Seductive Flowers

 OK...a little break from the quilts...I've been working hard all day on straightening out insurance issues and listing things on eBay as well as getting tax information together and sorted out so I can do the FAFSA (Free Application for Student Aid) done before my daughter has my head...the suggested deadline is Feb. 14...not that it matters much as we don't qualify, but every year until she graduates, I have to do this....which means that I do a preliminary tax prep before our tax guy finishes...or actually starts.  I also managed to finish quilting one of my quilts for the SAQA exhibition.

So...when my "in-box" included a rose catalog from Spring Hill Nurseries in Tipp City, Ohio (the next town south of me), my finger hovered over the "delete" button....Roses are so seductive....and my garden is home to several, although last winter killed "Hot Chocolate" and a couple of others....and I admit I may "shovel prune" a couple which haven't lived up to the hype....Roses are...well....seductive.  That wonderful scent...those soft, velvety flowers (no matter how trite, velvety is the best descriptor).

They're also damnable flowers...favored food for Japanese beetles, they are also water hogs and prone to black spot in our weather which often includes damp nights.  They cry out for fertilizer, and must be deadheaded to provide the best bloom.

 But how I lust after the likes of "Twilight" (offered by Spring Hill).  I favor yellowy-orangey tones...and especially those which have scent...like "About Face" as seen here.

I am happiest, though, with my David Austins.  They tend to be really hardy, and I buy ones which are multiple bloomers...Munstead Wood seen here really wants to find a spot in my garden....

But....I'm trying to cut back on my gardening as I don't know what treatment I will have this summer and my body is just failing me...I must not succumb, but fight off the urge to order this one....

Simplify! No more Japanese Beetles! No more getting shredded by thorns! No more black spot...but....ohhhhh the scent!

Yes, I have swiped the photographs from the catalogs..so I hope you will go visit the sites....

This one, however, is my own. :)

Enjoy the interlude...