I'm afraid this post is going to bore everyone senseless since I have no pictures, and there is as of yet nothing to take pictures of. I've had so much trepidation about growing roses again, well actually a real fear that it would be a total failure. However, I'm daring to hope a little as the ground squirrels lately haven't gone near my rose plants (i.e. sticks in the ground) which are surrounded by branches from one of our pepper trees and the peppery smell is I think deterring them. Today our garden helpers came to dig holes for and plant the four minuscule roses from Rogue Valley Roses, International Herald Tribune, Yves Piaget, Lauren and Aunt Margy's Rose, that arrived recently. One of them looks barely alive, but my fingers are crossed. I wish now that I'd stuck with larger plants such as those I got from The Texas Rose Emporium, but I badly wanted Aunt Margy's Rose, which is not available I don't think as a larger specimen anywhere. I'm sure many of you are familiar with the overriding craving for a certain rose, where nothing else will do, no matter if others are more beautiful or desirable in every way. If you've lasted this long thank you for your emotional support. I have no idea how I'm going to last the agonizingly long five months it will take for the roses to bloom, although perhaps global warming will for the one and only time be a good thing by causing my roses to bloom earlier than they ever did before.

Okay, I couldn't bear not having a rose in this post. This is Westside Road Cream Tea, probably from 2012 or so. The apricot rose behind it is another Tea rose, Rosette Delizy.