There are Roses , and Then there are Flowers

Georgia Baxter says, "there are roses, and then there are flowers." I drove past her home and noticed she had a beautiful rose garden. She informed me she has 50 different roses. She doesn't remember when she started loving roses, but some of her roses are 30 years old, so at least 30 years. Her mother didn't like flowers, but "my gramma loved flowers." Her gramma didn't have any roses, however.

Out of the 50 roses, her favorite rose is called the "Veterans Honor." It is a vivid red, her favorite red, and it will keep in the house for a couple of weeks. "It doesn't have much smell, though."

She has tea roses and floribunda roses and went on to explain the difference. Tea roses have one rose on the end of the stem. Floribunda roses grow in clusters of flowers.

She pointed to a red and yellow rose and told me the rose's name was called Ketchup and Mustard.

The rose that first caught my eye was called Hot Cocoa. It is an orange rose with a tinge of brown.

She doesn't have any Peace Roses. She laughed and told me she didn't want to tell me how many she has lost.

She told me roses are tough, "they are really tough." She cuts them down and then covers them with horse manure to prepare them for the winter.

"They don't like wet feet," but she doesn't let them dry out. She waters them from the bottom. "I try not to get them wet."

She has started planting them at Fort Peck because they have a cabin there. "It's kind of dumb to have roses in two places, but I love, I just love roses."

She has tried for years to grow yellow and brown roses but read that yellow and brown roses don't do well in alkali soil. "And our soil is alkali" so for that reason most of her roses are reds and pinks.

She then pointed to a rose, "This orange rose is called an English Rose." I'm sure if I asked her about any one of her 50 roses she would know the name of every rose and could give me lots of information.