Falling in Love with Falling in Love. One of Those $5 Roses from the Gurney Offer

When you combine Moonstone with Marilyn Monroe how can you help but create a star? We guarantee you'll "fall in love" with these full, shapely blooms of exhibition form. The pure pink color softens to white on the outer petals and on the reverse to give the flowers a surreal glow. The strong rose and fruit fragrance is downright heavenly. The upright plants stay tidy and compact. Just right for tucking right up front in the flower border. Large dark green foliage clothes long stems perfect for cutting. Flower Size: 5-7". Fragrance: Strong rose and fruit. Hybridizer: Carruth, 2007.

The Edmunds photo captures the white contrast, Falling in Love.

Let us start with a major blooming cycle, so good that I asked Mrs. Ichabod to see the first two blooms - Falling in Love. The photo above does not do the rose justice, which is true of all rose photos. The best portrait never captures the subtle colors.

Marilyn Monroe Rose

Moonstone Rose

The story behind planting this rose will impress the flintiest heart in Lutherdom. I bought 10 roses for $5 each from Weeks Roses via Gurney's. They only promised two of each, a variety of colors.

When I took roses to Ecclesia College, I cut the ones in full bloom or ready to bloom. I soon heard the registrar's office was keen on roses, so they got regular deliveries of whatever roses were ready. The assistant kept asking for one rose again and again, "Pink and it smelled so good."

I thought the rose died at one point and I almost pulled it out entirely, but it was still alive and had its tag - Falling in Love. Keeping those tags in place is a chore, and I often do not bother.  I looked up its description and realized that was the rose she kept looking for. First year bare root roses leaf out, bloom, and take some time to bloom again. The roots are getting established and - in my case - the sod is turning into compost.

The assistant loved the rose without knowing the name, but the name fit - she was engaged to be married, a situation that developed that year. We attended her wedding and saw the old and young college crowd. I told the bride the name of that mystery rose.

For the rose garden we decided to grow one row with the same name and characteristics. The garden began with a variety and we still like that, but the advantage of several bushes of the same variety is putting together a good bouquet all alike or contrasting with white rose. That was my plan with white (John Paul II) and red (Veterans Honor) but the John Paul roses do not last well when cut. Growing on the bush, John Paul roses are heavenly and have a good fragrance.  Most roses outlast JP in the vase, so I may look for a better white rose. Oh the hype!

On a hot, sunny day, in the perfect place to show off, Falling in Love burst into bloom, two roses together. Aww. I will get a photo tomorrow, plus progress photos of various plants.

KnockOut roses are the easiest to abuse,
as so many are eager to prove.

K Mart Rose Killers
I stopped by K Mart to look around. Outside were plants roasting in the sun, on sale perhaps. All the roses were KnockOuts, not in bloom but with all the petals off. I touched the soil - hard as a rock. They were trying to sell dead KnockOuts for $16 each. Anything above FREE! was too much.

Recent Developments
The Elephant ears have reached the surface and are ready to inspire and intimidate the neighborhood.

The mature tomatoes have ripened into a deep red. I have to serve the slugs some beer tonight in hopes they will stay in the bowl long enough to be devoured by some night creature - a raccoon, a dog, or some other varmint.

All the berry plants - especially pokeweed - are doing well and ready to fruit.

Poison Hemlock
My giant beneficial bug plant is indeed a Poison Hemlock, a toxic member of the carrot family. Fortunately my explorations have not caused an allergic reaction to it.

The plant is crawling with mature and young ladybugs. Tonight I spent some time watching them from a few inches away. Tomorrow I will put on my bunny suit and dispose it as toxic waste.

A good covering helps when getting rid of Poison Hemlock.
The clothing is washed immediately after.

Rose to Water Pails - Tansy to Mulch. Neighboring Gardeners

Giant Alium bulbs are fun to grow.

I have my eyes open for things to give to Almost Eden Gardens and Nursery. For instance, I have Giant Alium (garlic) finishing, and some giant Elephant Ears starting to grow. Sharing bulbs gives him a chance to try some plants without spending extra money. The Alium has doubled, so I can divide it. The Elephant Ear bulbs have to be pulled in the fall, so I should have something to share there.

Tansy is reputed to repel flies.

Wiki:

Tansy can be used as in companion planting and for biological pest control. It is planted alongside potatoes to repel theColorado potato beetle, with one study finding tansy reduced the beetle population by 60 to 100%.^[6][15][16]

In England tansy is placed on window sills to repel flies; sprigs are placed in bed linen to drive away pests, and it has been used as an ant repellent.^[17]

In the 1940s, distilled tansy oil mixed with fleabane, pennyroyal and diluted alcohol was a well known mosquito repellent; collectors were paid five cents a pound for tansy in full bloom.^[6][18] Research has found that tansy extracts do indeed repel mosquitoes, but not as effectively as products containing DEET.^[6][19] In 2008, researchers in Sweden investigated the use of tansy to repel ticks, showing a 64–72% repellency for each oil constituent.^[20]

I ended up with 5,000 Tansy seeds, which mystified him until his farmer's wife mother told him about the herb. I did not need 5,000 so he got the bulk. When I asked for some of his wood mulch from chipping a tree, he drove two front end loader buckets full to me. That was a small loader, but it was so much better than wheelbarrowing the stuff across a large field.

The painter, whose wife got roses on Mothers' Day, gave me five-gallon pails for hauling water, following me to the rose garden to hand them over.

Meanwhile, our helper came over to patch up the mulch in the rose garden, where patches of grass or weeds broke through. Weeds love mulched, earthwormed soil as much as roses do. All we need to do is hide the sun from them and turn them into compost.

Sound Doctrine
False doctrine grows well where sound doctrine has taken root. Interest in spiritual matters grows and people with their own agenda take advantage.

The false teachers of mainline Protestantism have been almost unopposed. They do not need to be invited. They blow in with the wind, like weed seeds. Or someone leaves a deposit, with fertilizer, like a bird, and the new dogma takes root. False doctrine grows abundantly with big taproots or prolific seed production  - or both. But false doctrine is sterile.

People think of many healing and beneficial bug plants as weeds, but they contribute without doing harm. The Creating Word gave us most of our medicines in herbs that thrive in bad soil. Deadly Nightshade has an ugly berry and is toxic to farm animals, but the plant produces a stomach medicine.

Some plants are just toxic. I was following the growth of a beautiful member of the carrot family. The carrot family carries its seeds in the form of an umbrella. This plant was more of a cluster and continued to grow taller. I tried various names - even my neighbor was puzzled.

• Not Queen Anne's Lace - blooming too early.
• Not quite Angelica - some wrong characteristics.
• Not Fennel - no licorice aroma.
• Not Celery, Not Parsley. None of those nice smelling family members.
• Not Poison Hemlock - no purple splash. Wait a minute. There are purple splotches near the bottom!

I showed the suspect plant to Almost Eden. He pointed out all the baby ladybugs on it. "Don't be in a hurry to get rid of it." I went back to the comparisons, including another evil  plant - Cow Parsley. Everything pointed to Poison Hemlock, especially its attraction to beneficial bugs.

For example, poison or spotted hemlock (Conium maculatum), a native of Europe, and a similar North American species, spotted water hemlock (Cicuta maculata), are both exceedingly appealing to beneficial insects of all sorts. They are found across the entire North American continent, but both are incredibly poisonous to humans and livestock, making them a very bad selection for the insectary border (just ask Socrates—he was executed by being forced to drink a concoction of poison hemlock). Both plants are also considered noxious invasive weeds in many regions. However, these species are very valuable nectar and pollen sources for numerous beneficial insects and—even though you probably don’t want them in your yard or garden—a roadside patch can provide food for many beneficials.

Walliser, Jessica. Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control (Kindle Locations 1532-1537). Timber Press. Kindle Edition. 

Attractive to baby ladybugs - that  is a strike AGAINST the mystery plant. 

In another study, begun in 1928 and lasting thirty-three years, researchers documented more than fifteen thousand insect parasitoids present on several hundred different plant species in central Illinois to examine what kinds of plants attract what kinds of insect visitors. They found that the plants with the most parasitic wasp species present were members of the carrot family (Apiaceae)—with an average of twelve parasitic wasp species per plant species! Other important plant families for these parasitoids were the aster family (Asteraceae), the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae), the pea and bean family (Fabaceae), and several others. The carrot family is so important to parasitoids because members of this family have those open, exposed nectaries. The other plant families frequented by parasitoids had more concealed nectaries and so were found to be more attractive to certain wasp families but not others. The ten plant species that hosted the largest diversity of parasitic wasp species offered nectar that was easily accessed by wasps with all sorts of different mouthparts.


Walliser, Jessica. Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control (Kindle Locations 1522-1529). Timber Press. Kindle Edition. 

False Doctrine Must Be Removed
Like the Poison Hemlock I am growing by accident, false doctrine must be removed. Poison Hemlock kills from the feet up, so the victim knows he is dying. The plant must be carefully cut down and its base poisoned with Roundup.

WELS - ELCA - LCMS - What could possibly go wrong?

Walmart Shareholders Meeting - A Dream Come True for the Booze Brothers. They Missed Seeing Their Fave No-Talent Singer-Dancer, Katy Perry

Katy Perry

Little Ichabod and I went to the Walmart Shareholders Meeting, which  combines their business meeting with an entertainment extravaganza. They keep one guest secret  from everyone, and that star sings at the end of the meeting.

I was curious why the normal line-up during the meeting was not long on celebrity. In the past many of the entertainers were nationally known (perhaps more in my generation). Finally, I said, "Is there a mystery guest?" LI did not know.

I remembered Celine Dione singing in the past, coming out at the very end while people went nuts taking photos.

Pretending to close the meeting, Katy Perry's make-up was advertised in a video and she strolled out with her dancers to do a three-song set. I said to LI, "The Booze Brothers dream come true!" That explained where the entertainment budget went. One can only imagine what makes her successful in a land gone to the dogs.

Geena Davis in a League of Their Own

We arrive early at the monthly Saturday Morning Meetings. Very early. At one meeting we sat behind the Walton (Walmart) heirs and top executives. I have talked to two of Sam Walton's children, Alice at the museum and Jim after a meeting. The family owns 51% of the stock, which comes from Walton planning his estate early and dividing the shares.

So - one meeting we were in the row behind Geena Davis, who was introducing the annual Bentonville Film Festival.

Hugh Jackman was very kind to a little girl who brought him a card during the
Christmas meeting. He greeted the family afterwards and stayed
to shake hands with those, like us, who wisely stayed around to say hello.
He is the only celebrity guest to do this - ever.

We watched Hugh Jackman leading the Christmas carols at a December meeting and shook hands with him afterwards.

Anderson Cooper came to one meeting to promote his autobiography. Once again we were front and center. We are in so many reaction shots at the meetings - cameras aimed at the crowd - that I advised LI to look toward "our" camera to avoid the monitor-stare look.

Arnold Schwarzenegger never stops entertaining.

We were fairly close to Arnold at another recent meeting. He loved telling stories about how films get made. Some fans know that he is famous for going to Walmart at all hours and buying large quantities of stuff between takes.

We spoke to Google's VP of global sales, Philipp Schindler,
after another meeting.