A Peach Rose

I have a rose growing in my side yard. It's the only one of twenty I planted, maybe thirty years ago.

In the last two years I didn't do much in the garden at the end of summer.The rose didn't get cut down. Now it's six feet tall and blooming for the second time. The first time it had twenty six buds.

The last rose that went wild was a climber. When I dug the root out, it stretched straight at a right angle for almost five feet.

The garden is on top of the original driveway that went to the back of the house.

I had added a porch to the house. The frame had been built earlier by Number Two son Frank. . Number Three son Martin decided he would go to university and offered a deal. He would build the porch, if I would provide the first year fees.

He did. I did. I enjoyed the porch. Except.... it was alongside the driveway. I was looking out at cars. I wanted to look at a patio and a garden.

Came a time when Number Four son Mark, was unemployed, as were a few of his friends. I offered a deal. I would have the asphalt removed from the driveway, if they would build a garden.

They did

A cedar hedge was planted, soil mounded , grass laid and a rose garden planted.

It was all in line with family economics.

They had no debts. No burdensome obligations for favors received. I still enjoy a piece of them.

The soil was obviously not deep enough for the roses to flourish. One by one, they gave up the struggle I don't know how this one survived. Incredibly, it's almost thirty years old. It's head is high and the scent is sweet. It's the colour of a peach with petal edges shading deeper

Things need to be re-arranged around it, to give it pride of place.