*&^%#$!!

Well, Anna from Walden Effect has informed
me that this poor rose has Rose Rosette Disease.
Piffle!!
Apparently it is a goner.

I know it looks none too good right now,
but this was a beautiful rose.
A Fragrant Cloud!
Truly. That is it's name.

The blooms are/were huge and a
vibrant, almost electric, pinkish orange-y bright sherbet color.
Just gorgeous. They seemed to glow at twilight.
Oh, and the smell! Filled the whole yard.

I have a thing about roses. I still have the first rose
that I ever bought. I have dug it up,
potted it in a 5 gal bucket and moved it more times
than I care to remember and across state lines.
I love, love, love roses.
I have a strange relationship with them
and in order to grow good ones I have to
follow strange rituals, but I love them.

For instance, I buy the rose in it's black pot
and bring it home. I prep the hole with compost etc..
and plant it. It does Great!! For about a year and a half.
Then I have to dig it up, chop it back to a stump
and pot it up in a bucket.
I plant it in very rich, almost pure, compost
and place it in a certain spot in my yard
that is sheltered from the afternoon sun.
I have to foget it is there and find it in the weeds
by the compost pile later on and freak out that I forgot it.
I must then begin to water it and it will leaf out again.
After it is full of healthy new growth I replant it in the yard.
And it will be just fine forever more after that...
unless it gets a disease apparently.

It that crap spreads to my first ever rose
I may just die along with it.