In the Bleak Midwinter

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Midwinter:

Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone.

Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow…

In the bleak midwinter…long, long ago.

This is one of my favorite carols, but the first stanza matches this forever-February much better than it does Christmastime.

Most of the eastern half of our country has been battered in this freezing season, and it looks like this February will be the coldest ever in the record books. My gardens are buried under snow that is waist-high in many places. The Neighborhood Garden out near the street has a snow bank atop it that is taller than I am. My Rose Forest Garden in the back was never cut back last Fall, and there are rose twiglets sticking out of the glacier that has buried all my roses. I have 15 or so roses in pots waiting for the Connecticut Rose Society’s rose auction in April, up against the house on the south side. I can’t find them right now.

Bleak Midwinter

Yuppers, it is certainly pretty bleak, and Spring (on the calendar) is still a month away! Actually, it is snowing again as I write. There has been so much of it that I feel like we are living in an Alpine snow globe that some giant child continues to pick up and shake to see the pretty flakes falling!

Looking out the window, though, I have to say that it is beautiful and bright, and that it’s covering up the dirty snow near the road so it looks pristine again. The other magical thing about a snowy day is the quiet…you can almost reach out and touch the silence. Yes, snow is a wonderful insulator, and I am thankful to have such a heavy covering of it with the temperatures being so cold. This morning when I got up, it was -2 degrees. My friend, Tom, who lives about 15 miles away had -15!!! Brrrrrr…

Midwinter Rose Garden

I’m not worried about my roses, because they have this wonderful, thick blanket of snow covering them. And, when I plant my roses, I always make sure to bury the crown, or the bud union, 3-4 inches below soil level so that they have extra protection. We had some cold weather before all this snow hit four or five weeks ago, but nothing like the low temps this February has given us. This coating of white is going to help my roses sail right through all this cold.

I’ve been thinking about planting a new ‘puddle’ garden in my front yard. I plan to call it my ‘Valentine Garden 2015’ and it will have three David Austin roses in it: two ‘Claire Austins’ and one ‘L. D. Braithwaite’ in between. Claire is a pure white and LD is a deep, dark crimson. I will plant them in a triangle and let them grow together into a magnificant display of red and white fragrance, and every time I experience their loveliness, I will be thankful that…

the bleak midwinter was long, long ago.

Thanks to Christina Rosetti (1874-1934) for her beautiful, heart-felt poem.

Meet Marci Martin

Marci Martin has loved roses for as long as she can remember. From the time she was a little girl, she was fascinated with how…

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