What I did this weekend...

This weekend I spent most of the weekend running around getting supplies and researching what I was going to need to plant 4 peony roots I got for my wife for Valentine's day last week. We went to Wal-mart to get some nice looking pots for a great price. After pricing out four 15 inch pots at 20 bucks we realized that they were just to small and we really did not going to need anymore 15 inch pots. We started looking at what large pots we could recycle and repot plants that needed to be re potted. I then remembered I had at least four roses that needed to be re potted. We looked around for a little while and we came across the prefect pot. We found 21 inch slate colored pots for $10.52 each. We bought 4 of them! Of course we lost $40 now instead of the $20 in pots we had planned to spend on them and still have to spend another $40 in a few weeks.

During that same trip we bought 15 strawberry roots, one small Pineapple Sage, and a small pot of sweet basil to replace one of our basils that is dieing out.

Sunday afternoon before the rains started I went out to buy potting soil. I spent about $18 on potting soil and hummus for the roses. In total I bought about 300+ lbs of soil. My poor little Kia was riding low today!

This is what my roses look like now. They did not handle last summer very well, I lost 3 roses and 1 was almost killed by bag worms, that kept coming back for seconds and thirds. Most of these roses I have had since college days and never re potted them. So today came the day I had to re pot them in large 21 inch pots!

After mixing up my soil and prepping the plants I moved them to their new home. As you can tell, the pots I move them to is a lot larger than their previous home. In the future I would not put a rose in anything smaller than a 16 inch wide with a deep base. The roots were so tight I almost could not get them out of the pot. I then removed some suckers from some small trees that started growing in there that I did not notice until I started working on them. Once I got all the plants in the pots and they were seated firmly I then trimmed about half an inch of old growth and removed any black spot I could find.

As I was finishing up it started to rain. I then moved all four plants back to their spot. I could not find my dolley and had to move all that weight by hand. I now hurt in places I have never hurt before. By the time I got them all moved into place and my supplies and cuttings removed to their proper places.

Below is the completed re potting of my roses.

Pictures From my First Garden

I was digging through my picture achieves and I came across my pictures for my first garden that I neglected for at least ten years and is still blooming through spring and early summer.

Due to the age and the amount of time passed, I have lost the names of these roses. I have looked into finding out more about the roses in the garden but I have been unsuccessful. If anyone runs across these pictures an knows what these are please let me know what I have here.

Some day I plan to transplant these guys and move them to better home where I can take care of them.

As you can tell this flower bed is a bit dark. Although it is not Ideal, It does get about five to six hours of sunlight during the late afternoon until sunset.

After the first year or two I grew discouraged and ran out of time to work on the bed anymore. I stopped watering everyday and the 100+ degree weather in August nearly killed them every year.

Below you will find some close ups the Roses. If you see any you know or think you know. Please let me know. I need all the help I get.



As you can tell from the pictures one of the roses a crawling type. In the 10 years that it has been in the ground it has spread to different parts of the back of the yard. If the plant lived in ideal conditions it would spread and become a wild in the back yard.

Please feel free to commit.