My grandma was an amazing gardener; she could encourage anything to grow-but I must admit that my faith in her knowledge and ability was shaken by this rose.
I also love gardening, and we had discussed my attempting to grow roses on several occasions over the years, but I had never somehow got around to it.
Until, that is, late summer 2010; grandma decided she was giving me one of her roses and that was that! By then she was in her nineties; very frail, almost blind, very deaf... She needed help to hobble down the garden and dig it up; as she handed it over, I smiled and thanked her and promised to plant it as soon as I got home....
...there was no way it was going to survive though, let alone grow. The plant was a hollow stick about 2 feet in length, with no roots at all!
I still planted it of course; I'm a great believer in giving things a chance, and I kept an eye on it, as the months passed by.
It survived...
In 2011, the rose shot out two long runners, proving that it was a rambler (which is what we had hoped); I let them go where they wanted and waited...
Over the winter of 2011/12, grandma became increasingly ill and she passed away in April 2012, but her rose flourished.
It grew like a weed; long runners that had to be trained against the wall, covered in the spikiest thorns! Despite the rain, despite the winds, it has been covered in scented pale pink blooms, in heavy floribunda clusters. The runners for next year are now growing at a frightening speed and need training and securing; I'll need to buy some thicker gloves for that!
The idea is to train it over the gap where my brick arch used to be...I had been hoping for some man-help with putting up the arch, but have been asking since March now...lol...so will do it myself.
Everything you see against the wall in the foreground is growing from that hollow stick-with-no-roots...proving that where there us life, there is always hope.
I'm sorry I doubted you grandma, and I miss you...
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