Little Rose in a Downtown Cemetery

Last summer, while I was spending a summer afternoon lunching and cemetery exploring with my friend Sharon, I found a small rose that I had never noticed.  I took a couple of lousy photos of it with my old iPhone 4, to remind myself to come back another day to look at it more closely, and we moved on.

A few days later, I returned with my pruners and other supplies ... to tidy up the bush and snip a few small cuttings.  One of the cuttings rooted, and the resulting plant now lives in the rose garden in our front yard.

Which rose is this?  My own plant is still too small and immature to make an accurate assessment, so I made a visit to the cemetery plant last week to see what I could figure it out.  

I was thrilled to see that the plant was much larger and healthier than when I first saw it in 2015 ... about four feet high and three feet wide, in contrast to last summer's just-over-one-foot-high size.

I think I figured out its identity.  I believe that it may be 'Clotilde Soupert'.

Bush is thick, with rounded, disease-resistant foliage.  It has very few thorns.  Flowers open pink with a darker pink center, and quickly fade almost to white.  Spent flowers turn brown and hang on the plant for a long time.  All of this definitely suggests 'Clotilde Soupert' or another rose like her.  

Do you rose people agree?

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When I opened Blogger to write this post, I noticed that it is post #1200.  Dang!  Hard to wrap my head around the fact that I have had 1200 separate things to say here since November 2008. 

Weekend Roses and an Announcement

Weather was glorious here in Hartwood over the long Labor Day weekend. The rain and wind from Tropical Storm/Hurricane/Post-tropical Cyclone Hermine stayed to our south and east, and temperatures were in the 70s and 80s for all three days ... perfect weather to slip on garden shoes and venture into the garden with my camera.  

Sit quietly, while I will bombard you with my photos from Sunday morning.

"Ruth's Tiny Polyantha"

"Lundy's Lane Yellow"

'Country Doctor'

'Pink Princess'

'Cupid'

'Prosperity'

'Joan Taylor'

"Maggie"

"Unrootable Red China"

'Homere'

"Cato's Cluster"

'Mme. Antoine Mari'

'Rhode Island Red'

'Teasing Georgia'

Unknown Noisette

'The Squire'

"Hollywood Pink Cluster"

'Marinette'

'Emmanuel'

'Tamora'

'Belle Story'

'Dorothy Rose'

"Mableton Rouletii"

"St. Thomas China"

Unknown Floribunda

"Sumerduck Cemetery"

'Tagalong'

'Lafter'

'Patty Lou'

'Fair Molly'

'Fresh Pink'

Without too much searing heat and with adequate rain this summer, and with my renewed promise to myself to pay better attention to the fertilizer and fungicide needs of the garden, my roses look better than they probably ever have.  Even though many of them are babies, either relatively newly planted or recovering from transplanting or renewal pruning, it looks as if I may finally be on the right track with most of the garden ... fingers crossed.

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... and now for the announcement part of this post ....

Want to come see the progress for yourself and support a great cause in the process?  On Sunday, September 25, 2016, 11am - 5pm, we are hosting Greyhounds Rock Fredericksburg's annual fundraiser, "Roses, Wines, and Canines" ... a day-long event with food, wine tastings with Baccus (our guest winery) and at Hartwood Winery next door, raffles and auctions, vendor market, tours of the rose garden and vineyard, and educational presentations ... on our historic property in its lovely country setting.  This is a dog-friendly event, and everyone is encouraged to bring their leashed, well-behaved canine friends.  Admission is $25 per person (children under 12 are free).  Please click HERE to register in advance, so we can plan as accurately as possible, but walk-ins are welcome.  (Just so you know, my fall schedule is completely packed, and this will be the only day this year that the garden is available for visitors.)

Magic Mushroom

Every summer, this huge, orange fungus springs up practically overnight underneath one of our oak trees.  It's pretty, but I had no idea what it was till I read an article written recently by a friend.  (I would link to the actual article, but it seems to have disappeared from her web site.  I will have to let her know about this.)

This thing is huge ... 3.6 pounds huge!

Chicken of the Woods.  A mushroom that sprouts from dead wood in the summer.  This was my first experience with mushroom foraging, so I was a bit nervous.  In our Facebook conversation, Marianne was positive about the ID, and she said, "FANTASTIC!!! And very edible.  Enjoy!"

All I had to do to ready this behemoth to cook and eat, after I harvested it from the yard, was to break it apart, discard the center woody bits, wash the pieces and let them dry.  I test tasted a few small pieces, after I cooked them thoroughly in a little bit of butter.  YUMMY!!!

The massive mushroom yielded four one-quart plastic bags full of pieces ... two for me, and two that I shared with friends.  For supper that night, I made steak and broccoli stir fry, with a good-sized helping of Chicken of the Woods mushrooms added to it.

Thin slices of mushroom cooked first ...

... then I added the steamed broccoli and grilled steak.

For breakfast this morning, I made mushroom and cheese omelettes.

Maggie

We sent Maggie to Heaven last month.  She had been sick for about a week.  In typical cat fashion, she hid the extent of her illness ... that's okay, because we did all that we could.

Maggie was our miracle kitty, the world's most expensive PetsMart cat, surviving two life-threatening conditions (Immune-Mediated Hemolytic Anemia and Hodgkin's Lymphoma), and living an incredible life in the process.

Lounging on the screened porch, as a kitten.

Helping with laundry.

She ruled the other critters in our household with a velvet paw, gently (or not-so-gently) showing each cat and dog who was the boss.

Sleeping on Daniel's bed.

Taking over Ruby's crate.

"Excuse me, this is MY windowsill!"

Even Winnie little wasn't exempt.

She probably would have been happier as an only cat, since she was so people oriented, but she coexisted relatively peacefully with Alice and Dorothy (and with Cindy and Amy before them.)

Sharing space.

Poor Maggie wasn't used to Dorothy's type of snuggling.

Maggie loved her people most of all.  She was in the middle of everything, and a constant fixture in my or my husband's lap every evening.

I have come to accept that she's gone, no longer napping somewhere in a sunshine spot.

My favorite photo of her, with her personality on full display and her neck fur barely growing back after cancer surgery.

The last photo I took of her, on the way to the vet a few days before she died.

It's weird to be here without Maggie ... she was a huge presence in our family for 15 years.

Maggie.  2001 - 2016

Godspeed, Maggie.  Mama loves you.