I went out mid morning to water the roses and plants on the sunny side of the house as we have not had rain for some days now, and my phone chirped that the doorbell just rang.
The Drift roses I ordered had arrived, a day earlier than expected. The BIG tall boxes (about 3 feet tall) were on the front porch. But I was ready with sand and compost and set in to plant the roses immediately.
The roses were beautifully packaged, and the plants were so healthy and pretty. Each rose pot was covered with a plastic bag to conserve water, and there was packing around the top of each pot to keep the dirt inside. Plus, the plants had bamboo stakes set into the pots to keep the box from collapsing around them. (Please note that I tried my best for weeks to find these plants locally.)
The only problem I discovered was that the nursery sent White Drifts, not Popcorn Drifts. Both are white, so I shrugged and started planting. By noon I was dripping wet with sweat, hot, exhausted, and so dirty I hesitated to even come into my house. Each of the holes formerly occupied by the Encore azaleas that went to son Bryan’s shade had to be dug much deeper and wider and lined with the sand and compost.
The clay! The clay! It was just solid clay. And interestingly, the clay was damp, not dry, but we’ve not had rain in some days, so that’s the “bathtub” effect that was likely also impacting the Encores–along with the heat. Holes in clay like I have here creates a bowl that will hold water that will rot plant roots, especially after a lot of rain. So the holes for a plant have to be big and filled with sand to help at least a little with the drainage. Even too much compost can sit in the water and rot the roots.
One of my neighbors is Chinese, and her mother does not speak a word of English, except for counting 1 to 5 on her hands. She is a love, however, and often gives me big greetings, big hugs, and sometimes walks with me. At some point she came over with a broom and swept up all the planting dirt and debris on the driveway.
When I went to water the first rose planted, on the far right, a big frog hopped out of the middle of the plant and ran for cover in the liriope stand on the other side of the sidewalk. It was a hitchhiker from the Florida nursery who had nestled down in the center of the plant beneath the paper wound around the plant’s stem to keep the dirt in its pot.
Welcome Hitchhiker!
There are bugs here for you to eat!
Here’s the hitchhiker’s plant:
These Drifts will spread out and repeatedly bloom for much of the year, stopping only in the colder winter months.
So, one problem solved, and for today, there are no outside jobs to do.
Louisa Enright's Blog 