On 14 Jun 2003 20:56:43 GMT, (Unique Too) wrote:

(Shiva) writes:

My first couple of years growing roses, the very phrase "shovel prune"
rubbed me the wrong way.


And the cost. Some people talked about shovel pruning lots of roses, just
because they didn't like them. How could someone not like a rose, any rose?
And then they just bought more, wow, what a waste of money.

Exactly!

[...] maybe I'll just keep them in pots. I have others to put in
their place.


This is the next phase. Maybe I can baby it back to health, maybe someone else
would like it better. Maybe it's just my climate or culteral practices. I
won't shovel prune the rose, I'll save it.

Do you have a row of sad potted roses like I do? A virused Sonia
Rykiel, the white rose that was supposed to be Perdita but was not,
the $4 bagged Europeana that is just stumps struggling to sprout for
year two? The dying Angel Face, the damned-near-dead Chrysler Imperial
(another $4 bagged rose that never took off), the tragic Antigua that
blooms maybe three times a year? You know, Julie, I looked at that row
this afternoon and started thinking ... MINIS. I'm going to try
growing minis in those pots! Anything but those wastes of soil, water
and air.

And then it hits me--how perfectly simple and beautiful it would be to
cut them up, dig them up, and toss them out with the yard trash.
Several less things to worry about. More room for pretty roses th


This is the next step. Why should I even bother with a rose that I don't
enjoy? Potting them up, babying them, even giving them away is extra work, I
could be spending time with the roses I enjoy. The shovel it right there, it
really isn't as hard or time consuming when you don't have to worry about
saving the big root ball. Garbage cans. It works. Now that plant I never
liked or suffered from too much disease or whatever. It's gone! More space
for roses that I will enjoy, more time to care for them properly.

Precisely! And THIS time I am waiting until next year to buy them. No,
I really mean it. I am going to PLAN the front bed. Save the planning
for the winter, maybe. Unless there are some I just have to order in
the fall! No last minute trips to the nurseries this summer where the
roses that did not sell will wave their spottie leaves at me
whispering things like "EVELYN! $5! YOU can work your magic on me, you
know you can!"


... So now, it's one comes in, one goes out. So far I haven't had any
problem finding the one to remove. There's always one not living up to my
expectations.


This is what I am moving around to, I think. Maintaining about 80-100
roses by replacing ones I have given a chance but still do not like. I
have never been much of a "collector," anyway. It takes a certain sort
of mindset to enjoy collecting for collecting's sake, just to say you
have this many whatever it may be, or every single kind of whatever it
is. And when the work outstrips the enjoyment it must be time for less
roses!


Yep, although it's initially painful, the shovel can feel real good.

It sure did today!

Julie