Front Porch Climbing Rose

A couple months ago, I ordered a new climbing rose from David Austin roses. We decided that it would make a beautiful edition to our front yard landscaping and add some much needed charm to the front of our house.

We planted it on the side of the porch opposite the stairs, against a double height trellis. The trellises are from Amazon, we modified the design slightly so we could double them up, one on top of the other. Since our porch is so high, it's the only way to find a trellis tall enough without building something custom - and I wanted white vinyl for minimal maintenance.

Of course nothing is ever easy in this house. While I measured the trellis height, when properly installed in the ground with the anchors, should fit JUST under the porch roof which I figured we could anchor at the top with a couple of screws and tie to the porch railing for extra stability. BUT of course, THIS. HOUSE. There's a totally random cement slab buried RIGHT where the trellis needs to go. If we just anchor it to the porch and rest it on top of the slab, the trellis is 5" too high. If it's too high, it hits the gutter and bends at an awkward angle away from the porch and looks really odd.

In the end we decided that zip ties, 1 anchor footing and screwing it into the top of the porch will hopefully be enough (and so far it's pretty sturdy). We ended up trimming 5" off the top of the second trellis and it fit perfectly. The top is screwed into the roof of the porch and the bottom is zip tied to the base of the porch and one side at the bottom is properly anchored. I might also anchor it to the railing if need be - I don't want it toppling.

We set the trellis up over Easter weekend, before the rose had shipped. Everything was fixed before the rose arrived. I know I could have kept the rose in a pot if I needed to temporarily, but for the investment I wanted to give this rose the best start possible - in its permanent home. And I was so SO EXCITED when it arrived!

It looks beautiful! There was even a bud on it ready to bloom! This time I ordered a 2 qt potted rose instead of a bare root rose (last year the Lady of Shalott was a bare root rose). I think I like the potted rose better because it's already growing and blooming.

The rose we bought is Claire Austin. It's good for north-facing walls (our house faces North West), has high disease resistance, is a hardy rose for beginners (me), and grows 12-20 feet (the trellis is 16 feet). It's supposed to be a great repeat flowering rose with lots of blooms and excellent fragrance. I can totally imagine sitting on the bench smelling roses behind me waiting for the school bus or keeping an eye on the kids while they ride their bikes.

(photos from David Austin Roses)

Originally I wanted a colorful rose for the front yard, not white. I thought white would blend in too much with the house and I wanted another pop of color. I was SO close to picking this bright yellow Graham Thomas climbing rose or Teasing Georgia. However, the Claire Austin rose had everything I was looking for, especially being able to grow on a North facing wall. And with the dark green foliage, I think the white will end up looking really pretty. And in the long run it will be neutral, classic and charming.

It's planted next to the hidden cement slab. It will quickly grow towards the trellis and up, so I'm not worried about the off-center placement. Plus the bottom is hidden by the shrubs.

It will take a couple years for the rose to get established, though the two roses I planted last spring grew pretty well in their first year (the discount pink thornless climbing rose on the arbor at the garden entrance and the fancy Lady of Shalott climbing rose on the side of the garage). So hopefully this will get some height this year as well.

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I'm definitely on a rose kick. I'm already narrowing down the options for next year's rose. I cant' help it - roses are just so pretty and I want them ALL. It's why I have a "one a year" limit. I definitely want an English shrub rose next, probably in pink/coral or maybe a coral/orange. Right now I have it narrowed down to Bascobel, Alnwick, Emma Hamilton, or Olivia Austen. Which could totally change again by next winter when I place the order. But look at those colors!

(above photos from David Austin Roses)

Checking In: Quarantine Week 5

This has been a scary couple of months here in Northern NJ. We live in a New York City commuter town with a major hospital. Our neighbors and friends are doctors and nurses there. We have family and friends in the city (the hardest hit city in the world). We know multiple families that have tested positive for COVID-19, we know people who had to go on a ventilator, and sadly we know people who didn't recover. It's scary, stressful and heartbreaking. As of today our state alone accounts for over 96k confirmed cases and 5k deaths. It's overwhelming. And it's not over.

I know this is hard for everyone, and we are lucky. I know our situation could be so much worse. We are safe and healthy so far and will hopefully stay that way. Our families are safe and healthy. I'm not sharing all this to complain - just sharing our experience. The quarantine isolation is really hard.

At week 5, I can accept some simple truths. I am unable to keep the house clean with the boys home all day every day. I am unable to keep Matt entertained in a healthy, constructive, no-screentime way all day while helping Oliver homeschool and keeping up with my job (and Mike is at work as an essential employee with his tech stuff, it's me running the show). I will never fully catch up on laundry or dishes with so many outfit changes and the kids never reusing cups. Murphy's law is in full effect (anything that can go wrong, will go wrong). And my kids think that more than 3 minutes of alone time is MORE generous.

Sanity Savers: I'm planting anything I can in the garden (which isn't much in April, but it's something). I'm drying big bouquets of garden thyme (because it went nuts and tripled in size) and pressing pansies and trying to teach Oliver how to make friendship bracelets. My manicure is on point - and a shade or iridescent aqua/teal aptly called "mermaid scales."  I dyed my hair platinum blonde in the bathroom (I was going progressively blonder since August, so it wasn't a huge jump at that point, but it's VERY BLONDE now and I still have to do a double take when I walk by a mirror). I picked a bouquet of daffodils.

The phlox is blooming too under the trees and in front of the tulips. I'm loving the little spots of color in the yard. I swear these days flowers are keeping me sane.

The trees are at their peak in the backyard.

We built trellises, cleaned up garden beds, trimmed the forsythia bush way back to a manageable size. We also opened up the patio - uncovered the furniture, pulled the cushions out from winter storage, swept out the leaves. I got all the pots out of the garage and are ready for flowers soon. The seedlings I've been growing indoors are ready to go outside (though it was sleeting this morning, so I guess it will be another week or two...). I feel like I'm constantly busy but never getting enough done.

The peas sprouted:

This past weekend Mike finished the third trench and all we have left now are the dry wells (which are tricky because it's raining so much). #3 is like 75% done, then he'll do the first one and lastly the middle. Once that's done we can setup the back corner the way I want it - a double composter, the wood pile, a stepping stone pathway, a small curved retaining wall in front and then building up the garden to be a real garden and not a patch of irises and weeds. (Diagram plan coming soon, decisions still need to be made).

I'm perpetually exhausted. Everyone is right? The days are all mixed up, the weeks are long and we are full of crazy. We are perpetually trapped in a weird version of Ground Hog Day where we aren't supposed to leave home. Dog walks are our only escape (but not to any parks or trails because those had to be closed in NJ since people were not social distancing). There's always yet another school assignment that didn't get finished or work stuff that still needs to get done or a meal to be made or dishes and laundry to do. A trip to the grocery store or pharmacy, even wearing gloves and a mask, is riddled with anxiety and finding grocery delivery is as impossible as finding toilet paper.

It's a weird slow build of frustration around here. Little things chipping away at me to the point where I have to stop, take a break, and remember that I am not personally being victimized by the pandemic. The kids are begging to go back to school. There are tears of frustration and anxiety over missing their friends. They are lonely. Zoom is not the same as real life interaction. Morgan killed a giant rat in our yard. Our ice maker broke. Easter just didn't feel like Easter and the kids were very concerned the bunny was going to spread COVID-19. Not seeing our families was HARD. There's a lot of extra stress with work right now. Homeschooling is an uphill battle every day. The kids never remember to close the back door and now there are like 50 flies in the house. The threat of closing all pools and beaches here for the summer has me wanting to throw a tantrum of my own.

Life is strange right now, but it's not all bad. For as much as the boys fight, the family togetherness has brought them so much closer together. The dryer was squeaking but magically fixed itself. Oliver's baseball energy has gone into learning to skateboard skills have really improved and he loves it. Matt is teaching himself how to tell time on analog clocks. I don't miss the morning rush to get the kids to school everyday and I like the flexibility we have during the day. I like that we can have a picnic lunch outside. I like that I can take a conference call from the hammock chair on the deck.