My rose garden

We didn't have a yard when we first bought our house.  We had dirt and weeds.  Maybe more weeds than dirt.  Oh, yeah and gophers, voles, mice, wasps, and squirrels.  I think one of my neighbors poisoned the squirrels.  I haven't seen them in years.  They were the one pest I didn't mind.  Ever seen a squirrel trying to run with a tomato in its mouth?  Hilarious. Those neighbors are moving.  (Please someone nice buy their house.)

Anyway, I bought a bunch of specialty roses from a catalog. (That's where the real gardeners get their plants.)  I've since stopped buying plants from catalogs. The gophers and voles showed their appreciation of all my expensive plants by turning them into salad.  Yum.  (I guess that means I'm not a real gardener.) They left the roses in the front alone.  Gophers love roses.  They're in the backyard.  Voles are in the front yard.  They prefer highly expensive tulip bulbs. (sob)

Back to my special roses.  I am deliriously happy about these first couple of pictures.  For one, this is the only special rose that is the color it's supposed to be.  It's a green rose.  It has a touch of pink and yellow, but it's green.  Pretty, isn't it?

Two winters ago I thought this rose bush had died.  I was very sad.  So I cut back the dead stuff.  I was brutal.  (And I added weird warm wet winters to my list of enemy pests) Then, joy of joys! A little green shoot appeared in what I left of the roots.  I ran around my front yard yelling, "IT'S ALIVE!" (A few neighbors moved that year.)

Anywho, this year it's blooming again! 

 Here's the peach rose that is yellow.

This is the blue rose that is purple. And also aphids.  I don't like aphids.  This is after I tried to squirt them off the plants.  They have an incredible grip for creatures so tiny.  I bet they hang on with their nasty little aphid mouths.

This is the black rose.  (To be fair, it looks black at night.) They might not be the color the catalog claimed they would be, but they're still pretty.  I still want a black rose.  How cool would that be?

These are my miniature roses.  My sister made use of my yard for a few years to get rid of plants she didn't have room for. I didn't mind. Aren't they cute? It's nice to have a sister with a plant addiction.