Gardening: tale of a rose

Self-tutoring about gardening: the tutor mentions a happy story.

We received a potted rose as a gift some time ago – perhaps around Valentine’s Day. It stayed in the house for awhile, but then was put outside.

Roses are often pretty hardy, including this one. It seemed to enjoy the cool, sunny days of late winter and early spring. Rain was plentiful as well, so the rose didn’t need watering. I moved it around the yard – sometimes it lived in the middle of the sleeping garden, sometimes on the lawn. The rose seemed content.

When the warm weather arrived, there was much yard work to do. I didn’t forget the rose, but didn’t notice it every day either.

Last week I noticed the rose for the first time in a while. To my dismay, it was struggling: it had lost nearly all its leaves. I quickly found a place for it in the ground, layered the site with compost, and then removed the rose as gently as I could from its pot – not as gently as I’d hoped – to plant it in its new home. I hoped I hadn’t killed it.

Perhaps a week on, the rose is flourishing, God be praised, with perhaps a dozen new leaves. One never knows if one’s botched the job of transplanting from pot to soil, but I guess it went okay.

I wonder what colour blooms the rose will produce?