Of Roses and Catalpas

Note--I started this post weeks back, so while there are no more blooms on roses or catalpas, and it's hot, dry and dusty, still thought you might enjoy the pictures.



With the first flush of Spring--the lilacs, wild grapes, fruit trees and the early blooming flowers, I always think that it can't smell or look any prettier. Then along comes early June, and I remember that it can---or at least run a close tie with the earlier sensory flood of blossoms and fragrance.


When June rolls around the roses and the Catalpas put on their show. The lazy fat climbing roses spill their blossoms on the fence and the Catalpas look like snow drifts. The place smells like a French Boudoir (not that I've ever smelled one....) and every which way you look some bit of bright blossom is showing.




I used to try and keep 'regular' roses, but I found that they just did not thrive for me. The lovely pink roses that twine on either side of my driveway, are my "Jack Roses". They are old fashioned climbers that my mailman pulled starts of out of a ditch one day years and years ago. He gave me two, I stuck them in the ground and they took off and bloom every year with no care or maintenance (besides the occasional trimming of a dead or unruly cane). The bright red climber is a variety that I ordered years ago (and have since forgotten the name of) and planted along the front fence. If I remember correctly there were two of them, one on each side of the front gate, but only one lived. There is one other little rose besides these hardy climbers here. It's a small 'tea rose', yellow in color and so far very hardy. It often blooms all summer.

The view down my driveway this time of year is especially lovely and peaceful. The Catalpas hang over the tracks and the roses bloom on the gate posts.


In front of my house I have five large old Catalpa trees. I was told that they were planted in 1935 in the front yard of the old school. These old stately trees have already survived past their projected lifespan of 70 years and I hope they last many more years. They are always the last to leaf out in the winter and the first to lose their leaves in the fall. There is a moth (the Catalpa sphinx moth) that lays its larva in these trees and along about late summer the trees will become full of caterpillars. At times they can defoliate the entire tree. These caterpillars are very popular as fishing bait. The blossoms will produce a long thin 'green bean' looking seed pod that turns brown in the winter and eventually shatters and falls off. There are three more trees scattered around my place (one in the yard) that are the result of these seeds 'scattering to the wind'. The ice storm in 2007 took a heavy toll on the trees, but they seem to be recovering.

I'm glad those folks decided to plant these trees all those years ago. They also planted lilacs and Chinese Elm, although the old Elms are showing their age. The trees and bushes they have planted have been enjoyed over the years by many.