They're like blues-picking ninjas

April 30, 2010

So, I'm already making up stupid titles for my blog posts. Sorry.

Something special happened in my back yard yesterday and I want to talk about it. When I went to my Mom's house for Christmas '08, I took about 60 cuttings from rose bushes my Dad raised. They'd started turning woody, so they really needed a trimming, anyway, and I wanted to clone them for my house. I dipped each cutting in rooting hormone, planted it, and covered it with a mason jar, making a mini-greenhouse. Over the next few weeks, they took root and almost all of them survived....

Until I decided to put them in pots.

I spent a lot of time getting the soil mixture right, I watered them perfectly, and gave them great fertilizer. Just the same, all of them died, except for one. See, I ran out of pots to plant them in, so I left one in the bed where I'd rooted them. Over the course of 2009, it grew 5 branches, the longest about 4 feet long. I was impressed with the growth, but it looked scruffy and skinny and sickly. I didn't think it was going to do too well, but it was the only clone that survived.

Fast forward to April and the plant has far surpassed my hopes. It is full, aggressive, and is blooming. Yesterday, the first bloom opened. It is a very light pink, more of a white with pink tint. When I saw it, I decided to name the plant "Shauna." I know it isn't fair to say that and not explain why, but let's leave it at this... the name has a special significance to me and I didn't pluck it out of the air. The bloom is what made me choose the name and my mind had been dwelling on "Shauna" for a while, anyway.

I can't wait to clone this bush. I intend to have it growing all along the fence in my back yard.

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