Trimming the roses and the raspberries is one of my favorite jobs of the year. I don’t know why. It certainly isn't that I have to wear long pants and long sleeves and leather gloves to avoid looking like I had been in a cat fight! There’s something satisfying about pruning out the deadwood and seeing the tiny buds promising wonderful flowers and fruit.
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| Bedraggled Lipton |
This year, however, it was a painful job – and not just because of the thorns! I mentioned that I lost Crown Princess Margrethe to the Polar Vortex. I lost my Magnifica as well. And, I thought I'd lost Julia Child, but I saw today that there are leaves coming. Whew! A bright spot! The Lipton roses – typically very hardy – all took a beating. Last year they were so lush. This year, they’re looking decidedly wounded and bedraggled. I'm hoping they’ll recover, too. (I mentioned that I had 22 bags of leaves this spring. When I was done pruning, I had 7 bags of prickly canes.)
I’m hoping that the Japanese Beetles will have been adversely affected by the Polar Vortex. But, I'm told that since the larvae are in the ground rather than in trees like the Emerald Ash Borer, and since they thrive on moisture, of which we've had no shortage so far this spring, it's likely that they'll return in July to munch on – and breed on – the roses and the raspberries. A girl can dream, though, can't she?!
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