I hope there is nothing wrong with you or your loved ones. Very pretty rose, what is it?

Eric

I agree. I have been practically sequestering myself in my garden for the last few weeks. Taking cuttings and photographs, tidying climbers, pulling weeds ... it's something that I can control. I surface just long enough to do laundry, cook dinner, and blog a bit. As soon as it gets colder, working in the garden will be replaced by working in the greenhouse.

Connie

Here is a link that might be useful: blog ... if you're interested.

I was going to post this on the Garden Design Goals thread, but here it is for you:

'We make great progress only at those times when we become melancholy - at those times when, discontented with the real world, we are forced to make for ourselves one more bearable.'

'The Theory of Ambition', an essay:
Jean-Marie Herault de Sechelles

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Best wishes
Jon

You know Hoovb, roses do help me realize there is true beauty in this world. I too get bummed out when I watch the news and there are all these tragedies around the world, especially when it involves children. I donate to charities that do good work, but I wish I could do more. I love my garden though, and I thank God everyday for the chance to garden. :)

Juliet

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Yeap roses help especially in the day I have been asked to clean my desk...bummer...:-(
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Oh I love all these beautiful rose pictures. Roses (and gardens) truly do heal. I just finished co-editing a book on how nature-connection heals the psyche, "Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind" (Sierra Club Books 2009), and it's amazing how much research has now been done showing that this is a real phenomenon, not just our wishful thinking.

If any of you are interested, check out www.ecotherapyheals.com

Yes, they do:-)

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Masha

When I'm in my garden looking at the roses I'm rooted in the here and now, and everything else disappears. There are growing, blooming, fragrant things that make the world seem a beautiful place, or at least my world. Sometimes I think we live too much in other worlds and allow ourselves to be weighed down by an uncountable number of problems and tragedies which we can do nothing to alleviate. I try to stay in my world while still contributing what I can to help others, especially animals, who are closest to my heart. When I come home my roses are there to greet me. They ask for very little and give me so very much.

Ingrid

Most certainly on days I don't want to get dressed I either go through rose sites or force myself out of the house to either my garden or one of the Botanical Gardens even in the winter when theres nothing there.
Hoping your journey thru this is'nt too long.
BlairiiII
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La Belle Sultane
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Canary Island
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Thank you for all the thoughtful comments and gorgeous photos. Roses help, and rosy forum friends do, too.

Hoov, I am sorry you are feeling this way. Yes, there is a lot of bad news. I am no longer upset about so many things as I was when I read about the bunnies, my favorite little snuggly animals, which was perhaps, for me, the last straw, the one that broke my camel's back, and do you remember your words of encouragement to me at that time. Well, maybe not words of encouragement, but words to the effect to not be so upset about such, something I read about or something like that. Your words escape me, but I pass that cup to you and hope it will get you through these bad times, times when things are not going well.

The weather was so bad here for so long, that I was inside so much and all the bad news, and I came here for respite and got threatened with banishment, but the sun did shine and I return to tell you that, "yes, the sun will shine all over in the world again." So do not despair, just keep looking at the garden, as it will embrace you and speak to you of the perpetuity of what we do as gardeners, and how it lives on after us to make the world a prettier place.

Very sweet responses here that I am sure are making us all feel better. I'm certain that it could be proved scietifically that roses are healing. People are drawn to flowers in general and roses the most. The individual roses in my garden feel like friends.

What a lovely group of caring people we have here on the Forum

I Value each and every one of you.

Florence

Florence, I'm sure I speak for everyone here that we also value you very much. You are the most gracious visitor to these forums and I wish you harmony and good health, forever and for always. You are a darling!

Juliet

Hoov I always say my little garden is my contribution to world peace!

If someone walks by my place and smiles and enjoys the sights they see then that has made every effort worthwhile. I have had people tell me that when they came by it just made their day to see the roses blooming. Makes all those thorns and bug bites worth it.

on days when I too think this world is in a mess I grab my camera and dog and go taking pictures and smell the wonderful fragrance of the roses. Cheers me up for sure.

valerie

The other day I had a particularly draining day at work, pure adrenalin all day. Got home exhausted. Went out to the garden, did some watering, puttering, etc. When I came in, amazingly I felt fine. Someone ought to bottle it. They'd make millions. BTW, there's nothing wrong with a safe refuge especially when it's in your own backyard. We all need that and benefit from it.

Sherry

I've got 40 roses in the house, sitting around, most not getting enough light. Everything I was planning went wrong. The cyclical drought that hits the west has gone away, just like the dust bowl days. It's been snowing for six weeks. I can remember the year it came, 1980. I bought 20 of them and rooted 20.
So far, they thought it was fall, and lost some leaves. The canes are fine.
I have been studying roses in the house for a couple of years.
Some are beginning to shoot out new leaves, like spring. they're confused, the growth and loss spontaneous.
Business is terrible here. We've been run by the wealthy for 13 years. Guess that's 13 years of bad luck. Now they're all in court and I still wonder when Montana will get its own economy that does not depend on those that cometh from the east.
Nothing is forever, and life is a journey, not a destination. Sometimes you long to go back to the worst struggles of your life, as there was usually something wonderful going on then, too.