Hello, my name is seil. I live in St Clair Shores, MI (zone 6) on the shores of Lake St Clair north of Detroit. I have a medium sized lot in a suburban subdivision and grow about 80 roses at this time. At one point I had about 170 but due to some really bad winters and some health issues I'm down to around 80 now. I've done some exhibiting locally and have tried my hand at hybridizing too. I love gardening even though as I get older it's getting more and more difficult for me to do. But I still love talking to rose people and love anything to do with roses.

I got my garden bug from my Mom and Grandmother. They both always had beautiful roses in their gardens when I was growing up. I often helped Mom weeding and watering and I have lots of fond memories of pouring over catalogs all winter picking out new things to get for the next season. When Mom passed in 2005 I inherited the house and therefore the roses. Since then I've been growing and learning all about the Queen of Flowers!

I have a mix of rose classes, HTs, Floribundas, Minis and Miniflora, Climbers, DAs, and a handful of OGRs. I guess I've never met a rose I didn't like, lol. About half my roses are in pots and since I don't have a garage I have to make extra efforts to winterize them. That's part of why I've had to cut back too. It's just gotten too hard for me to do the extra work it takes to move the pots into their winter home.








I'm glad to have found this forum. A lot of earlier places seem to have disappeared since facebook (and fb just isn't the same thing) and I've been looking for a new place to talk roses!

Hi there dear lady. I just found this site a few days ago myself. I like it. Just got to get use to it a little. I hope you are doing well.

Hi, Seil. Welcome to NGA. I love your potted roses, all lined up in pretty rows.

It's good to see you here ....

Welcome.

Welcome!

Your potted roses are looking beautiful!

Hi Seil! Lovely rose pics!

Hey Seil!!! I'm so glad you found your way here!! It was great to read your background...and 80 is still alot of roses!! That's a lot to winterize! I winterized 49 roses in pots this year...it's a lot of work! Your roses are glorious!! And I like your winterizing method using burlap and leaves.
Carol

So glad to see you here Seil! Yay! You are one of the nicest people I have "met" on the Rose forums and always have the best advice and outlook on gardening. I truly love seeing pics of your roses too. This site is starting to pick up with familiar names from the Houzz forum, I am able to still read post from that forum to keep up with everyone but not able to sign on for some strange reason so it's nice to be able to chat with others that have decided to come check out this forum. I am Boncrow66 on the other forum btw.
Anyways welcome and I look forward to seeing your roses this spring when they wake up!

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome and kind words!

I've recovered somewhat from my illness and have just begun to get back outside in the yard. Wouldn't you know it would be just in time to put the roses to bed, lol!

Seil...sigh...of course. But at least you're better...what was the matter? Unless it's something you don't want to talk about...then no worries.

I had severe anemia. Over the past year my hemoglobin dropped to 5. Normal hemoglobin should be 13 or 14. Hemoglobin are the red bloods cells that carry oxygen through your body. I was totally exhausted all the time and could hardly stand up or walk. I ended up in the hospital for 5 days while they pumped me full of blood and iron. My hemoglobin is back up to normal now but they have never figured out what caused it to drop so low so I have to be monitored for that now. I'm feeling so much better now and I'm starting to get back into the swing of things. You have no idea what a little thing like lack of oxygen can do to you! My teeth were breaking. My hair was falling out. My nails wouldn't grow and on and on. One good effect was that I lost about 20lbs. though!

Seil - when I was pregnant with my youngest child...I had a low hemoglobin like that. I was throwing up 6 times/day over the entire pregnancy and I had/have low kidney functioning. I had to have 2 blood transfusions...plus I had my daughter sucking all the oxygen from my body. LOL I couldn't walk 8 steps without being unable to breathe. So I know what you've been through. No wonder you had no energy for roses. Hopefully you could at least sit outside and look at your roses. I'm so glad you're feeling better! Twenty pounds off is good...but you went through hell to lose it.

Good grief! I know how terrible I felt, I can't imagine feeling like that and being pregnant too! And a baby to tend to besides! You deserve a medal!

No, I spent very little time outside. I couldn't walk far enough to get to the patio to even sit out. Besides that the entire yard was just a massive weedy mess. By late June early July I had weeds that were 6 to 8 feet tall! I couldn't bear to look at my lovely garden in that state. I lost several roses over the summer too from lack of watering. I miss them but there was no way I could stand out there with the hose to water anything. But silver lining, I know the ones left out there are the really tough guys who can withstand just about anything!

Seil - Yes, I sometimes torture my daughter (23 years old now) by telling her what a trial she was. LOL I also ohad kidney stones too!! What fun!!

Yeah, I hear you about the massive weedy mess. Sigh. I'm so glad you're on the other side of this health problem!!
Carol

Hi Seil,
I was Sylvia Weiser Wendel on gardenweb. I'm disgusted with that site. Great to see you here! Your calm, sensible advice always works. Glad to hear you are on the mend - now you have the winter to rest up before getting back out there again!

Welcome to NGA, Sylvia.

Seil and Carol .... hats off to both of you ...

Right now, I feel tired to the bone and still have more to do. You ladies are a true inspiration. I still have two more days to get more winter prep done before the predicted big rain storm hits on Wednesday.

I came in thinking that I just could not make myself do one more thing out there and then I read this post. I can do one more thing. My health issue that has been dogging me all summer is not as awful as you have described in your posts.

Lyn - tired to the bone is something we can all appreciate. I'm impressed that you beat that down...maybe I need to borrow your stick.

Nah ... you can't have my stick, Carol. I threw it at a dang deer that was eating my star magnolia ...

Thanks for the kind words .... two more days ....

Welcome Seil. So good to see you. Welcome aboard fellow rose fanatic