When I was a little girl my Grandfather had two beautiful rose bushes that I watched him tend to all the time.  As a child I didn’t think about how much time he spent with his roses or how much work it took to care for his roses.  I just wanted to be like my Grandfather and have beautiful roses.

My Grandfather was the kindest person I know.  He cared for those roses as if they were his children.  I can remember how much joy they brought him.  Little did I know how much work goes into caring for roses.

When I grew up I knew I wanted roses like Gran.  I started out with the Peace Hybrid Tea rose that he had, his was huge and that is what I wanted.  All I saw was the after effects of that rose bush.  I didn’t know anything about taking care of roses, because by the time I was old enough to have roses of my own Gran had passed away.  But I wanted to make him proud.  I bought my first Peace rose.  It had beautiful blooms on it when I bought it.  I planted that rose bush with love and care.  As soon as I saw a weed near my rose I would pull it.  I began reading about how to care for roses I had no idea how many opinions there are on how to care for roses.

Then the next thing I knew my rose leaves turned yellow with brown spots.  What was this, I never saw anything like that on Gran’s rose bush I thought.  How could this be, what did I do?  I read online that I had disease on my bush.  Ugh, I thought “I’ve killed my bush”.

I learned how to overcome disease on my roses naturally with insecticidal soap and for the japanese beetles I planted marigolds.  I was happy to plant the marigolds because I love marigolds, I think they are beautiful.  But what I found is the smell of marigolds keep away japanese beetles.  I found that with all the work on disease I still needed to feed my rose a fertilizer because as it grew new stems they were weak and didn’t hold up to new rose buds.  Again I thought Gran didn’t have this problem or did he?  I was only seeing the results through the eyes of a child.

What I soon realized was this rose bush was teaching me a lot of things about my life.  Slow and steady always wins the race.  I was not able to have a rose bush that looked like Gran’s rose bush in one season when his had been growing for years from his love and care.  Then the day came when I saw my first flower competition at the fair.  I thought I can do that.  Anyone close to me knows how competitive I can be.  It is just my nature to want to succeed in something that I’m passionate about.  I enjoyed cutting my roses and taking them to Gran at the cemetery but now I could possibly win a ribbon with my rose.  I read up on how to present roses in a show.  It isn’t just sticking it in a jar and calling it a day.  You have to clip off the thorns and pull off the leaves on the stem.  The stem has to look strong and your petals have to open at just the right time.  I talked and talked to my roses all growing season knowing I had until the middle of September for them to grow blooms exactly when I needed to cut them.  I now have ten rose bushes of different variety.  I’ve learned when to fertilize and what to fertilize for the soil I have to grow strong stems, beautiful blooms and large foliage.

This year I’m happy to say that I took 3 varieties of roses to the competition.  I found the right vase and took extra care to display them beautifully.  Jacqueline and I headed to the fair.  I filled out the paperwork and wishes my roses the best.  I said to them let’s make Gran proud.  Thirty six hours later I saw the results of years of learning how to grow roses.  I received a first place for each variety I took and a first place for my Dahlia which is another of my favorite flowers that I have seven varieties of.

What I’ve learned over the years is that nothing happens over night.  Especially this spring when I thought my Peace rose had died during the brutal winter.  Consistent steady work at anything is what gets you the results that you are looking for.  But most of all having a passion for what you are doing without passion it is just work.  I now realize why Gran had such beautiful roses and that it wasn’t work to him.  He had passion for what he was doing.

Live life passionately.