Thirty Days of Mr. Rogers ... Day Twenty-Four

Mr. Rogers said, "I received a letter from a parent who wrote:  'Mr. Rogers, how do you do it?  I wish I were like you.  I want to be patient and quiet and even-tempered, and always speak respectfully to my children.  But that just isn't my personality.  I often lose my patience and even scream at my children.  I want to change from an impatient person into a patient person, from an angry person into a gentle one.'

Today's weather was unseasonably warm.  It was a great day for working outside, though I had a sad duty to accomplish ... removing two large roses that were infected with Rose Rosette Disease.

"Just as it takes time for children to understand what real love is, it takes time for parents to understand that being 'always' patient, quiet, even-tempered, and respectful isn't necessarily what 'good' parents are.  In fact, parents help children by expressing a wide range of feelings -- including appropriate anger.  All children need to see that the adults in their lives can feel anger and not hurt themselves or anyone else when they feel that way."

Instead of being depressed about removing these roses, I have decided to approach it as an opportunity to do something different in their spaces ... making lemonade out of lemons, as a rose friend in Georgia reminded me.

Me:  I was a stay-at-home mom and raising my children was my career ... my most important life's work.  As much as I would love to say (honestly) that I was perfect and patient and the best Mom ever, I have to admit that I was human.  There were times when circumstances were beyond what I could handle calmly, and I would lose my temper.  It's okay to be human ... in fact, it's all we CAN be.

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During the month of November, I plan to share wisdom from Mr. Rogers with you each day (from the book "The World According to Mr. Rogers") ... Mr. Rogers's words accompanied by everyday images from life here at Hartwood Manor ... this place that I am blessed to call HOME.

Flowers on Friday -- Hollywood Cemetery

We have had more rain than usual this summer, which is fueling unprecedented summer grass and weed growth.  The crew at Hollywood Cemetery have all they can do to keep up with the grass at the cemetery, and the rest of the landscaping has had to take a back seat to mowing ... sounds like what's happened here, too.  Our summers are usually hot and dry, and grass goes dormant, so there is ample time to do summer clean up on trees and shrubs and roses.  Not this summer.

It had been six weeks since I visited Hollywood Cemetery to check on the roses there.  We got the roses there off to a good start this year during our Volunteer Rose Day in March, and my own garden has needed as much of my attention as I can give it right now.  Yesterday seemed like a good day to hop into the Jeep and take a drive to Hollywood.

My first stop is always the Musk Rose in the Crenshaw plot.  Summer is this rose's best season (as it begins to bloom later than most other roses, and it does well in our hot weather.).  The sweet fragrance of this rose met me on the breeze even before I entered the fenced plot where it is planted.

 

 

 

 

It is not unusual for large, older examples of the Musk Rose like this one to have a few canes that revert to the original form of the species and begin to produce single flowers (flowers with only one row of petals).  This is a charming feature of the Crenshaw rose, and we are always very careful to remove as few canes as possible when pruning ... so we don't accidently remove the single-flowering ones.

 

 

See the single flowers on the left center of this photo?

 

I visited about forty of the 130+ roses at the cemetery yesterday, to check their condition, how well they are doing after their spring pruning, and making note of anything that may need attention right now.  One rose that needed some immediate help was the 'Duchesse de Brabant' on the Armistead plot.  I found that it was almost completely covered by a rogue wild grape vine.

 

All it took was a quick word with Donald, the grounds supervisor, and the problem was corrected right then.  Donald stopped what he was doing and went right over to take care of it.  He cut the vine off at the ground, pulled it off the rose, and made note to have a member of his crew dig the rest of the vine out of the ground as soon as he could.  The rose is pretty sad looking right now, but it will recover fairly quickly.

I'm pretty sure that the rose on the Bland plot is 'Carefree Beauty'. 

The red China rose on the Dorsey-Cosby plot was hugely overgrown before volunteers worked on it in March.  To my eye, it is still way too tangled with old, unproductive growth and needs some more work.  Yesterday wasn't the day for this, so I made a note, took some photos, and moved on.

Our rainy spring and summer have not been kind to the China roses, which are struggling to keep their leaves in the wet conditions.

 

 

 

 

There were some roses of note in the far sections of the cemetery, over toward Jefferson Davis's grave.  The Lyons plot has two nice roses on it ... probably 'Champneys' Pink Cluster'.

Near the Lyons roses, there is a pink rose that was just starting a new cycle of bloom.  It looks a lot like "Natchitoches Noisette" to me, but I can't say for sure at this point.

It's not all good news today, I'm sorry to say.  Among the roses I visited, I found three with Rose Rosette Disease.  I told Donald about them, and he assured me that they would be removed either today or tomorrow.  As far as I know, none of these three are significant or rare ... I guess this is something to be thankful for.

Barnhart plot, Section K

 

Branford plot, Section D

 

Tompkins plot, Section D

Whenever I'm at Hollywood, I don't usually spend any time in the newer section of the cemetery.  I did yesterday, though, because I wanted to get some photos of the roses on the newer graves for the program about Hollywood and it's roses that I am working on for a conference in November.  The roses in this section are mostly Knock Out, which is appropriate for new graves I guess.  Yesterday, I saw a statue that I had never noticed before ... a sweet life-size concrete dog, wearing a collar with what I assume is his mama's inscription.  So touching.

 

 

By the time I finished for the day, I was tired and sweaty and slightly sunburned where I forgot to apply sunblock.  It was a good day, and I got a lot done ... it's always a good day when I'm at Hollywood!

Goodnight, Crepuscule

'Crepuscule' is a Tea Noisette climbing-style rose that grows on the east fence of my Rose Field.  It is almost carefree, very disease resistant, has flowers in a beautiful shade of gold/apricot, and it is a favorite of many a warm-weather rose gardener.  It didn't start out as one of my favorites, but it has grown on me over the years ... this rose asks so little and gives so much.

 

 

 

In May, I found abnormal new growth on one of the canes ... Rose Rosette Disease.  Since the diseased shoots were on the far end of a large, mature cane, and there was no sign of disease anywhere else, I may have caught it early before it spread throughout other parts of the plant.  There was a chance that I could save the rose by cutting that cane off at the base ... which I promptly did, and I disposed of it in the trash.  (and I disinfected my pruners with 91% alcohol in a little sprayer that I keep with me at all times, for just such an occasion.)

I laid the cane on the front of our white golf cart to get the best contrast between the normal and abnormal shoots.

 

 

There's no mistaking this for anything other than Rose Rosette Disease.

 

 

The other evening as I was walking through the garden, I saw a new shoot on a different part of Crepuscule that showed RRD symptoms.  I don't play around when it comes to RRD ... the rule I use when dealing with this disease is simple:  If RRD symptoms are on one cane and localized, I can try to save the rose by removing that cane.  If the disease returns, the rose must be removed.  If the disease is in more than one location on the rose when I first find it, I don't attempt to save it ... I remove the whole rose as soon as I can.  It's a brutal way to be, but it has to be done. 

 

RRD is a fatal rose disease, but it can take years to kill an individual rose.  In the meantime, the infected rose is a potent source of virus the can spread to other roses in the garden. 

 

 

The red shoot you see here is normal, healthy new growth on a different cane.

 

 

In the case of this rose, I am fortunate that it is not one of my rare ones.  It still hurts to lose it, as this is the third rose with RRD so far this year that I am removing.

 

R.I.P. 'Crepuscule' ... and 'Buff Beauty' ... and 'Climbing Radiance'.

 

... sigh ...

 

 

 

Blue Sky Day

After a dreary, rainy morning today, the sun came out at lunchtime and the sky cleared and it is absolutely a perfect fall day!  While I was outside playing with the dogs, I brought along my camera to capture a few of the things that caught my eye.
 
This is a view of our future studio/guesthouse/workshop building that I don't think I have shown you before.  I have such plans for this wonderful little building ... but I must wait till I get a few more things off my plate before I can even think of scheming its renovation.  In the meantime, it's great for storage.

 

 

Crepuscule is really showing off today!  I like this rose a lot, with its fragrant clusters of apricot-colored flowers.

 

 

 

We have already discussed my love affair with 'Mutabilis' many times.  It seems that the little flower bees concur ... they love it, too.

 

 

 

My "Yellow Seedling" keeps getting better and better.  It is four years old now, and about 4 feet high ... blooms all the time and is completely free of blackspot.  I have cuttings of it in my workshop propagation window, and I hope it will root so I have plants to share and test next spring. 

 

 

 

Not everything in the garden is sunshine and roses, though.  As I looked up from taking the photo of the Yellow Seedling, an errant patch of red growth caught my eye ... Rose Rosette Disease has come again this year.

 

It is perfectly normal for many roses to have bright red new growth.  Growth like this, which is rampant and abnormal for the variety, is a sign of a problem.  In this case, the problem is Rose Rosette Disease.

 

 

This is a cane on 'Marie Nabonnand'.  I also found disease symptoms on 'Alba Meideland', 'Climbing Pinkie' and "Puerto Rico".  Though I could remove the symptomatic canes and wait till next spring to see if the disease manifests itself on other parts of the affected plants, I won't do that in this case.  The roses that are affected are relatively common, and I will not risk any chance of transmission from them to the rest of the garden.

 

In 2011, I wrote about Rose Rosette Disease HERE.  The best online reference resource is Ann Peck's e-book, found HERE.  If you grow roses, read it and get educated.

 

Finding four roses in the garden in such dire straits put a definite damper on my fine fall mood.  I'm trying to be positive about this ... at least the affected roses aren't my rare ones.  I have to keep telling myself, RRD may mean the death of the infected rose, but it will not prevent me from growing and enjoying my roses.

 

 

Staunton's Thornrose Cemetery Roses

With a name like Thornrose Cemetery, one would think that this place would be full of roses.  I have heard that it was like that years ago, but this is definitely not the case today.   Rose Rosette Disease made an appearance in 2002, and most of the roses that once grew here are now gone.

 

 

 

 

As I entered the cemetery's main gate, I saw three roses ... two tall white Noisettes and one pink, cluster-flowered shrub.

 

This is one of the Noisettes.  I didn't photograph the pink shrub.

 

 

I cruised slowly through the cemetery, and it took a while for me to find any more roses at all.  The first one I saw was probably a wild Multiflora ... perhaps planted by a seed dropped by a bird.  The next one (two, actually) were pink Rugosas.  One, pictured above and below, is probably 'Pink Grootendorst'.  It was about four feet high, and is very healthy and vigorous.

 

 

 

 

 

Beside 'Pink Grootendorst' was another pink rugosa.  The foliage is very similar to 'Pink Grootendorst', but the flowers were different ... much more delicate and not fringed like PG.

 

 

 

 

 

The final rose I found is one of my favorites ... one I can identify just about anywhere, even without flowers (which is a good thing, since it only blooms in the spring) ... Banshee.  Banshee's growth habit varies, depending on location, but her distinctive foliage gives her away every time.

 

 

 

 

 

This Banshee was growing in the shade of a large tree, and it appears that its leaves were beginning to shut down as fall arrives.  Banshee in my garden, planted as a sucker from a plant in growing in a cemetery in King William, Virginia, is growing in full sun and has happily reached eight feet high.  (Here's a photo of a flower from my Banshee, so you can see how lovely she is.)

 

 

 

I came away from Thornrose Cemetery feeling a bit lost.  I know that there were once many more roses growing there, but those are but a memory. 

 

Isn't that what a cemetery is, after all ... a place for memories.  In this case, we have memorials to memories of loved ones ... and memories of roses that once were.

 

 

Hollywood Cemetery Roses ... The Circle of Life

Let's finish up our visit to Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery with some views of things as they have changed in the years that I have been visiting here.

This is a rose that caught my eye in 2008.  In a garden of antique roses, most of which are soft shades of pink or white, with the occasional darker pink or China red thrown in, it was unusual to spot a bright yellow rose bush.

(photo taken May 2009)

I pocketed a few hips from this rose that day, and I raised two seedlings from them.  Not knowing what its true name is, I dubbed it Mama Rose.  In the years since then, it has been a quest for me to identify this rose, and I finally succeeded last year ... this is Autumn Sunset.  You will recognize the following photo as the one I use for my Blogger profile photo.

Mama Rose (she will always be Mama Rose to me) has been declining since I first saw her.  First one cane died, then more, and now she is completely dead.  I imagine the cemetery workers will remove her remains this winter.

(photo taken October 2011)

There has been a lot of work done in Presidents' Circle, where James Monroe and John Tyler are buried.  The old asphalt roads have been removed to make the area into a pedestrian-only circle, and the grass paths are now laid with granite pavers.  There are new trees and benches, and the area looks great.  The roses that were there, however, were a casualty of the construction.

Here is Madame Berkeley.  She was once a large, lovely tea rose.  Now she is a dead stump.

I couldn't find a photo of this bush when it was alive.  I can't believe I never photographed it.

Same thing with Old Blush.  There are other examples of Old Blush in the cemetery ... but this was the most prominent one, and the one that was marked on the cemetery's map of roses in their tourist brochure.

May 2009

October 2011

There was once a beautiful "Smith's Parish" Tea rose near Mme. Berkeley.  I didn't find any trace of it this past week.

May 2009.  You can see my favorite sculpture of the grieving woman in the background.

Artsy shot of "Smith's Parish", using a fill flash to illuminate the roses,

with President Monroe's grave in the background.

The news is not all grim in Presidents' Circle.  The 'Mrs. B. R. Cant' rose that I showed you the other day is quite a survivor.  While her neighbor roses died, apparently as a result of the construction, she is coming back quite nicely.

This was 'Mrs. B. R. Cant' in May 2009.  She is at least eight feet tall and ten feet wide.

In October 2011, she is now less than three feet high and four feet wide ... but she is doing very well and should one day return to her former glorious size and form.

Not too far from Presidents' Circle, in the Currie plot, is a Polyantha rose that was once a beautiful haystack of green foliage and waxy pink flowers.

Now, this rose is suffering from Rose Rosette Disease, which is a fatal virus that is transmitted by a mite.  (Click HERE to see a post to learn more about this disease)  I took a handful of cuttings from a portion of this plant that doesn't show signs of infection, so there is chance that I can offer the cemetery a replacement plant in the next year or two.  (These cuttings will be kept in total isolation until they are rooted and growing, and I am sure that they pose no threat of infection.) 

On top of a hill overlooking the James River, the Andrews plot had a beautiful 'Safrano' growing beside the gate.

(photo taken in 2010)

This rose must have been downed by a storm, because it is now laying broken on the ground.  Part of the rose is still alive, and blooming, but the trunk is too stiff to get it back to its upright position against the fence without breaking it off.  I imagine that the grounds crew will cut it off and hope for it to grow back from the stump.  Cross your fingers.

Same view as the photo above.

A little photoshopped line so you can see where the trunk is in the grass, connecting the bottom of the rose to the top part.

There is live growth at the base of this rose, so it should survive.

Around the corner and up a hill from Jefferson Davis's grave, I caught a glimpse of brilliant yellow that just didn't fit the scene.  As I walked that direction, I realized that it is a beautiful yellow miniature rose that is healthy and vigorous and blooming like crazy.  It's just that the color was totally weird and out of place in this setting.  Another 'circle of life' moment, I guess ... tastes change and newer roses get a place in the landscape of Hollywood.

This little bush was full of ripe hips, so it I don't think you'll be surprised to hear that I pinched a handful of them to take home to grow over the winter.

One rose that I have to check on every time I visit Hollywood Cemetery is the Musk rose in the Crenshaw plot.  This important historic rose was once thought to be extinct, until it was rediscovered here.  It has since been found in a couple of other places, all related to the Crenshaw family, and we can thank them for preserving this rose for rose lovers everywhere to enjoy. 

The hot, dry weather of our past two summers has been hard on this rose.  There are quite a few dead canes on it and it's not as tall and vigorous as it was a few years ago, but it's relatively healthy and doing fine.  All it needs is bit of pruning to remove the dead parts and the weedy tree seedlings that are growing inside of it.

The flowers on the Musk rose were too high for me to photograph, but I did get this shot of its beautiful buds.

Hollywood Cemetery is a private cemetery that is well cared for and is quite aware of its status as a national landmark.  It is open to the public and the staff offers walking tours every morning (April through October).  To learn more, visit the Hollywood Cemetery web site.  I especially enjoy the History Slideshow, with 50 slides of cemetery attractions, and fantastic descriptions.