When I went out this morning, I found that Neptune has cracked her first bud. Yay! Neptune and French Perfume are the super-smellers from the roses I had last year, and since French Perfume is going to take a very long time to recover from its chomping, Neptune is my first hope for the smells-so-strong-it-could-give-you-a-headache-if-you-leave-your-nose-in-too-long rose. Of course, all of the new roses I bought are supposed to be strong smellers, but I KNOW that Neptune is good at it. :-)
And, well, Neptune is PURPLE. I bought one more purple rose, Heirloom, but that's going to be a while.
I spotted this spider on a bud of Neptune's a couple of days ago. It's still there. I've decided to leave it alone because yesterday I saw it eating a fly. It can eat all the little bugs it wants.
Neptune always seems to grow very strangely. I'd hoped that the hard prune might correct some of this, but... doesn't look like it. Very uneven with the lower clumps and then the really tall canes, just like last year.
Doesn't change that Neptune smells absolutely delicious, though. I can't wait for those buds to open. They've peeled, but they're taking their own sweet time to actually open.
It's always an event when this rose flowers. Unfortunately, it doesn't flower often enough. :P These are the only indications of growth on the plant right now. *sigh*
But in the meantime, it is beautiful and smells divine.
This was my "perfect" flower that I picked the other day. It was so far over my head on the bush I just reached way up and snipped. When I caught the falling flower... it was gorgeous. I put it in a vase and carried around with me to sniff and admire. Dave laughed at me and said I should take it outside for some pictures with the sky and mountains. Well, that didn't work that well, but here it is on the bench.