Celeste, that's funny. I can just see you sweet talking those beautiful roses of yours. Why else would they grow so well? Seems perfectly normal to me.

I did hear one of my neighbors, who didn't see me, refer to "the house with all the red roses" when giving directions to her kid on a bicycle. I kind of liked hearing that. And this afternoon, a neighbor down the street, whom I had never met, walked all the way down the street when he saw me outside to say how much he and his wife enjoy our "yard". So they seem to be okay with me. I have to admit though, when I'm in the front of the house, I don't linger too much with the plants because of the high visibility. And I rarely take photos out there because it seems so public. Now the plants in the backyard get hovered over. That's MY space.

Randy

My neighbor told me I would never be able to grow a thing. She was quite sure of it. Well, I ripped out the entire lawn and planted a garden. It is FILLED with roses. She has never said a single word about the roses and comments that she would like an area to sit in outside. However, I have never seen this woman actually sit outside except for once in 10 years. She watches TV night and day and never looks at the garden, lol.
The new neighbors on the other side have been renovating with no time to visit the garden until last week. I think they were kinda stunned (in a good way.)
Our garden is well known in the area. There is another gardener around the corner from me with a spectacular place filled to the brim with oddities and oldfashioneds, so we are on the "route". Today and tomorrow we will probably have over 100 people come by and slow down to view, some get out and take photos. At times neighbors who get married at the little independant churches in the area come afterwards and have their wedding photos taken in the garden. I think that is my biggest joy, that people think enough to have the garden share their most special memories.

GGG

Celeste,
I have a wonderful neighbor who probably thinks I'm nuts putting in these little rose bushes this year ... little does he know how big they're going to get! My dogs always warn me when somebody's close by so they don't catch me talking to my roses :-) One of the advantages of having a couple of yappy Schnauzers.

My other neighbor is new and so far he's loud and obnoxious. I've decided that he will move before I do so I don't care what he thinks. I know he's heard me talking to my dogs and calling them their silly nicknames ... babytalk and all.

GGG, wow, you've got to share some pictures of own of the front of your house! I live on a corner lot where 5 streets intersect and I would love to have those compliments you're getting. To get a show going, I would have to cut down a bunch of trees. Being a "tree hugger" from California, I can't seem to DO it. Most of the trees are on the east side of my house. Maybe if I see your pictures I'll "get 'er done".

bloominganne

One good thing about cell phones -- now when the neighbors walk by when I'm chatting with the roses, they can just assume I'm talking on a hands-free device.

My neighbors are good neighbors - far enough away to barely be seen, rarely if ever to be heard. I've lived in the city and remember how it felt to know there were all those houses looking out over my yard - it was hard to relax. Now I know that there is no one watching but the birds - and I talk to them, too, so why should they complain about my conversations with my roses, LOL?

AC

GGG, do you live in Decatur? We went to the Atlanta Garden tour 2 years ago sponsored by the Botanical gardens, and my favorite was this house in Decatur (an older neighborhood) where this man had 3 homes and had done the garden across the three yards. It was a maze of arches done with rebar with roses and other wild climbing stuff. It was amazing. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera that day.

Last 2 years, neighbors have driven by and stopped to look at my QE and Iceberg climber that put on a spring show. I had very high hopes this year as I had trained some canes into the other bush across the top of the window. But alas, there was the freeze which has limited the blooms. Iceberg is doing OK, but QE only has about 20 blooms left from over 100 before the freeze. There is always next year!

I have a new young neighbor (moved in about 2 years ago)---She is delightful and really interested in gardening.

She was so excited when the cutting I gave her bloomed--now she is building an arbor for 2 Zeffys-----should be gorgeous in a couple of years.

My DH also built a cold frame for her and he has taught he how to propagate azaleas------
She wants her yard to be loaded with azaleas and roses like ours.

She is a lot of fun.

P.S. I also talk to my roses that is why my DH gave me the name zeffyrose----LOL

Keep right on talking Celeste---LOL whatever you are doing your roses are gorgeous !!!

Florence

I am sure my neighbors think I am nuts. I am like Randy...I spend most of my time in the back where I am less on view...but that is doing to have to change, as I have limited room for more roses back there and uncharted areas, in the front....
I was told when I started, that the roses would not grow. When I was planting my second bed, a woman who was walking by, told me...'Dear, don't bother planting roses, they will get terrible leaf diseases and they will look so bad, you'll rip them out' That was about five years ago, and I have a lot more roses, then I did then...
I had a friend whose DH ran every morning and I was on his route...he said he could smell the roses, a few blocks away.
I talk to mine too...

My neighbors, I think, find me & the roses boring after all
of this time...
OH! I forgot, if it's spring, it must be time for my
neighbor to ask me who I named my roses after...grrrr
alida

I'm going to move next door to zeffy rose.....

Come on up !!!LOL

Florence

Hooray to all of you who help make this world a more beautiful place!
I am a pastor of a church in the central valley of Calif. and have had a ball planting all kinds of roses, including Angel Face and Heaven on Earth and right now the church looks like an island surrounded with blossoms!
I also love gathering rose petals and flinging them in the air to celebrate special occasions, or pouring them out on parishners cars and when they drive off the asphalt road is festooned with beauty.
Blessings to all of you!!

THANK YOU to all of you for reassuring me that I'm not the only one who talks to roses! I am enjoying your responses to my post, so keep them coming!

I came in last night after working in the rose gardens all day and tallied up all my rose injuries. I sustained numerous scratches even with gloves on, and I blush when I admit that I "yelled" at Centifolia Variegata when one of her long, horribly-armed canes reached out and slashed open my lower leg while my back was turned, and blood poured forth like a spigot. I actually felt ashamed that I yelled at that rosebush, because in spite of her deadly thorns she's a stunner when she's in full bloom and I love her dearly. It reminded me that roses aren't unlike people in that respect...some have a thornier exterior that can cut us deeply and make our hearts bleed...but ALL persons, just like roses, have something beautiful and redeeming about them that makes them worthy of love. Maybe I'll give her some extra alfalfa tea to make it up to her.

I think it is true that talking to plants does make them flourish. Everyone who has witnessed my multitudes of rosebushes in full bloom has remarked that my roses look loved. And they are, indeed.

Celeste

I suspect my neighbors think I'm a bit nuts, but I hope in a good way.

I live surrounded by other houses in a "beach cottage community" that was built in the sixties a block from the ocean in southern california. We each have our own houses, but they are basically condos and built very close to each other and there is a lot of "communial" land. I have neighbors peering at me from every which way, but I'm over it now and thankful to have even the little bit of personal land that I have to garden in and have been enjoying turning the outside of our home into a "cottage garden", with lots of roses.

The neighbors see me outside all the time, usually I'm standing staring at the garden. I often stand staring at it for long spells of time imagining what I should do here or there just day dreaming. If I'm not staring, I'm usually digging, planting or watering. Often, I sing and talk to my plants, but I always wave hi if a neighbor is walking by.

Today, I was caught singing to Jude the Obscure, who has just produced his first lovely blossom.. "Laaaaa, Laaaa, Laaaa, La la la la.. la la la la... hey Jude!", I swear, true story. So I'm sure the neighbors think I'm quite nutty.

We moved in a year ago, and have completely transformed our yard, which was mostly iceplant and "decorative" stones. (ick, ick, ick). We have new neighbors a few houses away that have spent the past few weekends putting in roses and lavendar, and we've become gardening buddies. Another neighbor came by and introduced herself.. she told us she was told she "had to meet the other garden people". We toured each others gardens and oooohhhhed and ahhhhhed. So we are finding kindred spirits.

I have been spending a lot of time on the front the past few weeks, but the biggest transformation is on the side of the house where I have my main garden, a 10 X 20 foot patch of land next to my deck. One family walks by this every day on the path to get to their house. It used to be iceplant and a single neglected red rose bush. I stripped it out this year (except for the rose of course) and planted 10 rose bushes and tons of companion plants. It's all in bloom now, and they tell me every time they see me how much they love it and appreciate the beauty that I have brought. I was sitting on my deck, hidden from view, when they walked by with friends last week. They were talking as they walked along and suddenly their friends stopped at the garden and said "Oh, isn't that lovely", and they said "yes, Isn't it incredible? We're so lucky", and then they continued walking. My heart could have burst.

When we moved in 12 years ago and started to rip out sick fruit bushes and dig for new gardens, neighbours told us we would soon tire of gardening like they had. But we are lucky to be in a gardening neighbourhood, all the five neighbours we share borders with, fences with some and hedges with others, take an interest in their gardens without being obsessed like my husband and I. We respect each other and share plants and tools. Our southern neighbours showed us pictures of our garden taken from their kitchen window, very interesting. I have asked them never to remove their tall thujas because they are part of my "borrowed landscape". We imitated the raised natural stone patio of our northeastern neighbours when we made our dry stone wall. They can't see it but I ought to invite them to our side some day. We let our southeastern neighbours take down trees that bother them in our woodland if they ask permission first.

Our only problem with neighbours is that several of them seem to want to be closer acquaintances than my husband and I are prepared to be. A young couple invited us for dinner with another couple, also neighbours, and I thought it was embarassing. We had absolutely nothing in common. I am ashamed that I haven't asked them back. I had given the young woman several rose journals in Finnish, her native language, because they were no use to me, but I didn't expect anything in return. Other neighbours invite us every year for their very wild Midsummer party and of later years we feel we have to leave home as we are running out of excuses. I am quite happy to have a cup of coffee or a drink in the garden with my neighbours and love to chat over the fence, but ask no more from them. Am I antisocial?

this is a great post---I'm really enjoying it----

Mariannese----I do not think you are antisocial---You have your priorities straight.---gardening comes first-----

We are lucky----neighbors are friendly but not overbearing .

Blendguy---sounds wonderful.

rroseloverr-------I would love to belong to a church where the pastor throws roses on my car---I can just picture it and it makes my heart feel good.

Florence

I am fortunate where we live, and with the neighbors we have. I'll take a few minutes here to brag about all of them! Several families are very dear to us. Our son grew up with the daughters of one family, and we took turns chaperoning them all on school band trips, church youth group events, etc. That family is acutally the reason we chose to buy out here, we wanted to be closer neighbors to these old friends. Two other couples in the neighborhoood are older and retired, very dear to us for different reasons: one, retired Army Colonel, is my DH's archery buddy, and his wife is my gardening accomplice. The boys groan when we return from a shopping excursion, wondering what they will be asked to do with shovels and elbow grease, next! And there are two younger families right next door on each side of us, as well: one Wife is homeschooling her brood of 4 on their 10 acres across the street, and I can always count on one or more of the children to come over and ask lots of questions and offer to help with whatever I am doing while we chat. The other young couple are both very nice, but rarely home. They have no children (yet? it's in the talking stage), and work a lot of hours. But when they are home, it's all about the horses, and the home improvement projects. The husband makes a mean barbeque, and his wife is famous for tastey margueritas. We have had several parties out here for all the neighbors to get together and mingle and enjoy the gardens and nice weather. When I have read about Jean's troubles, (an evil neighbor poisoned her beloved dog), it has brought home to me how fortunate we are to have the diverse, interesting, and perfectly lovely folks that are our neighbors, and in some ways, an extended family!

The garden is such a great place to meet and mingle, and forge those friendships!

Allison

I moved to a cookie cutter subdivision after my divorce. I loved the house but feel certain I have the smallest lot in the neighborhood. On top of that almost my entire back yard is a hill that used to be covered in Juniper.

One of my first gardening tasks was to erect my large white birdhouse...pretty much dead center on that hill. A neighbor came out and began to explain to me how I have to ask the Home Owners Association about such things. I thanked him, finished my task and went about worrying that I would have no freedom in this new place.

Fast forward 3 yrs and I have 50 roses and lush spaces and compliments from all the neighbors. I recently put in the pond that I was also warned about and in doing so converted entirely the neighbor fella. He went from warning me to becoming an avid bird watcher with all kinds of feeders and houses. His wife is sweet but not interested--LOL.i still kid him that when I first moved in and they unloaded 80 potted yard plants (I had to take them with me!) he asked me...in all seriousness...."are you some kind of farmer?"

I think "gardener" is what he was reaching for...and the answer will always be yes!

Ronda

There were a lot of people at my neighbor's yard yesterday as they were finishing a newly built pool. I'm sure those people thinks I am nuts or something. lol

Anyway, I was pruning the roses yesterday I was in the middle of Tamora, Fredic Mistral, Just Joey and Chrysler Imperial, when all of a sudden, I saw "the snake", I literally jumped out screaming!! I ran to the other side of my yard, grabbed the dog's pooper scooper (it looks like a golf club), ran back to the rose bush where the snake was and started saying stupid things like "come here snakey snakey... where are you hiding you !@#$#%". I was like a mad woman yesterday..LOL ..even my dog was glaring at me wondering what the heck I'm doing with his poop scooper.

My plan was to have snake crawl or at least get on the poop scooper so I can take him somewhere else, like the trashcan! I hate snakes. I immediately went online and found that it was only a Texas brown snake, I think it's the same one that I saw some weeks ago. I left the snake alone and I hope he's doing his job like eating the caterpillars!

Yes, not all snakes are bad! Don't let your primate programming take over all rationality. Snakes have their purpose in nature, and nature is why we're all out in the garden.

I talk to my plants all the time. What a goofball. Hope nobody hears me.

As long as the roses are listening to my murmurs, life is good. Happy to be in the ranks of those who chat with plants and are answered with beauty,

Sue

I have gotten a lot of stares and caught my neighbor shaking his head at me when I've been out on a perfect transplanting day (raining) with watering can or hose in hand.

I know you guys understand that transplants need a deep watering, but people are perplexed seeing me "watering the plants" during a rain.

But nobody blinks an eye when next door neighbor (who shakes his head) runs his sprinkler every day it doesn't rain, even if the previous 5 days were rainy.

Our neighbors don't say much! The guy next door says he doesn't like roses, and the original owners couple on the other side have a few rose bushes. The Newport Fairy on our side moon gate is now up and on the edge of their roof as well as ours. At least they haven't hacked it back!! Hey, they get a free fabulous rose without having to water it or deadhead it... heehee. They also have our cl. Shot Silk arching over their side of the fence line. I asked that they please not cut it off because we have a Monet Arch on order with Smith and Hawken. The wife said okay unless it its hitting her in the head... The Shot Silk will take up its own arch! These neighbors do like what we have done with our front yard, after seeing the front lawn pulled up two years ago waiting until we could afford the front yard redone.

careytearose