The Stubborn Rose

OK, I think I might have killed a plant. Here is the full account, your honor.

Last time, I shared how I successfully grew basils. After that, I became extra brave and decided to conquer the difficult world of ornamentals. I sacrificed quite a sum from my monthly allowance to buy a bunch of flowering plants from a nearby seller. I could probably have gotten them cheaper if I followed my wife's advice to buy them from Balamban nurseries. But I wanted to save on the driving time.

Anyway, I bought 2 roses, 1 carnation, 2 peonies, 2 petunias and 3 mini-roses. I had no idea why. Here they are looking like a salad bowl:

The hard leafy succulent in the middle was the only one living in this urn before the others. She is a proud plant, and has since continued to thrive (and has even given birth to more shoots) even with the unwanted company.

After having replanted all of them, I started to realize the disaster I created. You see the peonies and the petunias hate the sun and need lots of water. The roses, on the other hand, love the sun and thrive on less water. The succulent in the middle doesn't care, as long as you leave her alone.

I tried to mitigate the problem by planting the shady plants (hehe) away from the sun. But they will all have to be watered the same way. At this point, it was just a matter of time before one of these guys give up. :(

I got them at a nice time because they were flowering like crazy. Any good gardener knows it should be best to cut the flowers off while the plant has just been replanted to allow it to spend its energy taking root. Flowers, though pretty, take a up a lot of a plant's energy and nutrients. Well, considering flowers are basically reproductive organs, that should make sense. They want to get laid like any other living creature (haha).

Well, I am a lousy gardener and let the flowers stay because they looked nice.

Check out the stalkers at the back! Haha..

Eventually I found the roses couldn't take up much of the weight of the flowers. They were practically bowing to the ground, helplessly trying to get rid of their flowers. I finally decided to cut them off and they found their way inside the house.

That's a Gerber bottle, our family doesn't believe in trash.

Those cold cuts are calling out my name. Yum!

A few days ago, I started to notice one of the mini-roses has been shedding its leaves. I ignored them at first and Banne did say that was normal. Well, after a few days, I saw they were definitely dying! I realized I may have planted the roses in too deep in the urn. It couldn't get any sun from where it was. All the other plants covered it. Here it was in better days:

I can still hear her in my head. :(

Funny thing these roses are. For some reason, we as a people have elected them the official flower of love. They are still the most bought flowers during Valentine's and every one has a favorite rose color. But very few people realize how really hardy these plants are. They crave the sun and they don't need much watering. Our househelper told me in the mountains, she would see roses thriving under the heat of the sun, on almost dry ground. They can also protect themselves just fine from predators, what with their thorns.

We all should learn about love from roses. It was Paul who said in Corinthians 13:7: Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Well, here it is now. Replanted and awaiting better days.

Hang in there, buddy. :(