in the garden

My late father was quite knowledgeable about horticulture, which knowledge I took advantage of after we all moved into the new house. We’re the third family to live in the house. The original homeowners did all sorts of wonderful things with the house. The family from whom we bought the house neglected the grounds to a shocking degree – not that I’m complaining as I’m sure it saved us lots of money!

The wild roses that are now in bloom reminded me of this. These roses are quite different from the roses you’d normally see. They’re tiny. They have only five simple petals each. They last only a couple of days each and their scent is quite faint. (They really look like the roses you see in heraldry.)

The roses you’re more likely to see are the result of many years of hard work by growers who have created hybrids. These hybrids have bigger showier flowers that last longer and have a stronger smell, but that comes at a substantial cost in natural vigor. So most of the roses available for planting have the hybrid stems grafted on to wild roots. If you neglect the roses (for instance, letting new shoots grow up untended), eventually the wild roots will take over and the vines will lose the characteristics for which you selected the particular roses.

So it is in life. Without sufficient attention to the new life that’s been grafted on to us, the habits of our old roots grow and choke out the good.