{"id":2470,"date":"2018-07-23T05:42:09","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T13:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=2470"},"modified":"2018-07-23T05:42:09","modified_gmt":"2018-07-23T13:42:09","slug":"the-rescuer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/the-rescuer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rescuer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ailing<\/a>
Ailing now, but awaiting recovery–‘Vick’s Caprice’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have a desperate situation on my hands.\u00a0 Three roses in my garden stand in dire need of rescue before it is too late.\u00a0 Each one has a different sad story, but if I don\u2019t intervene, they will all suffer the same tragic fate.<\/p>\n

The first rose has a romantic name\u2014\u2018Julio Iglesias\u2019.\u00a0 \u2018Julio\u2019, is, of course, named for the Spanish singing star, whom my daughter refers to as \u201cEnrique Iglesias\u2019 father\u201d.\u00a0 Julio\u2019s rosy namesake is an appropriately flashy red and white-striped floribunda rose.\u00a0 My daughter saw the plant at Home Depot a few years ago and fell in love\u2014so much so that she gave it to me and I have been responsible for it ever since.<\/p>\n

I love striped roses, but for some reason, I have never felt the same kind of passion for \u2018Julio\u2019 as I feel for some of his striped relatives, like the gorgeous \u2018Scentimental\u2019 or the grand old Rosa gallica versicolor, better known as \u201cRosa Mundi\u201d.\u00a0 Still, the rose was a lovely gift, so I planted it, tended it and watched as it bloomed bewitchingly in its first year.\u00a0 Its second year was not as impressive, compounded by the fact that the bush is sited in front of an ever-expanding clump of Shasta daisies.\u00a0 Clearly the daisies are much more macho than \u2018Julio\u2019, because they have engulfed him.<\/p>\n

The smothering embrace of the daisies has been very bad for the rose and it is clearly ailing.\u00a0 It is time to cut back the daisies and get \u2018Julio\u2019 to a better place before the rose takes a permanent siesta.<\/p>\n

I am ashamed to admit that I have forgotten the name of the second rose.\u00a0 It is another shrub rose with lovely cerise flowers.\u00a0 Unfortunately it suffered last winter and was rather puny-looking this spring.\u00a0 That puniness was a definite liability when the rose was crushed by utility company workmen who were connecting my electric meter to the neighbors\u2019 house to provide them with emergency power after a storm.<\/p>\n

In the workmen\u2019s defense, it was dark when they were trying to connect the meter and they probably didn\u2019t see the rose.\u00a0 When I viewed the wreckage the next day, it looked as if there was nothing left.\u00a0 However, four weeks later, a single stem and four leaves re-emerged from the soil.\u00a0 Any plant that determined is worthy of a second chance.<\/p>\n

The third languishing rose is \u2018Vick\u2019s Caprice\u2019, a gorgeous, fluffy, pink and white-dappled hybrid perpetual type, introduced in the United States sometime before 1889.\u00a0 I bought it from an heirloom rose vendor a few years ago when I was having a flirtation with hybrid perpetuals.\u00a0 \u2018Vick\u2019s Caprice\u2019 is simply in the wrong place and that is the source of all its troubles.\u00a0 It is too near the edge of a border and has gotten accidentally whacked more than once by the string trimmer.\u00a0 It keeps coming back, but no plant can be resilient forever, so \u2018Vick\u2019s\u2019 is going to have to pack a bag and move out.<\/p>\n

All three invalid roses need full and constant attention, not to mention water and rose food.\u00a0 To make sure they get that kind of intensive care, I am going to lavish them with love and pot them up in separate, roomy containers until they regain strength.\u00a0 All three pots will go in the sunniest spot on my back porch, where I can see them as I come and go.\u00a0 This treatment has worked well for other sickly plants that have since been restored to new homes in the borders.\u00a0 If all goes well, it should do the trick for \u2018Julio\u2019, \u2018Anonymous\u2019 and \u2018Vick\u2019s Caprice\u2019.<\/p>\n

Why go to so much trouble when new, healthy roses are available just about everywhere and even unusual varieties like \u2018Vick\u2019s Caprice\u2019 are only a few keystrokes away via internet merchandisers?<\/p>\n

Part of the reason is guilt.\u00a0 I feel as if I have failed those roses through neglect, clumsiness or bad planning.\u00a0 Feeble though they are, they have not given up, so I will pour some energy into them.<\/p>\n

And then there is the issue of potential.\u00a0 Restored to health, \u2018Julio\u2019 and friends will produce scores of gorgeous blooms for years to come.\u00a0 The prospect alone is enough to make me run for the rose food.<\/p>\n

People get sentimental about all kinds of things, including comic books, old farm implements and antique spittoons.\u00a0 In that context, being a little attached to ailing roses doesn\u2019t seem strange at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a desperate situation on my hands.\u00a0 Three roses in my garden stand in dire need of rescue before it is too late.\u00a0 Each one has a different sad story, but if I don\u2019t intervene, they will all suffer the same tragic fate. The first rose has a romantic name\u2014\u2018Julio Iglesias\u2019.\u00a0 \u2018Julio\u2019, is, of … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3],"tags":[1910,1102,1911,11,1662,1659],"class_list":["post-2470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","tag-julio-iglesias","tag-rose-care","tag-rose-rescue","tag-roses","tag-striped-roses","tag-vicks-caprice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2470"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2471,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2470\/revisions\/2471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}