Roses - From Last Year - Are Budding at the Jackson Rose Farm

Hybrid tea roses are budding at the Jackson Rose Farm

Hybrid tea roses from last year are budding already. Last year our helper was shocked at how fast the newly planted roses were blooming. They do not take long from newly planted, ugly, thorny canes and drooping roots to productive bushes.

The KnockOut roses, owned by everyone now, are growing faster than taxes, and budding in the midst of red-green leaves. Fast growth is red and then turns green to start feeding the rose through photosynthesis, a long name for solar panels, which God established in every possible form.

Look at the windows. In the lower left of the two large windows are small black squares. Those are solar collectors that recharge the batteries each day for free light all night long. They only have one function while leaves also serve to evaporate air and lift water up through the plant and cool the air.

God created the rose to grow, bud, bloom, and produce seed. This spring, I even found a few seed pods (rose hips) left on the older bushes. The pods are packed with Vitamin C and eaten by birds all winter.

When the roots are established, they network with fungi - and donate carbon in exchange for elements and moisture they need from the fungi in the soil. One fungus can connect several plants at once while growing out to a lump of wood to dissolve it with powerful chemicals.

The roses are planted first. Next we lay down cardboard
over the grass and clover, then add shredded cyprus.
Daffodils have bloomed. Tulips and giant alium are next.
More mulching is needed to finish the main rose garden
and the maple tree garden.
Every old rose bush was pruned by about 50%
when the season started.
The large bushes on the right are KnockOuts.

Our helper's children walked over to assist in mulching. This works out well, because their father tells them which jobs to do to speed his work. Their mother brings over cardboard from her job. We always have a jolly time and drink Mr. Sam's bottled water.

Roses flourish with little work. All they need are:

• Pruning
• Watering
• Mulching
• Red wiggler earthworming.

Pruning seems to be the mind-block for most new gardeners. They think of pruning as taking away. But John 15, about the True Vine, identifies the two parts of pruning. One part is prune away dead wood, because nothing grows in dead wood, and it slows down the plant. The second part is to prune what is fruitful because this kind of plant (grapevine, rose) is energized by pruning and slowed down by going to seed.

Both parts of pruning help the plant and give it a growth surge. If I have a newly planted rose that is thinking rather than growing, I prune about 1/4 inch from each cane to remind the rose why it was created - to bud and bloom.

John 15 is a perfect parable, because anyone with experience in bushes or grapevine knows that the comparisons made are exactly what Jesus is teaching spiritually. Nothing grows apart from the True Vine - Christ. The dead wood is pruned away because it no longer contributes to the Body of Christ. The fruitful branches are pruned to make them even more fruitful.

Like some other terms in the New Testament, pruning or cleansing is used in a positive and a negative way. Yeast can be good or bad; either way, yeast grows and permeates. Pruning is negative in removing dead wood, but positive in cleansing the believer. Justification by faith is that cleansing. By abiding in Christ, the True Vine, we are forgiven daily (cleansed, pruned) of our sins; therefore, we flourish.

I pruned the KnockOut roses by 50% to get them growing above and below ground. When it was full of roses and the the blooms are starting to fade, like the picture above, I cut them back by 50% again. They regain their growth quickly and produce around 50 blooms per bush.

The roses cut away went all over to friends, doctors, anyone. The rose demonstrates the German adage -

A cut joy is a doubled joy. Geteilte Freude ist doppelte Freude.

Fireworks rose is a long cane full of thorns and flowers.

Garlic Small and Large To Bloom Soon - Chives Later

The alium family includes alium, garlic, onions, leeks, and chives.

The garlic cloves we planted last fall have popped up above the soil. They are hardy bulbs, but people seldom think of planting them in the fall for an early harvest in spring. Roman soldiers carried garlic bulbs as all-around cures, and garlic is still known for the same properties. We planted garlic cloves in the vegetable garden and also around the maple tree. I believe some extra cloves were planted along the fence. I failed to calculate how many cloves came from a broken up garlic bulb.

I seem to be the only one who plants giant alium, seen with the boy in the photo above. I bought Globemaster, from Dutch Gardens, which produced strong stalks and mega-blooms last time, in New Ulm. A little girl posed with some of my Globemasters and looked intimidated by their size. Hold the stalk?  She trembled at the thought.

Much smaller alium can be bought as small bulbs - but why? The giant ones are relatively rare. We took about 10 minutes planting four in the rose garden last fall.

I like garlic chives growing among the roses, since they spread through their roots, look like grass, and do the work of garlic with even less labor. Some scoff at the magical properties of garlic, making roses healthier and driving away insects. However, root exudates are taken more seriously now. One whiff of garlic chives on a hot, humid day will erase all doubts about their efficacy with insects.

Garlic chives have the advantage of producing their grassy shoots as they spread, and these can be harvested easily for soups and salads.

I do not grow onions, but they are another large component of this health-giving family.

Train whistle blowing, this one carries goats.
Riding on the train top, the sheep are full of oats.

Rocking, rolling, riding, through the snowbound land,
All bound for Springdale town, spreading tracks with sand.

Driver at the engine, Billy's on the top,
Baby goat has joined him, to warn when they should stop.

Maybe it is raining where our train will ride,
One can never really tell, forecasts can't decide.

Rocking, rolling, riding, through the snowbound land,

All bound for Springdale town, spreading tracks with sand.

Somewhere there is sunshine, somewhere there is day,

Somewhere they can see the streets, but not in Maine today.

Pruning Wakes Up Plants and Makes Them Fruitful

New gardeners are afraid to cut their precious plants, but most plants respond well to pruning and to harvesting. Pulling peas and beans off their vines will create new flowers and new pods. If you plant enough of them, you will learn what the Sorcerer's Apprentice (Disney Cartoon) is all about.

I am waiting another week to prune the crepe myrtle and rose bushes, because that will start root growth and new branches, when frost is somewhat an issue. We will get a little cold, perhaps even a little snow for Valentine's Day weekend.

Pruning is the best fertilizer to spur growth, because the entire plant responds. Naturally the roots will call for more nutrition from the fungi, handing the fungus carbon credits in return for the chemicals demanded. The plant governs this process, so why not start with the boss - the plant?

Dead wood on roses and crepe myrtles rob the plant of its vigor, so removing that will make the roots spread out more for water and food. Some branches grow into to each other; those prunes also help. The crepe myrtle has lots of tiny, useless twigs, starters that faded, so removing them and adding them to the mulch will make the bush more vibrant as it buds and flowers.

Pruning also shapes a plant, so a bush with lots of growth can be made to grow taller rather than fan out.

Trees can be pruned to death, but bushes can be cut back quite hard, by 2/3rds, and bounce back better than before.