Cut back the roses...

Roses never quit blooming in Orange County, California, but they still require an annual pruning. This procedure involves cutting all the stems back to two or three foot lengths. Besides filling up three or four trash cans, there are two other downsides to this procedure: 1) Thorns and the cuts that go with them, 2) No roses for several months.





I threatened to cut my 14 rose bushes back some weeks ago, but alas other priorities gave them a reprieve: until this weekend.

I'm not without blossoms, the geraniums are bouncing back from a root trim I did three or four months ago, and one of my trees, a Pink Tabibuya is beginning to show blossoms. (At the other end of the yard, my Liquid Amber just lost the last of its leaves. Plants get confused in this part of the country.)




It has been in the 80's for the last four days or so, but we're headed back to the mid-60's by mid-week. It's even supposed to rain on Wednesday. (Oh, horrors!)

This is the kind of weather that made the soldiers who did basic training in California in preparation for WWI and WWII move to this part of the country after the war. (It just beats freezing your tail off elsewhere. Sorry.)




So, over at the One Minute Writer last week, we were given the task of writing a rhyming poem. I give you my rose inspired entry:

Cut Back the Roses

It's winter here,
not really drear.

The roses are still growing,
The lawns still need mowing.

But the roses need a rest.
Cut 'em back: that's best.

In two months they'll bloom again.
In two months they'll bloom again.

Two months.