Groundhog Day Is A Gardener's Holiday

Not exactly a Marmota monax

Groundhog Day is certainly a gardener's kind of holiday, not entirely because of the six-more-weeks-of-winter thing.  Even more important to the gardener is the 1993 movie, wherein Bill Murray keeps living the same day over and over again, until he gets the day right.   photo aaa6869_zpske9yudon.jpg
 Isn't that what we do in our gardens?  Changing this or that plant, learning this or that new thing, adjusting style, watering routines, and expectations, stepping in potholes full of dirty water, until we get it all just right. 
That one thing looks right!
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Though gardening often feels as painfully fruitless as listening to a Sonny & Cher song again and again.  

Over the weekend I felt a wave of the past--rose shopping.  I've cut way back on that, not only because of the drought.  Plant fascinations change, and I have about as many roses as I can manage.  Hearing about an excellent selection of roses, I wanted to go have a look at Lakewood Nursery in Cypress.
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Photo by AB
Uh oh!  They had a huge selection of roses--something fairly rare these days.  Roses are rather "out", and then there is the drought.  The visit took me back to the days more than a decade ago when there wasn't a drought, and I had a garden I wanted to fill with roses, roses, and more roses, and when there hadn't been a real estate crash, and a lot of other tragedies...
Winter's day:
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Lovely old-style nursery (not garden center) with a propagation area in the back, and hand written signs.
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Photo by AB
Lots of fruit trees.  
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Photo by AB
A style of place that is slipping away, as time slips swiftly away.  While there is time, we try over and over again to get gardens (and other things) right.  It is good to have a holiday for that.  The effort is worth celebrating.

Oh!  just two--'Rouge Royale' and 'Radiant Perfume'.  Of course you wanted to know.  

Comments

  1. It's all part of enjoying the process of gardening, or so I think at least. It's good to revisit old infatuations once in awhile especially of some of the spark is still there, and who knows, the spark may become a flame again!

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    1. Or a bonfire, when our drought is over. (And it will! It will!)

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  2. Of course we wanted to know what roses you bought! Sad but true that this kind of nursery is slipping away. A whistful post.

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  3. And you forgot the other reason that groundhog day is for gardeners: we'll take any hint -- no matter how crazy and far-fetched -- that spring is coming! Great post!

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  4. Some addictions are hard to break. I look forward to seeing the 2 roses that sent you astray in bloom. If it helps, the LA Times had a somewhat hopeful article this morning suggesting that we may yet get rain slightly above "normal" levels this season - not a drought buster but still a reason to celebrate (with roses in your case).

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    1. I'm still hoping. Northern CA is due for a major pineapple express this week...

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  5. I claim to be a non-rose person, but they somehow sneak into my garden anyway. 'Dark Knight' coming soon.

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    1. They had 'Dark Night' there, and I wanted it! It's a beauty.

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  6. A garden is never finished – my garden certainly isn’t, how awfully boring would that be?!
    Oh, and your choice of roses look wonderful, I Googled them, would have loved to have Rouge Royale if I had space for it. Looking forward to seeing it in flower!

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    1. It would be horribly boring indeed!

      Rouge Royale has a particularly intense old-rose (damask) fragrance, and Radiant Perfume's is that of strong citrus--my nose is going to be really happy.

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