This year, I took two photos ... two ... that's all. I left my camera in my car, because I didn't want to haul it around and/or worry about it while I was working.
I didn't take a photo of this rose before we started on it. The "Crenshaw Musk Rose" is one of the most historically significant roses at Hollywood Cemetery. It didn't look its best last year because I forgot to do any work on it ... there were weeds growing around and through it, and lots of winter-killed and bloomed out canes clogging the plant. It took us almost two hours to do this, as three of us carefully worked our way from the bottom to top, outside to inside, evaluating and reshaping the entire plant.
Pruning like this is appropriate for a vigorous, repeat flowering rose like the Musk Rose. It maintains the rounded, upright shape of this rose. I would never do this to Hollywood's once-blooming roses like the Hybrid Chinas and free-standing ramblers ... it would ruin their shape and rob them of most of their personality. (Yes, I believe that roses have personalities.)
The staff at Hollywood Cemetery does a great job of helping me prepare for the arrival of the volunteers, and the Friends of Hollywood provides yummy boxed lunches for everyone. I ate mine in the sunshine, while chatting with some of the volunteers.
At the end of the day, I was spent. Goth Gardener was there, as she promised. We ended the day with another Silly Selfie ... one that documents our extreme level of fatigue.
It is such a relief to be finished with this. There are a few roses that didn't get worked on, and I will inspect and do what I can for them in the next couple of weeks, and review and document the other roses to help prepare for next year's Rose Day.
My attention now will be to focus on my OWN garden. I'm energized and raring to go ... once I rest up from yesterday.
Happy sunny Sunday, Everybody.
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Sunday Snapshots are posts that are devoted to a moment in time that represents a slice of life in Hartwood, or wherever else I happen to be.
