Springtime at Rancho Roly Poly. The Bourbon Zephrine Drouhin in full cry. I should apologize for the quality of the photo. I take the snaps for print quality and then try to reduce them in size to fit the tiny page here and it often doesn’t work out well, like this one.

This is Upper Michigan not Central Texas. There’s no snow on the ground here at all. But it feels like the picture because it sure is cold. The elephant ears in the front yard at the Rancho are turning black, like rare reader Diller’s ladyfinger banana plants. He’s a farmer in the West Central Florida panhandle where he has cows to worry about. JD Allen, down in Brazosport, likewise expects to lose his red and yellow hibiscus. I’m worried for the rose bushes in the Back Forty. Time will tell.

This was one of the first antique roses I planted at the rancho. To commemorate my Mississippi great great grandmother who had one in her dooryard. But I never took a decent shot of ours, and a neighbor’s use of too much herbicide, apparently, wiped it out last summer. Having to use this Australian site’s photo of a bloom because the replacement plant, which I finally got around to planting was run over the other day and chewed up by the landscaper’s lawnmower. It’s reliable and it will come back from the roots, and I’ll get my own photo, but it may not be until next spring.

Something to brighten the day. The Bourbon antique Zephirine Drouhin at the rancho.

Still, with six fragrant antiques (Old Blush, Ducher, Louis Philippe, Souvenir de la Malmaison, Altissimo, and Zephirine Drouhin) nearby pouring their scent into the air I really shouldn’t complain. Besides, if the Knockouts are as disease resistant as their breeders claim, they’ll keep their color going while the antiques are struggling to replace their dropped, blackspotted leaves.