Blaze Roses

It's that time of year when I do the Blaze Rose Revue. If you are not fascinated by roses like I am, I would suggest skipping this post and the subsequent pictures.

I have five Blaze rosebushes that came with the house. When I moved in, all of them were horribly neglected. One of them, desperate for sunlight, was climbing a holly bush. Another one of them was completely hidden by an azalea bush and near death. I cleared and dug gardens around all of them, learned to correctly prune them and just in general nursed them back to health. You can imagine my amusement when a neighbor, observing their obvious health and tremendous growth, told me how worried about "her rosebushes" the previous owner had been when she decided to sell the house. This neighbor, who was still in contact with the previous owner at the time, told me how glad she was to be able to relay how well "her rosebushes" were doing.

Not all of "her rosebushes" are doing as well this year. The largest, located at the back of the house, never seems to have a bad year. It sits right outside a bedroom window. I have my computer set up at that window so I can see the gardens, and when it is in bloom, that rose while I am surfing the net. The two along the back fence are not having a good bloom year. They have lots of new growth so I know they are not sick or damaged in any way. They just don't have as many flowers are usual. The rose that had been climbing the holly that was subsequently cut down, is having a tremendous year. I dug out a "before" picture for comparison. The smallest rose that had been strangled by that darn azalea, is having the worst year of all. Two-thirds of it was dead this spring and had to be pruned. It is blooming and has some new growth so I am hopeful that it will survive. I have included a "before" picture for that one also.