About Me

My photo
I am a retired English teacher and department head, the mother of three grand mother of four, and have been married to the same man for 52 years. I subscribe to Dr. PM Forni's concept of Civility. I was born in South Philadelphia and grew up in the 'burbs. I love soft pretzels and cheesesteaks, the Phillies, the Eagles, and San Diego. I love being Mom, Aunt Kathy, Nona Kathy, and Teacher. I spend a lot of time in my gardens in the spring and summer, and in the winter I plan what I'm going to plant. I also am an avid reader and photographer.

Translator!

Sunday, March 29, 2020

Promising a Rose Garden

For gardeners that first flush of bloom and color is of paramount importance.  For rosarians the first flush in the rose garden is ecstasy.  The First Flush varies from year to year in magnitude; some years better than others.

There was a time when I could experience this in my own garden with numerous hybrid tea roses of brilliant color and pungent fragrance.  Due to lack of sun, I can now grow only Knockouts and a few antique roses, and while these are beautiful, they cannot compare to the first flush of the tea roses that occurs around the second or third week of May in our area.  And so I must seek this elsewhere.

Last year was a special year in that on the 17th of May I had surgery to remove cancer from my breast.  I knew I was facing a bit of a recuperation and then radiation so the First Flush took on even more importance to me.  So during Memorial Weekend we headed down to Brookside Gardens, a public garden in Montgomery County that features a beautiful rose garden.

We could smell the roses even before we could see them.  I approached the garden and there it was:  one of the most magnificent flushes I'd ever seen! 

I headed to a bench in the middle of the garden when someone yelled,  "YOU CAN'T GO IN THERE!   WE'RE HAVING A PRIVATE EVENT"!  Sure enough folks were inside the garden milling about.  We have been there before during events, even sharing the gardens with an occasional bride, but had never before been blocked from the garden -- especially on a holiday weekend -- and rudely at that.  After being taken aback, I replied I'd only take some pictures of the roses from a respectful distance and we would leave.  

As we walked the path to leave the gardens a garden volunteer kept yelling at us that we couldn't go in, they had to rent out the gardens to earn money, but if we wanted to wait two hours we could go inside.  We didn't.  And needless to say, we won't be going back.


1 comment:

Linda Reeder said...

I had no idea that such a lovely beginning to this post would have such a dark ending. Sorry you had a bad experience. I guess I needed something more uplifting today.