Yes, I feel that way about a lot of things, not just roses. I did have to cut down my Teasing Georgia a few weeks ago when the trellis was badly damaged by a storm. And the yard looks empty without her looming over it. But it's already sprouting many new basals, probably because for the first time in years, the sun in hitting the graft. LOL.

Your crepescule was lovely. Mine is just starting to put on some size and had a decent bloom this spring. Are you planning to plant another?

No, I don't think so. We are thinking of moving. If so, we will probably not have any or not many roses as we will be living in a historic district and it what we grow will be dictated by the historic society/association.

I am sorry. We do become attached to something so beautiful and inspiring.

I am like you and even get attached to smaller plants that many would consider inconsequential or a nuisance. They made me happy to see them so healthy, and I still grieve the loss of my violets which made such a pretty lane of green foliage where nothing else pretty would grow. I would sorely grieve a prized rose, especially losing more than one of them.

This will sound so silly, but I had some volunteer morning glories tumbling over a milk can. It made me happy to see them every morning. The guy who put in the edging for me chopped them off. I was sick about it. But there are a couple left out there and the can, so you inspired me get them going on the can again but I can't put it exactly where I had it before.

I'm just sentimental about lots of things.

Oh, Patricia,
Leaving a garden is such a hard thing to do.
But then I got a rush of excitement at the thought of planting the right roses for a house (and for me, I'd love to educate a historic society/association)..
And for planting Crepuscle in a different soil, yep, I'd try it, too.
Patricia, you KNOW that there are roses we are meant to live with. They knew this in the 1800s because some of the books back then warned that certain roses needed to be repropagated every three years. (The hidden implication is that people would want to repropagate them.)
The roses we are meant to live with are not the same from person to person and some of them are just wonky in our attachment to them.

(You do have a copy of Mary Rion's "Ladies' Southern Florist" for a look at a successful 1860 garden?)

Here is a link that might be useful: for the southern late Victorian Rose Garden

"we will be living in a historic district and it what we grow will be dictated by the historic society/association"

I can't imagine living in a place where any group could dictate what I may or may not grow in my garden!

Patricia, I do understand how you feel about this.
Very sorry you no longer have your Crepuscule roses, it is a beautiful rose in every way, as shown by your photo.
If you do decide to move, the historic district you mentioned sounds really interesting.

Randy

I have had many sad things happen in the last few years. Many family deaths..a few unexpected ones. My MIL's passing and we moved to a totally different area. Even my cats passed away. It was a surreal time. We have had 8 peaceful months..but now my Dad is ill. It is diffcult at times. But what I have learned is that grief or sadness is an emotion and it does not have to make sense. Feelings are just that..feelings. I am emotionally healthy enough to know that it does not help to bury sad feelings..even over a rose. I have learned how to channel those sad feelings and instead of being sad I don't have certain things, people or animals in my life..I try to smile and remember the good things about them. After all, life does not ever stay the same. It is constantly changing and evolving..as humans we never want change..or like change. But it is silly to think it never comes. Appreciate the beautiful roses you did have in the past. Make it a happy memory and not a sad one.
Patricia, blow up a nice photo of your rose and put it somewhere you can admire it. Think think of all the beautiful new roses and plants you can plant at the new place. I would imagine an historical society would embrace your desire for a few nice roses.

Patricia, does this mean you might be Caroline's neighbor - trailrunner?

I understand how you feel; the other day I sp'd Maggie and just before I threw her in the whirling blades of the chipper I could hear her crying for another chance. I was almost in tears, but in she went. This for a rose that never looked anything like your Crep's.

A new garden waits for you, Pat.

Pat, awhile ago, I read a statement that I try to live by. I'm not too successful. It's 'See the glass as already broken'.

"You see this goblet?" asks Achaan Chaa, the Thai meditation master. "For me this glass is already broken. I enjoy it; I drink out of it. It holds my water admirably, sometimes even reflecting the sun in beautiful patterns. If I should tap it, it has a lovely ring to it. But when I put this glass on the shelf and the wind knocks it over or my elbow brushes it off the table and it falls to the ground and shatters, I say, ÂOf course. When I understand that the glass is already broken, every moment with it is precious."

And I think a home in a historic district is a perfect place for a garden with historic roses.

Just wanted to say my heart is with you Patricia. Plants are friends just like people and loss is hard.

I too hope you can educate your historic district about historic roses.

Diane

Hugs for you my dear friend.

I'm with Ann, hard to leave, but there will be the thrill of planting a new garden.

Carol

Yes...a new garden to put in..New energy..new passions..change is good sometimes.

When I got divorced back in 1989..I had just started my gardening passion..well I had planted 6 baby holly bushes. I had this idea of fresh holly at Xmas time..Well I had to sell my home and I remember crying over my baby holly plants..and my peach tree in the front yard.

You didn't say what happened to your Crepuscules?
I can totally understand how you feel. I had to move last September and had to leave behind almost all my plants. I've replaced them with new ones however, and at this point I can say they're about the only things that make me completely happy.

Patricia I'm sorry for your loss I'm only attached to 2 of my rose Pat Austin and Kronprincessin Viktoria. I've never even smelled Crepuscule it's not supposed to be hardy up here.

We can get very attached to certain plants. It is the beauty and the effort we have put into them. Sometimes it is also like music, that certain plants become associated in our minds with certain people or events, just as songs do.

I wish you a beautiful new garden in your new home, what ever you decide (or are able) to grow there. And I hope you have an easier time of it.

Rosefolly

Dpn't know what to say, but
a hug to you from far away. (((((patricia43)))))

Well, you may not grow as many roses, but surely you can grow a few?? I would be sad to leave my garden, really sad, but I would plant just the roses I really loved and take what I had learned about roses and this climate and create a new garden of only my favorites! A new house and garden sounds exciting and maybe the soil will be perfect for Crepuscule in your new garden! Many hugs to you, Patricia!

Carolina

Thank you, each and everyone for the thoughts. I found your understanding very sweet and comforting. I am sure we will enjoy our new location once we get things "wrapped up." I will miss all the roses I have grown, but drought, blight and viruses have already accounted for about a 25% loss of what we grew a few years ago and now we have shovel-pruned others due to disease intolerance, lackluster performance, etc.

So we grow less than half of what we did just 5 years ago; we are down to fewer than 200 roses.

My Noisettes, (including the beautiful Crepuscule) all took to their death bed over the last few months, on the coattails of losing many other roses to RRD in recent years.

I was told the reason for the noisette/ornamental cherry tree losses was a soil-borne "blight..." I got the official report but I was inundated in pressing matters such as a new roof from a storm, floors from a flood, putting the house back together after having to move everything out, wash it, clean it, dry it and do it all over again, to the pressing health issues of a family member, so I just filed it away, knowing that this too would pass.

The verbal report (and what I read in the local paper were similar), that many other people in my area had the same thing.

It sounded to me like going to the doctor with a sore throat and low-grade fever, getting an antibiotic,a steroid and a pat on the back with the infamous medical statement, "it's a virus, it's going around,I have seen ...cases....blah, blah, blah..."

You just take the medicine and move on.

We will grow a few roses, but the "powers that be" sort of determine what one can and cannot grow.

Fortunately, since I have worked with the master gardeners in the historical gardens, perhaps they will be more lenient. I want to grow Crepuscule again, so I want to try it at my new home.

Duchesse, Caroline lives about 80 miles east. I know that you too have probably noted this as I have, that people think because we live in Alabama, we all live close together.

In fact, Alabama has a pretty diverse terrain in terms of physical features (and diverse zone conditions as well as a diverse citizenry), from the world's whitest sand/bluest beaches on the Gulf Coast, to the state capital (and former Confederacy/Goat Hill in Montgomery), to the marble quarries of Sylacauga, (home to the world's finest and whitest marble), to Birmingham formerly known as Pittsburg of the South (now one of the fastest growing cities in the country with cutting-edge medical teaching university), to Mt Cheaha, the tail end of the southern segment of the Blue Ridge, also part of the Cumberland Plateau and even my little area (the oldest industrial/manufacturing city in Alabama).

Thanks for allowing me to vent!!!!!
http://www.prattville.com/Default.asp?ID=5

Dear Patricia-----My thoughts are with you----I 've seen many pictures of your beautiful gardens and roses.

All of us here understand your pain.

I read the link ---will you be moving to Prattville?

Hope you are feeling OK

Florence

Patricia, it seems like the past few years have dealt you one obstacle after the other. I hope your new home will bring you pleasure, and make life easier for you. Even if you cannot grow many roses, it looks like you will be able to be involved in gardening even if it is not what you own.

Whatever you do, I hope you continue to write to us and let us know how you are.

Sammy

Pat, I understood from Caroline that you lived very near to her, but not even me, hailing from Texas where you can drive for days and never leave the state, would consider 80 miles to be 'very close.' Probably I just misunderstood her.

And I agree, Alabama deserves its nickname, "Alabama the Beautiful."

Gean

I am sorry I was not more supportive of you and went into my own issues. My heart would be broken to lose such a beautiful rose as that.

I wish you the best in your move and hope the pain will subside. Roses and plants we have lovingly nurtured become like children and are solace from other disappointments in life.