...quiet, about a lot of things...

I stopped into the store to get some treats for my school kids tomorrow. What a pathetic sight...indeed. So many men with plastic wrapped bouquets of overpriced roses. Obligation roses do not smell as sweet.



I saw on Sunday Morning ( the CBS show) that grocery store roses die quickly because the floral department are placed too closely to the produce department. The gasses that ripen the fruits, cause the flowers to die more quickly. The show also reported that commercial florists are trying to breed the smell back in to roses. Seems they bred it out, decades ago. Ooops.



Michael and I planted 60 bare root rose bushes at our second house in California, bought the year Maggie was born. All heirloom roses, bought by mail order from Oregon. People would stop, as they walked by, to marvel at those roses. All shades of pink, white and apricot. No yellow. No red. They were unbelievable. Full double blossoms, and each had a smell...so unique. I'd always catch people bending down to smell this one or that one. I would often snip them off a flower, and send them home with it. My little keepsake. Most of our neighbors were elderly. They would always say the smell reminded them of their childhoods. Now I know why.



I left the grocery store today, strangely sad. I was remembering the months of nursing those bare roots into flower. I was remembering releasing ladybugs to eat their aphids. I was remembering pruning dead blossoms and coaxing rose climbers up trellises. I was untouched by the impostors sold at the markets.

But still, I guess it's the thought that counts.

So what did I get for Michael?? I got him a printout of all my pharmacy costs he's been after me to get...romantic huh. But he'll be happy with it. It's what he wanted.

(Another point of arbitrary knowledge, is that roses, not dressed by a florist, often still have their guard petals on..The outer somewhat leathery petals. These must be removed for the roses to bloom. So if by chance you receive some this valentines day.You'll know what to do...