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Mother's rose has a new bud! The first one since I transplanted the bush..
I was back living in Queensland when my mother passed away in 1997, at age 92. There would have been about sixty people who attended the funeral, much to everyone's surprise, I think. Lots of family, some I hadn't seen for years, and locals, mum was pretty well known and befriended in her community, although she had been non-compos for the last 5 years or so, and hadn't been in contact outside the house, so yes, we were surprised that so many turned up.
We had decided that the afters would be held at my place, and my sister and I, luckily, had put together a pretty good spread, so there was lots of food for everybody.
My friend and housemate Noel had entered into the spirit of the day and had placed lit candles around appropriately. He had also bought and planted a rose bush, for the occasion, and that became known as mother's rose.
I don't think he actually knew that my mother was famous for her ability to grow roses. Her small house was surrounded by these really large rosebushes, and she loved the big smelly red roses...
so how Noel had come to choose this particular rose is a bit special anyway. But that rose has been amazing, there is hardly ever a time that it doesn't have at least one bloom - and it hasn't been coddled, planted right in the way of one of the car parking spaces in the front yard, it has been pruned more to suit the space than to consider it's needs.A few months ago, I finally decided that the rose had to be moved. I have bought and planted several roses in a new garden at the back of the house, and wanted to have 'mother' in there too. So, I did the right thing, cut lots of branches to propagate, and trimmed the whole bush almost back to bare branches. And dug it up, and replanted it with lots of TLC, and my fingers crossed.
The propagating hasn't gone well - out of about 15 cuttings I have about 5 left that look promising. They all looked promising in the beginning, but, not knowing what I was doing, I think I killed them off with the wrong treatment. Oh well.
It wouldn't put out a bloom if it wasn't still alive.. would it?
5 Comments
Well, that rose is a survivor no doubt about it. I reckon your mother "chose" that rose for you and used Noel as her conduit, so to speak.
Good to hear from you, Della. I've put you on my blog list so I can catch up on what you're up to.
Hugs.
Hi Robyn, yep - mum is like that, she's managed to get a few messages through to me, and she's used Noel before too..
thanks for visiting, it IS good to catch up after so long.
:-)
Della
Dear Della ~~ Beautiful rose for your Mother who must have guided your partner to choose that lovely red rose. Glad it moved successfully for you. Take care, Love, Merle.
A nice story Della, how remarkable Noel decided on the rose.
I’m sure your mother will always be like a soft rose in your hearts spirit.
Best wishes
Hi Merle, Lindsay..
Having the rose has been a very special thing, like, every time one of the kids came to visit there would always be a rose to put in a vase on the kitchen windowsill, and even they came to expect it.
I do believe it was mum's way of letting us know she is still around - so very like her, she loved the families and the kids..
thanks for visiting..
Della
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