Jurassic Garden !

Some new photos of our time at the Marion County Fair just came in.  I added two of them to the posting of July 12th under the title "County Fair", so don't forget to check them out.  Two other photos, however, warrant some closer and immediate inspection.  First, let's state some facts about the president of our Rose Society:

• Maryann has a HUGE back yard
• She is a beekeeper
• She grows a lot of roses

Now, let's inspect the photos:

Maryann with one of
her bees ?

Maryann with a SINGLE
stem of roses

Draw your own conclusions, but there could be something "Jurassic" going on in her back yard  -- you know, where things grow LARGE.  But then, I recall that there's a rose bush named 'Sally Holmes' growing back there.  Maybe a quick search of Google Images for the "Sally Holmes rose" might allay some of our suspicions.

Update of June 27, 2013:  Maryann had an open garden yesterday, and we were able to get a photo of her with 'Sally Holmes'.  Mike H is keeping a safe distance from this all-devouring rose bush.

June 26, 2013

An afternoon at St. Timothy's

Our second open garden of the season was at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church here in Salem, where SRS member Mike G is the volunteer caretaker of a very handsome collection of roses.  We were invited over to bask in the company of the roses as well as to attempt to identify some of the unknowns, which would account for the studious expressions in a couple of the photos.  Our hosts for the day were Mike G and his wife Joyce, who are seen in the first photo.  Joyce is holding the seedling rose named 'Miss C' (named for her), and grown from seed by Mike.  From here we go outdoors to see the beautiful roses, starting with the second photo -- Joyce (there were 2 Joyces and 3 Mikes here today!) and her husband Wes are in the background.

Photo #1

Photo #2

The third photo has Susan and her husband Bill to the left and Maryann to the right in the process of identifying roses and naming names!  In the next photo are Maryann and Mike G, with Mike reaching down to one of the roses that he planted and is now caring for -- the rose is a dark red floribunda named 'Oh My !' (yes, the exclamation mark is part of the rose's name).

Photo #3

Photo #4

At long last, the fifth photo shows the 3 Mikes, namely, left to right:  Mike C, Mike G, Mike H.  There's also a Fred, and he's in the background.  The sixth photo shows John and Mike G to the left.  John takes care of all plantings at St. Timothy's except for the roses, which are maintained beautifully by Mike.  To the right are Fred and Maryann.

Photo #5

Photo #6

It's open garden season

I'm a little late in posting photos of the first open garden of this growing season.  It was very late Spring, June 10 to be exact, and the roses over at Mike C's place were looking good:

Mary and Bernie

Neighbors Craig and Martha
with Mike H

What's this ?

It's a growth of some kind, but what exactly is it ?  Maybe just a shameless attempt by Mike to get some traffic over at his blog.  Click on the following highlighted link to transfer over to his blog, and then read the post of August 2, 2012 titled "A garden surprise !" -- there will be more photos.  When you're finished over there, do come back and finish reading THIS blog.  Here's the link:  Mike's Blog