Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Sometimes You Have To Take A Chance

This past May while at my local discount store I saw that they had some "Knock Out Roses" at a very decent price. I've bought plants from this store before but you have to get them early before they have a chance to kill them off, and sometimes they still die after you get them home and planted. I looked at these roses and they looked pretty healthy so I decided to take a chance and buy 2 of them. Took them home and figured I'd wait until the next day to plant them.

Next morning I went outside, got my shovel, and was getting ready to dig when I really looked at these plants. I was going to have to dig a HUGE hole. I mean I knew they were in a large container and that's why they looked so healthy, but I hadn't really thought about the fact that I would have to dig a hole for this large container. TWO of them. In CLAY. Decided to have a few more cups of coffee instead but eventually got around to it and after much digging, huffing, puffing, setting them in, taking them out, digging, setting them in, I finally got them into the ground hopefully at the right depth.

They already had buds and soon these bloomed and I thought "pretty nice". Then nothing. All of June, nothing. Not dying that I could see, but not growing either. Was begining to think I had done all that digging for nothing. Then in the first week of July a few new red leaves were beginning to show. Then more leaves and finally some buds. And now..
.
I won't show the entire plant because it's not the shape I want right now, but I'm not going to prune it till next year. Not taking any chances.

8 comments:

Roses and Lilacs said...

Looks like you got the Double Knock Outs--very pretty. I have the Blush Knock Out. Very prolific bloomer.
Marnie

Anonymous said...

I'm so jealous. Mine finally got some flowers, but nothing like this!!! Oh, well. I should have known.

SisterNan

flydragon said...

Hi Marnie,
Actually it's called Rosa Radrazz, and it's not the double. I would have bought the double if the store had it but it didn't. I've seen pictures of the Blush. Gorgeous.

flydragon said...

Hey Nan,
Which one did you get? I only showed the good looking flowers on mine, not the gangly stems. It took ten pictures to find one that looked decent.

Anonymous said...

I clicked on the picture and they sure look double to me. How come you find all the neat flowers? middle sis

flydragon said...

If you go to this link you can see the double. http://www.theknockoutrose.com/moreroses.cfm It's really nice!! Mine is just a single. I just happened to be at Marcs when they had these. First year I've ever seen them there.

Nancy said...

Looks like they were growing roots..

They're pretty hardy roses, and should give you a lot of blooms in the coming years.

flydragon said...

Hi Nancy,
The tag says it's blackspot resistant, mildew tolerant, self-cleaning and drought tolerant. Sure sounds like a winner to me.