My husband does the signs on the sandwich board for me. Isn't he great?
Like a hostess managing a party, I have things that I want to be 'just so' for my guests. All of the nursery roses are groomed and alphabetized on the benches, so they show their best and are easy to locate.
The gardens aren't exactly what I had hoped they'd be for the first day of operation this season. (I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist ... I thought I'd tell you in case you hadn't figured it out by now.) We have had three big storms since my Open Garden event two weeks ago, and some of the roses are a bit bedraggled because of it. Our thunderstorm last night cleared away the heat and humidity of the past two days, but it flattened a few of the roses. I don't have time to deal with this, so guests will see flattened roses. That's just how it is.
I have a couple of friends who are coming tomorrow to write up sales for me, so I can concentrate on helping visitors choose their roses and answering questions. There are always a LOT of questions. This place is overwhelming to first-timers, and I like to help people focus and take it all in. It's my garden, after all, and I'm used to it. Sometimes I forget people's reactions to the fact that I have 500+ roses in the ground, and 300 in pots waiting to be planted. It's not something you see every day.
I got a present in the mail yesterday.
Deb in Bozeman, Montana, and I traded roses. I sent her a Pink Baltimore Belle to test in her unbelievably harsh climate, and she sent me a real treasure. It's an unknown rose that has been passed along from neighbor to neighbor, making its way across the country for over a hundred years. We don't know what this rose is, but I intend to try to find out in the next year or so ... after it settles in here and blooms. Deb calls it "Hallie's Rose" after her neighbor who gave it to her, and "Hallie's Rose" it will stay.
It's a good thing that Deb packaged her rose nice and securely. This is how the package was sitting in my mailbox:
The rose is fine, despite its sideways trip across the country.
I have to go outside and get some things done now. Wish me luck tomorrow.
(written by Hartwood Roses. Hartwood Roses blog)