You said to wait until April 15th......

I know......we always ask you not to prune your roses until April 15th.............and during our upcoming hands-on workshops we will explain why....but.......

Do not try this at home!!!!! Actually, you might have a rose that kinda looks like this one. Old and overgrown, but it still produced the most amazing display of white roses all summer. If Niagara Falls spilled flowers, it would remind you of this rose. We have been asked at least a 1000 times what kind of rose it is. We have recruited ARS judges to help us, we have had at least 25 serious rosearians look at it, we asked the original owners of The Flower Tree, and we did research over and over to try and find out the exact species. We gladly handed out cuttings to any and all that requested them in the hopes that they might bring us back a plant to share. In spring every year we would give it a slight haircut, prune out the dead stuff we could reach, and cared for it with worm castings, fresh organic compost once and awhile but generally didn't do much more with it. With the decision to plant the rest of the beds that surround it this year, and the class when we would do it coming up fast, we decided to tackle it last Sunday.

Michelle and I gathered the tools - large pruners, loppers, gauntlet gloves, rakes and even a shovel to remove another grass that had outgrown it's spot. We spent the better part of the afternoon cutting and stopping - standing back and looking again....and then.....oh my! the haircut this lovely beauty received.

Another before shot..........

A beautiful bud, just filled with the promise of spring...........

The end of the day. Not totally finished. We knew it was going to take a little more pruning to totally get it into shape for the next few years, but the basics are all done. We went from a 7 foot wide, 4 foot high solid mass of thorns and branches.....and reduced it to about 12 major canes.

But here is the best part.......................look real close...........you will see an original Jackson & Perkins tag. Yes!!! Not only do we know now exactly what rose this is...........it is still available. The suspense is gonna kill ya isn't it........

To be continued.................................... see ya soon, Susan