to the past 3 years.

How discouraging! I just don't know how I would handle something like losing three arbors in a storm. Probably not well. And how can you build arbors strong enough to handle that kind of wind? Maybe if they're concreted in place (assuming they weren't) it'd help, but who knows?

A few years after I moved away from my garden in Texas, a tornado hit it, it blew over a very old oak tree, destroyed every pine tree (and I'd created several pleasant shade gardens under them), and smashed the old rose garden. I'm glad I wasn't there to go through all that. I'm sorry you're having to go through all that in your garden.

There are just some things no one should have to go through. I'm with Ann, may we live in boring times!

Anyway, I think once you've got everything cleaned up, you'll figure out just what to do, and end up with your garden all the better for it. Ofttimes when we do something for the second time, we do it better.

Still, you're due at least several years of good weather!

--Ron