gram’s roses

anyone who knows me can tell you that I have a black thumb. seriously… it’s kind of pathetic. as much as I love flowers and plants, I can’t seem to do much with them. it’s obvious that they skipped over me with this gene because both my mother and especially my grandmother were gifted in all things green, leafy & blossoming. a lot of my clients ask me how I ended up in snow hill and it’s a VERY long story that I may bore you with at a later date – but I have lived a lot of places – really amazing places and then almost 9 years ago, god saw fit to bring me to the shore and put my amazing husband in my life -  it was clear that I was staying. once this reality dawned on me, I had to figure out where to put down my roots as I have always been a notoriously “unrooted” girl. I was baffled and to be honest scared of the permanence of my mother’s suggestion….. years and years and years ago, my great great grandfather built a big house in snow hill and several years later split it in two and placed them on neighboring lots for tax purposes. my mother grew up in the larger of the two and a family friend, ella,  lived in the other for decades – to me she was more than a friend, she was like a second grandmother and I loved her like crazy. fast forward a few years after both of my grandparents passed away and my mother chose to sell the larger house where she grew up, but because ella was still living (even though she had long been living in a nursing home) we held on to the smaller house. after ella passed a few years later, there were several people interested in renting the house - I was still in colorado so we decided to hang onto it and rent it out. the timing of me deciding to stay on the shore coincided with the current lease on the house expiring – so I moved to snow hill. while at first it was kind of (okay a lot) weird to see other people living in what I still considered my grandparents house, a few years back a couple named doug & michelle bought the house and have loved it as much as my family did. which is a long & roundabout way to get to the roses. my grandmother was president of the local garden club and LOVED roses – so she planted several plants in a side lot by the house. she tended daily to these plants until my grandfather retired and then he took them over. during the summer, there were fresh roses every morning on the breakfast table that my pop had cut in the early morning for gram. doug, an excellent landscaper, had taken over the duties of rose-tender and they have thrived under his care. but a couple of months ago, doug told my husband that he & michelle were planning to start a vegetable garden in the plot where the roses lived &  he asked if I would want any of the rose plants. not thinking about the care they required or the fact that I had almost always killed any flower unfortunate enough to end up in my garden I said YES!!  the delicate transplanting took place a few afternoons later. these are old plants – older than me and I think possibly were planted before my mother was born. they are hearty, thank god – but they are still roses and are temperamental. fortunately doug & michelle’s patio looks over to the part of our yard where the roses are, so he has lent his experience & expertise when needed. a few weeks ago I pulled into the driveway and saw, much to my amazement, 3 rosebuds about to pop – now everyday there is a different rose blooming and everyday I think about my grandparents. this morning, although it was only 2 roses – I cut them and brought them inside, placing them in a little vase and they are now sitting on my desk. they make me nostalgic, happy and grateful to be exactly where I’m supposed to be