It's official, folks. ProfessorRoush is declaring that his beloved
'Red Cascade' is well on its way to recovery. This formerly dismembered and pack-rat-pissed-on climbing miniature is fighting its way back from oblivion, or more accurately from an illness that I hereby designate as "Pack Rat Den Doldrums." As the first person to describe the condition in roses, I think I deserve the right to name it.
You'll recall that, in early May, I ripped out the pack rat den that had been woven around the plump and supple six foot long canes of 'Red Cascade', and I hacked the remnants of the rose back to sparse six inch stubs. This (at right) was its appearance after the massacre, a few green canes among a lot of brown canes, all barely free of a mound of rat-urine-encrusted mulch.
But, here it is on July 4th, photographed on my iPhone from the seat of my lawn mower, blooming for the first time in a year, and attempting to add its short cascade of red blossoms to the red, white and blue celebrations of the day. The new, smaller canes are pencil-thick and growing longer by the minute, and the foliage is completely blackspot free. It started blooming almost a week ago, sparse at first, but it seems determined to make up for lost time. I suppose that I should grudgingly chalk up the new found vigor of 'Red Cascade' to the rat urine and feces infested mound of mulch I left around its base but I don't really want to think about it.
Everyone in the neighborhood is trying to get into the act, however. A week ago, as 'Red Cascade' started blooming, I snapped this photo, again from the lawn mower. A native
Asclepias tuberosa was trying to steal my attention away from my intensively-cared-for rose and it was doing a fair job of it. It sprung up last year, probably enticed to the spot by the as-yet-unnoticed aforementioned rat droppings. It's really disgusting to think about this bounty as a product of rat poop, but, I suppose, organic manure is organic manure, whether it is rat crap or cow manure or donkey dung. Luckily, I know that 'Red Cascade' is scentless so I won't be risking Hantavirus by trying to sniff the blooms.
It's official, folks. ProfessorRoush is declaring that his beloved 'Red Cascade' is well on its way to recovery. This formerly dismembered and pack-rat-pissed-on climbing miniature is fighting its way back from oblivion, or more accurately from an illness that I hereby designate as "Pack Rat Den Doldrums." As the first person to describe the condition in roses, I think I deserve the right to name it. 
You'll recall that, in early May, I ripped out the pack rat den that had been woven around the plump and supple six foot long canes of 'Red Cascade', and I hacked the remnants of the rose back to sparse six inch stubs. This (at right) was its appearance after the massacre, a few green canes among a lot of brown canes, all barely free of a mound of rat-urine-encrusted mulch.
But, here it is on July 4th, photographed on my iPhone from the seat of my lawn mower, blooming for the first time in a year, and attempting to add its short cascade of red blossoms to the red, white and blue celebrations of the day. The new, smaller canes are pencil-thick and growing longer by the minute, and the foliage is completely blackspot free. It started blooming almost a week ago, sparse at first, but it seems determined to make up for lost time. I suppose that I should grudgingly chalk up the new found vigor of 'Red Cascade' to the rat urine and feces infested mound of mulch I left around its base but I don't really want to think about it.
Everyone in the neighborhood is trying to get into the act, however. A week ago, as 'Red Cascade' started blooming, I snapped this photo, again from the lawn mower. A native Asclepias tuberosa was trying to steal my attention away from my intensively-cared-for rose and it was doing a fair job of it. It sprung up last year, probably enticed to the spot by the as-yet-unnoticed aforementioned rat droppings. It's really disgusting to think about this bounty as a product of rat poop, but, I suppose, organic manure is organic manure, whether it is rat crap or cow manure or donkey dung. Luckily, I know that 'Red Cascade' is scentless so I won't be risking Hantavirus by trying to sniff the blooms. 
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