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| Enchanted Peace Rose |
Sunday was a perfect, sun-shining day, though the birds seemed a bit nervous. They not only have radar (in a manner of speaking) but also a great sensitivity to barometer readings.
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| The Clethra, known for its tiny bottle brush blooms, exudes a sweet and cinnamon fragrance, often by surprise. |
By afternoon, with no winds in sight, we could see that the brooding clouds were warning us. Sunday landscapers pruned trees and bushes. Sassy supervised while I began pouring wood mulch around the new and old rose bushes, with additional attention paid to the mature Clethra bushes - known as Summer-sweet and Sweet Spice. I call it the Cinnabon tree because the breeze will carry an enchanting aroma to visitors and workers alike, but not so early in the season.
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| Queen Elizabeth, developed by a Lutheran Creationist, is still on the throne as one of the best roses in the world. His other famous rose, Chrysler, has outlasted the car and corporation. |
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Bees love the way Bee Balm provides so much food while they are blooming. Hummers love them too. Tiny flowers have little glory for most people, but they make up for bloom size with their constant parade of airborne visits. |
The Military Gardening Group split after lunch to get things done before the predicted week of rain. The radar predicted a massive system moving west to east, starting in the wee hours of Monday.
I mulched the new roses, the mature Clethras, and the mature roses not appearing to have gone wild. (Scholars are divided until the wild bushes bloom dark red.) I filled several holes where the messy Spirea bushes were removed. Last of all, the Rugosa rose, known for its hardiness and big hips, got a new wooden floor. Rugosa roses are tough and tolerate drought, but they love attention for their fruit - the large, bright red pods known as hips. In theory, that is the only rose I let go to seed. Birds and squirrels enjoy the fruit (hips) and people make tea and Vitamin C tablets from them.
I am just a subordinate in gardening. The Thunderstorms of the Creator seem to say, "Step aside. I will water and fertilize the plants with water and usable nitrogen. I will wake up the sleeping plants and soften the soil for earthworms. All the soil creatures will multiply and hold that rain in their bodies as new generations form."
Isaiah 55: 6 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth:
a - it shall not return unto me void,
b - but it shall accomplish that which I please,
c - and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
12 For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
