Gardening Mishaps continued

2010 Winter

2010 Winter

2011 Summer

2011 Spring

Since I haven't been busy gardening this past week, it's about time for some gardening stories. When we moved here, the back deck sported the most beautiful hybrid, climbing roses. I mistakenly thought, climbing roses meant you had to tie them straight up and train them to grow. My assumption nearly killed them. The first two years, I meticulously tied each shoot straight up the trellis. Sometimes I would even try weaving the shoots between the trellis slats.

2012 Winter

2012 summer

 Those poor roses tried so hard to stay alive! When we had moved in, there were so many and they bloomed year around, as seen in the winter picture. They were fragrant, and the leaves were so beautiful and waxy looking. After I tied them up and weaved them, that summer. there were maybe one or two roses.
It wasn't until I researched climbing roses did I learn:  

1. climbing roses don't climb
2. they grow horizontally with shoots coming off vertically.
3.  roses bloom when the the plant hangs down
4. leaves grow when the plant faces up
5. they love banana peels
6. I still need to learn to prune them.