As gardeners, we often experience a sense of inspiration. Gardening sparks our creative imagination. There is something about the changing seasons that rekindles this feeling for me. Distinctly cooler evenings and a pinch of chill in the morning air brings back a memory of having felt this all before. “Deja vu” is a sense of reliving a moment; a feeling that you recognize this place in time. I had that feeling again this morning.
As I stepped down from the guest house deck and into the small, somewhat formal rose garden I have created over the years, the sweet scent of heirloom roses met me halfway with the weight of their fragrance. The ever-blooming, climbing rose “Darlow’s Enigma” was awash with a last flush of pure white, semi-double blossoms that open flat to show off a central ring of golden anthers. The scent of this rose is sweet and dense, rich enough to carry through the open spaces of the garden.
I soon realized that I was not stepping into the past. Instead, I was experiencing the delight of a dream come true. The vision I once had in mind for this part of the garden was right here in front of me. The free-form shape of landscape roses, reined in by a low surround of evergreen boxwood fit my liking for organized chaos. All the elements had come together over time and for an instant I was in a perfect moment of now. I thought, “If I got this right, I can do it right again and again.”
Originally an open field of bare dirt and spindly weeds, the most decorative element of this area of the garden was an old rusted burn barrel. This was not a sight I wanted to encourage garden visitors to behold. It’s a miracle that a rose garden could evolve from such humble beginnings, and it was definitely not created in a single day. As the overall garden plan expanded from the front of the house to the side and backyards it became apparent that this specific area needed a dramatic makeover.
With a view of city lights to the south and a large deck with room for an outdoor dining table and chairs already in place, this could become an ideal garden destination. What could be more fitting than a small, classic rose garden to highlight my eclectic garden style? Rose gardens are, after all, held up as an ideal in the mind of many gardeners. They contain all the elements of perfection. In reality rose gardens seldom achieve this ideal, but I wanted to try it for myself.
I began with a formal layout; rose beds delineated by evergreen boxwood hedging and backed up by evergreen yew. Even in the midst of a barren winter this classic design layout would be evident. My first choice of roses was spontaneous purchases of plants that looked good in their nursery pots. Mostly hybrid teas, their beauty faded quickly once I got them home and planted in the ground. Leggy and prone to disease their meager flower production was shadowed by my disappointment.
The more I looked around other gardens the greater my respect grew for landscape shrub roses. In general, these carefree plants sport branches and leaves from the ground up. They can be deadheaded with a pair of hedge shears to keep them a certain size or left unpruned and still repeat their flowering throughout the growing season. They even shade out most weed growth at their feet. Low-maintenance plants are an asset to any size of garden.
Among my rose choices, only one could hold me in place long enough to create a memory. The ever-blooming “Lyda Rose” is apple blossom pink fading to a pale lavender. Her central yellow anthers stand out long and well spaced with an antique elegance. The original trellises with the climbing Rosa “New Dawn” were replaced by two flowering crabapples, Malus “Adirondack.” These small trees give the garden stature while extending the season of interest with early spring flowers and late summer and fall berries.
This morning, there was a moment when place, sight, scent and emotion all came together. I could see back to all the effort and thought put into creating this part of the garden. I could envision the future when this perfect moment would return to me as a happy memory. I realize now that the experience was not a dream at all. It was nothing less than an inspiration. One of the many reasons that those of us who garden do so for a lifetime.
Robb Rosser is a WSU-certified master gardener. Reach him at Write2Robb@aol.com.
