Rose Colored Glasses

Most kids, when left alone in their parents house for a long weekend will throw a wild party that will live in local infamy for years to come... or at least until the next long weekend. For the sake of being a bad-ass I could stay that I did just that.

But if you know me better... you know that is the OPPOSITE of anything I would do! Instead I raced in the Big Rock Triathlon (took first in my age group and 4th woman overall!) and trimmed my mother's rose bushes!

Before I began my little gardening excursion I was actually having a less than stellar day. I was cut from a Disney parade Audition and the Red Sox were losing spectacularly to the Devil Rays. Watching 16 and Pregnant wasn't helping the cause either. So I went outside, blinking at the warm Cali sun and noticed the bushes needed some T.L.C. and not the kind that chase waterfalls.

I preceded to spend the next hour hacking away, saving the prettiest ones because I simply couldn't throw them in the compost! Here's what I did:

First I filled a vase with the biggest blooms and placed it in the front hallway.

One tip I learned from my Grandpa, known as Poppy (sometimes Poppy-Seed) is that if you fill your vase with ice cubes, your flowers will last exponentially longer. We don't call him Poppy-Seed for nothing!

I next took a candy dish and arranges blooms with the shortest stems but fullest petals. I 've seen this done with just one floating blossom and it is absolutely elegant, but seeing as I had more roses than God on my hands, I wanted to use them up!

My favorite was taking an old jelly jar that we sometimes use as a drinking cup and filling it with the leftovers. This really became the rose colored glass!

Scratch that, my favorite may actually been the ones I gave to my four year old neighbor, Lyla. Precious!

This also got me wondering what could be done with fresh cut roses and how to best care for them. Obviously there is a whole horticulture industry. I even think Carolyn and my alma mater had a flower arranging class, but what about us sometimes-gardeners.

A quick google search led me to find a simple checklist for Summer rose care. Basically, with roses there are three essentials: water, food and grooming. Roses need to be in a sunny spot, preferably about 6 hours a day and watered deeply. Pruning, or deheading, is very healthy for a rose plant and encourages its growth over time. Not to mention perfect for in home arrangements!

According to Rose.org, there are seven kinds of roses and most rose colors have attached meanings, like yellow for friendship and red for, what else, but love.

Also, the Rose is the national flower of England and for US states! (New York, Georgia, Iowa, and North Dakota)

Not only do I have some cheerful bouquets all around my house, but I found that spending the time out in the sun, barefoot and gardening my mood did a 180! Sure the Red Sox were shut out and I won't be in the next parade, but tomorrow is another game, and there will be a hundred more auditions. That ol' adage, rose colored glasses, may just be the truest lesson!