Yesterday was another gray, rainy day here in the Glade. We had to go out to run a couple of errands, but mostly we stayed in and listened to the rain on the roof.
Fortunately we had a sure cure for a dreary winter day — the garden catalog. When I was growing up in northern Indiana the winters were rougher than they are here in Tennessee and the garden catalogs were a welcome sign that Spring would eventually arrive. I grew up on a small farm and we had a fairly large garden. Mom and Dad would let my brother and me each pick out something to plant. Oh, how we looked forward to those catalogs.
The garden catalog that brightened our day was the rose catalog from Jackson & Perkins. J&P always has a beautiful catalog, not to mention beautiful roses.
Although I now get roses from a couple of different sources, I’ve grown Jackson & Perkins roses for over 30 years. When I lived in North Carolina and Ohio I even grew test roses for J&P, which was a very interesting undertaking. I would get roses to plant having no idea what they would look like.
I don’t do that any more, but I do still grow roses and wish that I had more room for them. And I still look through the rose catalogs from cover to cover.
We learned about two new Jackson & Perkins roses last October and I convinced Betsy that we had room for both of them. But in looking through the catalog yesterday I discovered FOUR new roses that I had never heard about before.
Betsy — we need a larger lot!!!
Senior Moments 