Old Rose

I couldn't believe it! Early November and Old Rose in bloom!

Facing East, no less!

I call her Old Rose because she's the biggest and strongest rose bush in our yard. She was planted years ago in the front, streetside. Next year our house will be 100 yrs. old. Old Rose has got be at least half of that.

I'm sure she's been harshly cut back many times over the years. I'm sure many a resident over the years has looked her unwieldiness over up and down and set to work to try and dress her down with garden shears.

Probably went out and had those shears sharpened first.

But, she paid them no mind.

She's gnarly and obstinate. Tough old unwieldy branches with a mind all their own. She definitely has her own shape and not shy to show it. Reaches out in her very own asymmetry.

I, too, took the pruning shears to her the summer we moved in, but she defied me.

She'd have no part of me taming her. I wasn't the first.

Despite her obstinacy, Old Rose blooms magnificently and profusely. And now, as I see this windswept November day with wet snow in sight...she's enduring.

Doesn't give up the ghost so easily. Turns a tender pink face to the East, regardless.

She has a lot to teach the other more tender Roses.