In the Spring, There Comes a Rose

Spring Flowers

 

The Day of the Daffys

One Single Rose

My roses failed this year. I think this is the only bloom that came through with any gusto.

Most of the bushes are going on 30 years old and I'm wondering if I need to pull them up and start anew. According to the Great Google, the average lifespan of a rose is 35 years, so mine are pushing it.

Some of these were started by my husband's grandmother, who passed them on to me. I am not keen to lose those, but I also don't know how to start a new bush myself. I don't think I have the patience for it, either, from what I read about how to do it.

Next year I will try to care for them better, and see how they do. If they do not improve, then I will have to figure out what to do about them.

Daisies

Beautiful Weeds

These little lovelies are growing in the ditch near my mailbox. I have no idea what they are. They almost look like a phlox.

Yard Flowers

No clue what this is. I consider it a weed. After it's bloomed, it sends out spikes when you touch it.

Who doesn't love a daffodil?

Not sure what this is, either. Maybe a bluet.

Summer Flowers

Yucca

My Lovely Rose

Come live by me, my lovely rose

whilst I bad poetry must compose.

Your smell so sweet, your petals so dear

fill me with longing when you are near.

 

Your beauty bids a sunflower blush

and makes an evil wind fall hush.

For none compares to your fragrant kiss

To love a rose is to live in bliss.

Mountain Laurel

A Sunday drive showed us that not everything has drowned from the recent 8-10 inches of rain. The mountains on top near the West Virginia line still had mountain laurel offering up a white (and occasional pink) decoration amidst the prevailing greenery.

Mountain laurel is a native North American plant. It's a broadleaf evergreen shrub in the heather family. The mountains are full of them but you only seem them in late May and early June, when the flowers burst out to decorate the mountainsides.

Unfortunately I was not able to photograph any pink laurel. We saw a little of it but by the time I opened my mouth to say, "stop the car," we'd already whizzed past it.

This is my favorite, when you can see the mountain laurel as far back as you can look.

Photos taken with Nikon Coolpix P500.

These pictures were taken on Potts Mountain in Craig County, Va.

Flower Daze