There's Never Enough Time

Yesterday, I had to let my dear Daniel go.  Everything happened so fast.

 

 

On Monday, I took him to the vet because he just wasn't right.  She found that he had a kidney infection, prescribed an antibiotic, and he should have been better within a day or two.

 

He wasn't.  I called the vet on Thursday morning, and she told me to bring him in right away.

 

 

 

As soon as she put her hands on him, the look on her face changed.  His abdomen felt normal on Monday, but Thursday it was full of a very large spleen.  Ultrasound confirmed this.  His lymphoma was something different now, extremely aggressive ... and it wasn't something that we could fix.

 

 

 

I don't remember much about how I drove home through rush hour northern Virginia traffic that afternoon.  It took forever, my mind was racing, and my heart was breaking. 

 

 

 

Friday morning, it was obvious what had to be done that day.  I called my vet, made the appointment, and spent the rest of the day spoiling Daniel with attention and treats.

 

 

Daniel left this life, cradled in my arms, as I whispered in his ear.  I promised when I adopted him that I would be with him forever ... and I was.

 

 

 

 

Godspeed, my sweet boy.

 

Forbes Nakdaniel (6/12/2001 - 5/17/2013)

 

Forgive me if I am unable to reply to what I am sure will be very kind, caring comments.  I don't know if I can do it right now.  Please accept my sincere gratitude in advance.

 

 

In the Company of Dogs

From the time that I was nine years old, I have always had at least one cat, but I didn't get my first dog until I was 29.  His name was Murphy, and he was a rescued English Yellow Labrador.  (His trim-and-fit weight was 80 lbs.)  Murphy and I were inseparable.  My husband traveled a lot for his job at the time(in the days before cell phones and easy access to other communication), my full-time job was stay-at-home mom of three young daughters (3, 4, and 6 at the time), and I could always count on Murphy for company and good conversation.

Murphy was 12 when I took this photo in 1996.  That's baby Amy with him.

After Murphy died in 1997, I was so heartbroken that I couldn't even think of getting another dog.  About a year and a half later, I could feel a change ... and I knew that it was time to bring another dog into our family.  That was Emma.

Ancient, grainy digital photo ... taken shortly after we adopted Emma.

Emma was quite content to be an only dog.  Greyhound adoption folks will tell you that greyhounds are happier in groups (and this is generally the case), but not with Emma.  She was a very independent dog, very people oriented, and a superb Therapy Dog.  I'm not sure she ever really forgave me for bringing Daniel into the family.  After six years of being the lone dog, having a little brother must have been quite a shock for her.

Unlike Emma, Daniel has always really enjoyed the company of other dogs.

Look how brown he used to be!

Daniel was the dog who chose me.  I wasn't looking to add another dog to the family, but I couldn't ignore how perfect he was for us.  Emma would just have to understand and deal with it.  We were a two-hound family, until Emma died in 2011.

This is Daniel and me in the fall of 2011.  See the connection between us?

Now we have Ruby, too, adopting her in February 2012.  She is a little black bundle of happiness ... probably half Labrador and half Border Collie, picked up as a stray in Abingdon, Virginia, and turned over to Border Collie Rescue.  She is definitely not the greyhound personality that I am used to, but she fits into our family perfectly.

Sweet, smiling Ruby.

There you have it.  As large a part as dogs have played in my adult life, I have only had four of them.  This is because we have been blessed to have each of them in our family for a long, long time ... even though they were all adopted as adults. (Murphy was 5, Emma was 3, Daniel was 4 1/2, and Ruby was the baby at 1 1/2.)  No matter how long we have them, it's never really long enough, is it.

One day, I will have to tell you about the cats in my life.  That's a story for another time.

How to Root Roses from Cuttings

I have tried just about every method out there to propagate roses from cuttings.  This process, as taught to me by my friend Diana Klassy in 2006, is the easiest and most reliable one for me.  It's simple to understand, and it uses materials that you may already have on hand or can easily obtain.

(This isn't only for roses.  I have rooted new plants of lilac, azalea, hydrangea, and figs using this method.  Any plant that can root from cuttings is a candidate.) 

Are you ready? 

Gather your supplies:  You will need a half-gallon milk or juice jug, a clear 2-liter soda bottle, good-quality potting media, rooting hormone, pruners, and a sharp utility knife. 

You will be using the bottom of the milk jug as a pot, and the top of the soda bottle to form a greenhouse.

Cut large drainage holes in the bottom of the milk jug, and fill it with moist potting media.

The best cutting for most roses is a stem with a dead flower on it, with four to six sets of leaves.

If possible, get the heel wood where the stem emerges from the main cane.

If you cannot get a heel, cut below a leaf bud.

Cut off the dead flower and remove all but two sets of leaves from your cutting.

With the sharp utility knife, score the end of the cutting on two or three sides ... cutting only through the outer layer.

Dip the scored cutting into rooting hormone.  Dampen the cutting if you are using powdered rooting hormone.

Make a hole in the potting media.  Insert the cutting and water thoroughly.  You can place more than one cutting into each container ... I don't recommend putting in more than three.

Cover the cutting with the soda bottle top, maneuvering the bottle a little bit so that it fits inside the rim of the milk jug pot.  Be careful not to dislodge the cutting.

Now comes the most difficult part of this process ... place the container with your cutting in a safe shaded location and LEAVE IT ALONE.  (You only need to check on it once a week or so.)  In the fall, I put cuttings in my north-facing basement workshop window with a fluorescent shop light for supplemental lighting.  For cuttings in spring and summer, I place my containers underneath an azalea bush in my side yard shade garden. 

Make certain that your cuttings receive no direct sunlight at this stage or the inside of the bottle will overheat and your cuttings will die.  You don't need to water your cutting ... as long as there is condensation inside the soda bottle, you're fine.  More cuttings die from overwatering than anything else.

Cuttings can produce roots in as soon as four weeks, or as many as eight, ten, or more weeks.  Since roots are visible through the translucent milk jug, there is no need to pull cuttings to check their progress.  Remove any leaves that may fall ... don't worry, the cutting can still root without leaves.  As long as the stem is green, the cutting is alive.

When the cutting is showing strong roots, and it begins to sprout new leaves, start to harden off your new rose by removing the screw top of the soda bottle.  After a week or two without the lid, remove the soda bottle and begin to gradually acclimate your rose to a sunnier environment.

This is an extreme example of strong new growth shooting up and out the top of the soda bottle while I was busy with other things and didn't notice that it was time to remove the bottle.

At this point, if you have only one cutting in your milk jug pot, you can leave your new rose growing there without the bottle until it has a strong root system and the root ball can hold together for transplanting.  If you have more than one cutting, carefully tip the contents of the pot out and tease the plants apart ... trying your best not to damage any of the fragile new roots ... and put each new rose into its own pot.

That's all there is to it!  Rooting roses is not rocket science.  If you start with quality cuttings taken at the right time from a well-watered mother plant, your chances of success increase dramatically.  

Some roses root very readily from cuttings, and some are down-right impossible ... sometimes the only way to find out is to give it a try.

 If you have any questions, you can leave them in a comment, or you can contact me directly via EMAIL.

My Own Game of 'I Spy'

You remember this game from when you were a kid ... "I spy with my little eye ...."  In this case, we are playing the game with the contents of the bottom of my underwear drawer.  No, this isn't a case of TMI (too much information), since there are no undies actually in the drawer at the moment ... they're in the clothes basket, fresh from the laundry, and  ready to be put away.

When I opened the drawer and saw this stuff, lit so perfectly by the lamp on my dresser, I knew that I had to share and make a game out of it.  Mind you, I did not rearrange these items at all to style them for this photo.  This is exactly as everything was found when I opened the drawer.

 

 

You ready to play?

 

The items to identify in this photo are:

Four belts (extra points for identifying the belt with greyhounds on it)

Two tile coasters from our Alaska cruise last summer

The charger for who-knows-what

A notecard, also from Alaska

A hair clip (my hair has been pixie short for a year now)

A broken string of pearls

A pile of Alaska tourist brochures

Three piles of plant tags made from mini blinds

A case for reading glasses

The reading glasses

Bits of string

A ballpoint pen

A bracelet box

An orphan furniture caster

Two store receipts

A single sock

A pad of Post-It notes

Panty hose

 

Now that I have confronted this problem, am I going to clean out the drawer and put this stuff where it belongs?  Nope.  I plan to do my best Scarlett O'Hara impression, bury it with clean underwear, and deal with it another day.

Sunny Cemetery Roses

While I was at Hollywood Cemetery last Sunday for their "Sunday Picnic", I saw that many of the roses are in full bloom.  Part of my project there is to create an archive of all of the roses, which includes photos and identities of each rose. 

I spent a few hours at Hollywood yesterday afternoon, and I photographed 35 roses.  It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day ... great for being outdoors, but lousy for decent photography.  I took advantage of brief cloud cover when I could, so most of my photos are fairly representative of what each rose looks like.

'Shailer's Provence'

 

 

I will format and share as many photos as I can later.  To be honest, I just can't spare the time to do that right now.  My main concern is to make sure that each rose is documented and that the photos are safely downloaded and backed up.

 

Today is a fun day.  I'm heading to northern Virginia for a garden club plant exchange.  The back of my Jeep is full of roses that I have decided not to plant ... can't wait to see what cool stuff I can swap them for!

 

Feeling Sad About "noreply-comment@blogger.com"

Thank you for all of the comments that you left on my last post about this year's first roses in the garden.  I appreciate each and every kind word that you take the time to leave behind during your visit.  Each comment is a gift, and I am thankful that you choose to spend time on my little slice of the Internet.

I try to send a private email reply to most of the comments that I receive.  (depending on what else is going on, sometimes I'm better about this than other times.)  Six of the comments I received on that last post were from lovely readers who may or may not know that their email addresses are not visible in their profile.  I always return the favor and visit blogs in exchange ... sometimes finding treasures that I continue to return to again and again.  Honestly, though, it's still not the same as being able to share a private conversation with someone ... via email, that is.

Preaching to the choir?  Beating a dead horse?  I still have to give this a shot, in case I can reach just ONE blogger and help them build their network and their friendships.

Do you know if you are a No Reply blogger?  If you are on Blogger, here's how to check. 

1.  Click on the "B" icon at the top of your blog home page.

 

 

2.  Click on the icon in either corner of the Blogger overview page to access your profile.

 

 

 

3.  Click the orange 'Edit Profile' button.

 

 

 

4.  Check the box that says, "Show my email address".

 

 

 

5.  Scroll to the bottom of that page, click "Save Profile".

 

 

 

That's all there is to it!  (If you use another blogging service and do not have a Blogger Profile, I know there are ways to do this, I just don't know what they are.)

 

I make this plea at least twice a year, usually when I receive a frustratingly large number of comments that I cannot reply to.  I know that some of you may have consciously chosen to not reveal your email address ... it's your email and your choice and I respect that.  Others, and I have found this to be the majority of no reply bloggers, don't realize that this is the case for them.  (This is especially true for new bloggers.)

 

Make this change and I guarantee that your blogging experience will be a richer one. For me, direct email contact has led to online and real-live-in-person friendships that I would not have otherwise.

 

Now go check your profile and let me know what you find.

 

The First Roses of the Year!

Last week, on Thursday to be exact, the first roses opened in my garden!  As it is most years, the first one was 'Climbing Rouletii' ... a beautiful monster of a climbing China rose that I absolutely adore.

My 'Climbing Rouletii' was knocked off its arch in a storm last year, and I never took the time to put it back up, so its canes are arching over all of its neighbor roses.  Once it finishes blooming, I will have to cut it to a more manageable size so I can get it back to where it belongs.  In the meantime, I am enjoying the wonderful mayhem.

A close rose relative of 'Climbing Rouletii' is also blooming now, "Mableton Rouletii".  This little miniature China was found at an estate in California.  It is different enough from the identified varieties of Rouletii to justify calling it by the study name, and enclosing the name in the double quotes.

While 'Climbing Rouletii' wants to be ten feet tall, "Mableton Rouletii" is barely three feet tall and wide.  The flowers on both roses are only a little over an inch in diameter.

One more China rose that's beginning to bloom is 'Old Blush' ... one of the original roses imported from China in the late 18th Century.

I was surprised to see flowers on the top of 'Sarah Van Fleet', a rugosa rose that I recommend for gardens who can handle her size ... my plant is about seven feet tall and six feet wide.  The flowers are on the top of the plant, so I had to point my camera WAY up to photograph them.

It's really exciting to finally have roses to share.  The roses aren't the only flowers in the garden, however.

This clematis is always the first one to flower.  I don't know which one it is, because it grows through a huge rambler and I can't get anywhere close to the base of the plant to read the tag.  These flowers are larger than my hand!

My little patch of Lily of the Valley in the bed on the shady side of our pavilion is getting established quite nicely.  I have tried and failed to grow this in two other spots in our yard, so I'm thrilled that I finally found a spot that makes it happy.

On the sunny side of the pavilion, this tree peony has just opened its first flower of the year ... with three more buds following right behind this one.  (I don't know what variety this is, because I lost the tag.)

In the greenhouse, there are flowers on 'Climbing Baby Darling' (a sweet climbing miniature rose).  It looks as if the flowers are pressing their faces to the glass, wanting to go out to the garden with all the other roses. 

Patience, little rose.  Your time will come, and you will get your own spot in the garden very soon ... I promise.

All of these photos were taken this afternoon.  I imagine that things are going to start happening very quickly, once this weather front moves through in the next few days and sunny, warm weather returns.  As soon as I have a better idea of timing, and I see when my calendar will allow me to be here, I will let you know when the garden will be open for visitors.  In the meantime, expect to be totally overloaded with roses for the next few weeks.  It's going to be glorious!