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<\/a><\/p>\nYes, you ARE beautiful and I love you BUT…….The arrival of June sunshine\u00a0meant that my\u00a0moment of reckoning \u00a0with you had come after\u00a0my long, cold, wet April by the fire\u00a0with a lot of good books.<\/p>\n
YOU were my last hurdle this garden season. \u00a0Well frankly, you are STILL my last hurdle even though we have now tangled with each other.<\/p>\n
To back up a bit……Missing the month of April and all those April tasks put me behind the garden eight ball, so in May, even when it continued cold and wet, \u00a0I went out in the rain and tried to catch up. \u00a0 All\u00a0the many flats of annuals from the greenhouse and cold frames got planted in\u00a0cold and wet\u00a0May. \u00a0Along with the baby plants, the vegetable seeds got planted in cold and wet\u00a0May in the cold and wet\u00a0ground. \u00a0Some of them are complaining about this still. \u00a0 The Red Shiso went in the ground at the tail end of cold and wet\u00a0May and rolled with the punches to germinate in the last few days.\u00a0When everything was planted, I grabbed my clippers and tackled the weeds in\u00a0the perennial beds in cold and wet May. \u00a0I was a whirling dervish of soggy gardening. \u00a0Except I just couldn’t bring myself to tackle the Rose Garden ESPECIALLY ALIKA- \u00a0It’s the very first garden I always work in during April and well, it had been looking more and more unkempt ESPECIALLY ALIKA.<\/p>\n
June arrived. \u00a0I could delay no more. \u00a0It was time to weed this garden AND DEAL WITH ALIKA.<\/p>\n
Weeds\u00a0are often well loved plants surfacing in the wrong places. This is never more true than in the Rose garden where Rose suckers are often\u00a0just another name for Rose weeds. \u00a0And a well loved plant in the wrong place is still a weed\u00a0even when it is gorgeous\u00a0Alika Rose. \u00a0It’s the truth. SORRY ALIKA!<\/p>\n
It’s not like the Roses (ESPECIALLY ALIKA) \u00a0were quaking at the thought of me finally weeding their territory. \u00a0It’s not like I put my money where my mouth is and cut back all these Rose weeds. Especially if they are in bud, I walk away and let them bloom before I cut them down. \u00a0To sum up, \u00a0I am a notorious wimp when it comes to weeding out Rose suckers. \u00a0I am sure the Roses know it (ESPECIALLY ALIKA), and so do I.<\/p>\n
Things went particularly poorly this year as I battled in the Rose garden. Enough that I will weed the Rose garden IN APRIL NOT JUNE\u00a0even if I have to shovel snow off the ground to do it.<\/p>\n
My struggles with the Alika Rose were classic examples of me wimping out on benevolent ruthlessness in the garden. ( I BET YOU ARE NOT SURPRISED TO HAVE ME WRITE THIS).<\/p>\n
The problem with Alika Rose is that she sends out suckers\u00a0in all directions. Hundreds\u00a0of them. Maybe thousands. \u00a0I would not be surprised if there was a sucker from our Alika Rose in your garden. And every one of these suckers is determined to throw an immense spray of blossoms. FAST! And I am sure Alika does this so I don’t cut any of these suckers back but feel compelled to wait until they have\u00a0blossomed AND TAKEN A FOOT OR SIX MORE FEET OF GROUND IN THE GARDEN.<\/p>\n
Why can’t some of the other Roses behave like this and give Alika a bit of a run for her\u00a0money? I don’t know. \u00a0Other Roses seem to fade away when Alika steamrolls over their turf. \u00a0Other Roses need me to wield my clippers for them- And I try. \u00a0I really do.<\/p>\n
Alika Rose suckers that I missed clipping or wimped out on dealing with forcefully in seasons past have turned an\u00a0entire stretch of the Rose garden\u00a0into ALIKA ROSE VILLAGE. \u00a0As a Flower Essence, its I AM affirmation is, “I AM the beacon that knows no limit. I AM one with my source.” \u00a0Alika certainly DOESN’T know any limits OR MANNERS!<\/p>\n
When I went to tackle Alika this weekend, I cleaned out under the Alika giants\u00a0pictured above, but then I began to waffle. \u00a0There were just so many buds in so many places. \u00a0After a Sunday afternoon hemming and hawing\u00a0about\u00a0cutting these buds back, surprise surprise, Monday dawned and every last bud had become a\u00a0blaze of blossoming glory.<\/p>\n Now, even though Alika has infiltrated the Chives, the Comfrey, the Rhubarb, the Therese Bugnet Roses, the Asparagus AND the Echinacea- \u00a0I feel like I HAVE to let her blossom before I hack her back.<\/p>\n Oh Alika! You\u00a0remind me how much I still have to learn about gardening! and pruning! and life!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This spring, like every spring, the weather was odd. \u00a0It was way too cold with snow lingering well into the season. \u00a0It was also very, very\u00a0wet. Did I mention how wet it was? Somehow with all this dreary weather, the month of April in which\u00a0I usually weed\u00a0like crazy, saw me inside observing the rain from … Continue reading O Alika!<\/span> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Alika Rose in the Chives<\/p>\n<\/a>Alika Rose in the Therese Bugnet Roses<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n