Roses Be Gone

Normally I love roses but mine haven’t been looking very good. The former owner of our home admitted she only did what she had to for them to survive. I tried to raise the bar and have given them some rose plant food and lovingly weeded the bed for 2 years. No matter how I fed or trimmed them they always looked straggly and out of control. This year because of other projects the weeds got away from me. It didn’t help that the only place it seemed last year’s fall grass seed grew was in the rose bed.

I decided the rose had to go from that bed. I also decided there really was no better place for them in our yard especially with 2 young children who like to play outside. I talked to my lovely gardening neighbor Pam and she agreed to take the evicted roses to give them a new home.

The kids and I made a trip to our local Merrifield Garden Center to talk to the experts and pick out some replacement plants. We picked out a beautiful yellow cone flower and a purple one too. We also picked single purple parachute plant and two beautiful short flowering plants with beautiful yellow and red flowers to go under the windows. I picked 2 Russian Sages to fill out between the windows. They don’t look like much now but they will get to be 4 feet tall and 4 feet wide. I transplanted some of the bulbs my sister gave me from one end to the other to add some balance to the 23 foot long bed.

All of the new plants are deer resistant, drought resistant and almost no care. I was told I can mow it once a year and be done. I do believe I will still have to weed it but that is still so much easier then old fashion roses. I had thought they always looked bad because of the soil and neglect but it was actually lack of rain. After 2 days of steady rain. Our rain gauge said we got over 3 inches and ½ of the bed was wet and the other half was sending up dust clouds. So glad I invested in drought resistant pants for that bed.