Roses and Horses and Finches....Oh My!

My lovely daughter, Terri, has a faboo friend that is quite the gardener.  She has gotten Terri into it big time.  So much so that M constructed Terri a greenhouse and built wonderful garden beds for her!  Anyway, Shany {Terri's friend} created a rose garden as a memorial to her mother.  Shany lost her mother to cancer a few short years ago and seeing as how her mother loved roses she planted a lovely plot and even had a nice sign made.  That got me thinking.  My Mom loved roses.....yellow roses.  AND....roses seem to grow really well here in BF Arkansas.  Everyone seems to have thriving rose bushes, except me of course, because I always thought they would be terribly complicated and I would kill them for sure! Anyway, after seeing Shany's rose garden, I decided to give it a go.  I also had some influence from our dear Poolie, as she has some incredible roses under her care!

My plan was to have my Timmy help me build a rose garden while he and Riley were visiting.  He has really gotten into helping Terri and Shany with their gardens and we had a plan!!  Alas, time ran short and Chuck didn't have time to do HIS part in all of this, so Tim and I didn't get to build my rose garden together :(.  HOWEVER!  As luck would have it, the lady at the end of our road {who used to work for a nursery~and who's house was surrounded by gorgeous plants and flowers, including many roses} is moving!  Last night on his way home, Chuck stopped to see her and came home with 9 rose bushes and 2 HUGE SunPatiens plants (a form if Impatiens only HUGE)!  What a surprise!!

The plan is to build a big bed out of some rock we have that he made me a couple other flower beds out of.  And since the bed he made me for my Hydrangeas has taken off and done so well.....and since roses allegedly like the same conditions as Hydrangeas, he will make the bed for me in the same area of the yard.  Which, BTW, just happens to be near the pasture fence and in direct line of my view to said pasture, from my computer and sewing machine!  If they live, it will be prefect!!  She seriously pruned them, as you can see, but I suspect she knew what she was doing.  Her only advice was to water in the morning and again in the early afternoon and give them rose food once a week.  She said they don't like to "go to bed wet".  LOL  So....I think I can handle that.  I think I can, I think I can.......Of course I will be researching online and will greatly appreciate any and all input from any of you that are successful rose growers!!

And, in other news.......I was quite envious of Poolie's daily gathering of finches at her feeders!  I often see finches out on the fence and flitting by the window, but only after her influence did I finally decide to acquire some finch feeders.  Well, they went undetected for so long....5 or 6 days.....I was about to move them one morning, when lo and behold, I had a visitor!  That was about 2 weeks ago....and all this time I only ever saw just the one.  But 2 days ago, there were 3!  And this AM there were 5!  I am thrilled.  I love having birds around, just outside my windows and although I do miss my favorites in Alaska, there are so many down here that don't live up there!  The gold finches (only visit Alaska briefly), Cardinals, Indigo Buntings, Blue birds, House Finches, and I musn't forget the Hummingbirds!!  I'm still working on pictures.  For some reason, they seem to take flight when I quietly open the door, with camera in hand and a rambunctious Cocker Spaniel comes out of no where and goes bursting thru the door!  I just need to remember to camp out on the back deck, while Gus is at work with Chuck, and quietly wait for them!

And Dixie is doing a little better everyday.  Although I wish we had a horse size scale so we could weigh her and see if her "water and hay" diet is helping yet.  Can't see any difference yet, but with horses it does show fairly quickly.  She had to come over and investigate while I was watering the roses this AM.

Actually, her appetite hasn't been that great and she hasn't even finished all of her hay until yesterday.  Apparently it is improving, as she appears to be liking the taste of the fence......better keep an eye on her that she doesn't start eating it LOL  And I just noticed the ripples in the water trough!  Susie was taking a drink, just out of sight of the camera/phone.  :)