Sharon's blog: Superman Roses

I am a little aggravated.

We have had no rain and my Sophy's Rose which normally blooms all spring, all summer and on into November has only 2 blooms on all 3 bushes.  I absolutely refuse to get a knock out rose because my neighbor's yard is so lined with them, the sameness drives me nuts. I have a bad attitude about knock outs.

Knock Out roses are the 'Superman on steroids with a rotten attitude of their own' roses, no matter how beautiful they are. Japanese beetles are highly intelligent. They know that Superman roses have been innoculated with every disease known to the rose kingdom and that if they imbibe in KO Rose Juice they will be immediately stricken with an incurable rose disease. So they stay away. Smart of them, I think. But then they come here and attack my own un-Superman roses.

I don't have much kindness in my heart for Superman knock out roses. Once you reach perfection, what's left? Those Superman roses just sit there and bloom. You don't even have to deadhead them, nor do you have to coax and cajole them into blooming and growing and doing all the interesting unboring things that roses do. Kinda like tin soldiers marching all in a row, boring till you see the one who marches to the beat of a different drummer, and then things begin to liven up.

Now that isn't to say that a Superman rose blooming here and there is a bad thing. Not at all. It's just that they are the most boring roses ever grown. They don't even make me sweat, cuss, or cry bitter tears. They just sit there blooming with that superior attitude of theirs. Drives me nuts.

A couple of years ago my neighbor lined her very long driveway with Superman roses. Oh yes, she did. The side of her driveway that faces every single one of my back windows. All in a boring row. Side by side by side, magnificent in their clone-ism and looking down upon every other growing thing. Nasty rotten attitude. And still they bloom. I swear they look like those silk roses on the rack at Walmart all lined up side by side, never moving, never wilting, never drooping and for goodness sakes I want them to do something.

What's the point in having a plant that never drives you to your knees in frustration??  Like Sophy or New Dawn and even Granny Laurie's Dorothy Perkins rose that threatens my roof every spring. Now those are true roses. They unglue me, they invoke temper tantrums, they make me get out there and do something.

Right or wrong, doing something is much better than sitting here watching the monotony of Superman roses all marching one by one to the same drummer.

Oh boy, we really need some rain.

(Reminder to myself to click to get the full effect of these photos, especially Granny Laurie's house eating Dorothy Perkins and my dear neighbor's Superman Knock Outs.)

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