Frost, And Shrubs
The local or regional weather forecasts are advising "Frost."
I've been reminding himself, gently, that he has two azalea plants and two roses and six young arbor vitae to get into the ground. It's my belief he's just dawdling so I'll make sure it gets done without him having to do any digging.
I'm of two minds. The roses and azaleas are beautiful deer food, and ought not be allowed to die although I'm not worried about the deer, who seem to find plenty to eat. (Ooh: just remembered: himself has two blueberry plants to plant, too. I'm thinking we need to have a talk about those, as well....) Himself is infamous for buying shrubs and then just letting them sit in their nursery pots.
Last autumn a nurseryman told him how to remedy the ten or so arbor vitae himself had planted in the worst possible location/s, and which have determinedly clung to life but need to be dug out, the soil loosened and amended, and the shrubs stuck back into the earth.
That hasn't been done yet, either.
Sometimes he reminds me of my dad, who thought the Peace Rose was the absolute living end, and who planted one where he'd be able to view it from the window of his den. Sounds good, no?
But the windows in that den faced north and the shrubs and flowers in the bed viewable through them were in shade most of the day. Not deep, dark, old, old forest shade, where it's almost night-time dark even at brightest daylight elsewhere, but shade nevertheless and then there were the deer, who ate (and eat) roses, daylilies, and lilacs and my folks had let the landscapers they hired have their heads, something control-freak gardener me would never have done. Of the shrubs in it, the only one those landscapers didn't put into that garden bed was my dad's Peace Rose and of course he rarely got to enjoy any blossoms. The rose produced well enough (to my astonishment) but of course the deer ate buds and flowers and in hard winters, also the rose canes, thorns and all.
I really think my dad, God rest his soul, an otherwise very intelligent and scientifically-minded person, kind of expected the rose would sense how much he liked it and wished for it to do well, and would make heroic efforts to flourish and thrive and make abundant, gorgeous blossoms for him.
My own approach to gardening is more along the "conventional wisdom" lines. ---No, wait: I tell a lie. For the most part, I try to grow plants where and how they want to be grown, but with certain annual vegetables I do play chicken with the seasonal weather, making a second planting* of cool weather lovers late in the year, even for them, so while we get leaves we don't get headed up late season cabbages.
I don't feel as bad for those annuals, though, as I did for that rose bush, or for the budget or the bank account: I'm gambling with a few seeds from a packet which costs between 25¢ and, oh, $3, usually, and I'll have viable seeds left over for the following season's vegetable garden.
But let me say this for my dad, when it came to planting rose bushes: at least he planted them!
I foresee the purchase of another roll of gardening burlap in the very near future. And if I can locate them locally, perhaps a few of those styrofoam---dear Heaven, I do detest styrofoam! There has to be an alternative---cones to protect the young rose shrubs....
* This can be a third planting, if the first one was late-winter or early-early spring, a second planting done mid-summer for a fall harvest, and this third sowing for a very late fall harvest.