Roses

[larryJ]

Thank you, ladies, for your input.  I should have been a little more specific.  At the time of my last visit (2002), Bill was living in what was my Aunt Mary Ellen Snodderley's house which I looked at on Google Earth this morning.  The house appears to be on the NE corner of N. Wabash and W. Illinois.  My Grandmother lived on Pennsylvania just north of Randolph and just north of the school that was/is there. 

As far as sending a rose, California authorities frown on anything organic crossing the state lines.  And, like I said, we have plenty of roses in our yard, red, white, purple, double-delight, etc.  Bringing home the cutting was just a symbolic gesture because Bill Redmond told me that it would grow.  Of course, in my awe and adoration for him, I would believe him if he told me my leg would grow back should I cut it off!

As far as the kind and color, I don't know what kind, but I am pretty sure it was red.

As far as Bill's house on the south side of town, my son and I attended a reunion in 1991 or 1992 (memory gets a little fuzzy sometimes) along with many cousins.  Bill had poured a concrete pad for those who came with their trailers and 5th wheels.

Just memories,

Larryj

[Wilma]

Larry, I love memories about Bill and Aunt Bernadine and Mary Ellen(I think) Snodderly.  I only knew Mary Ellen through Star, but she was such a lovely person, pretty much like Aunt Bernadine.

Maybe Jo could start a cutting for you and you could come back and get it and smuggle it in.

We once brought home some cactus from Arizona and didn't give it a second thought.  Of course, we weren't checked anywhere.  We were just waved on through.  What harm would a couple of old people be up to?

[Jo McDonald]

Oh Wilma~Don't sell us short....surely we aren't so "aged" that we couldn't get into a wee bit of mischief.
On second thought, can it wait a while, I have a lot to do in the next few weeks.   

[Wilma]

We weren't so old at the time.  Neither of us had retired yet.

[larryJ]

To the contrary, Wilma, the older folks are the ones who get stopped at the check points here in California.  We are the only ones who feel the need to transport fruits and vegetables as well as plants from other states.  Of the times, I have been stopped there, I have been asked where I am coming from.  I have learned to say that I was visiting someone in Needles or somewhere else inside the state and then they wave you on.  However, the last few times I have been through the checkpoint they have just waved me through.  If I am carrying, say a bag of apples or oranges, I have learned to keep the receipt to show that they were purchased in a store and not picked by the side of the road.  Even if you have a plant that you picked up somewhere in another state, then they just pull you over to the side and inspect the plant to make sure it is healthy and not full of bugs or disease.  If they are unsure of the quality of that plant, they throw it away for you so you won't have to bother disposing of it yourself which I think is rather nice of them. 

On my initial entry into California in 1965, I was stopped mostly because it was a slow day and there was nobody behind me.  It was kind of a cloudy day and I asked, in a joking manner, why the sun wasn't shining in sunny California.  To which, the older state inspector replied that the sun shone 364 days a year and I just happened arrive on day number 365. 

Larryj

[Ms Bear]

The inspections were started because of the boll weavils that did so much damage to the cotton crops.  They have had them as long as I can remember.

[Wilma]

OK, thanks to you kind folks, I decided on a process for planting my roses and now have three of them in the ground.  My next problem is that I want to mulch them.  What do you think I should use and how?  Larry, I know it has to go on the ground around the rose bushes.  But, thanks anyway.

[larryJ]

AAAHHHH, Wilma, you just took the fun right out of my day.   

Larryj

[Wilma]

Diane, do you think a root stimulant for my roses would be a good idea?  They are all planted now except for the ones I have yet to get.  My handyman finished them yesterday, did the manure in the bottom, potting soil to bring it up to the right depth, potting soil to fill in around the root ball, then finished with a small dam around each one to keep the water from running away.  Looks quite professional out there.  Her Royal Highness has the prettiest pink blossom that I am going to cut after awhile.  JFK has been lovely and Julia is just out of this world with her fragrance.  Cracklin Fire might be the most brilliant as to color.

[Diane Amberg]

I've never bothered with anything but regular slow release rose fertilizer and the systemic black spot and insecticide. If we have long spells of really wet weather I may have to spray for black spot too. A few of mine are getting shaded out and I don't have as many here as we had at our previous house. My pink peace looks good but Lavender Girl needs to pep up some .It looks a little skimpy. I need to replace Mr. Lincoln and JFK. I had Portrait and Queen Elizabeth, Perfume Delight and Double Delight, Golden Showers and Blaze and others at the other house. I grew up quite close to Conard and Pyle ( Star Roses) and mom knew both families. I loved going out to wander through the acres and acres of the "living catalog."( I was really sad when they stopped selling retail and went to all wholesale.) We used to go to "Red Rose Rent Day" almost every year.
My parents house had a sloping hillside down one side of their longish driveway that was planted all in "Fairy" It was quite something to see when it bloomed. It's picture was taken several times over the years to use in the rose catalog. I think the oldest  Star rose we ever had was planted in 1948, called Little Miss Muffet. My sister may have it yet. I think she dug it up when we sold the place.