Stronger Than Dirt

I'm always bragging about how tough (my) heirloom roses are. Today, I would like to show you how tough they are. I purchased two roses from Jackson & Perkins. They arrived in mid-April as dormant bareroot plants. I already had a spot for Sombreuil but they had arrived before I had had a chance to prepare a bed for Ballerina. I planted it temporarily next to my winter sowing containers which were located in an area I had dug out in the fall but had not planted anything in it.

The weather remained unseasonably cold and it rained. As hard as I tried, I just couldn't get Ballerina's future home prepared. The weather warmed and Ballerina started to leaf out. Every day, it seemed that I had something urgent to attend to and couldn't get out to dig the bed.

This week is my annual week that I take off from work to work in my gardens. I have a lot to do and digging out that bed would take up too much of my time. Since it was supposed to rain last night, I decided to take a shortcut and just dig out a hole in the lawn for Ballerina. Once it is settled in, I can dig out the rest of the bed at my leisure. Bearing in mind The Great Rose Massacre from last year, I carefully excavated the rose and replanted it in its new home. I also planted other (containerized) roses and did some pruning but didn't do any watering expecting that the rain would be sufficient.

Except that it didn't rain. I had my dates wrong. It was supposed to rain tonight, not last night. And it was 80 F (27 C) yesterday! I ran out of the house this morning, frantically grabbed the hose and saw this:

Looks pretty lively, doesn't it? That's one tough little rosebush. I hope it continues to do well. It's supposed to be shade tolerant which is why I chose it for this spot right on the edge of the shadow cast by the tree in my front yard.