First bud

On May 20th I planted the bare root Scentimental rose, posted here.

Now, less than a week later, it's put out it's first bud. It's a leaf bud, not flower bud, but I'm still excited.

The growth hormones will send all the nutrients into the buds. If there's no latent bud up towards the tip of the stub beyond the bud that's growing, the stub will becomed deprived of nutrients and shrivel up. Then I'll come along and prune off the stub. Or I won't and it'll just stay there, being a dead stump and the rose bush will just keep on growing.

Roses really aren't hard to grow, any more than knitting is hard to do, or wine hard to enjoy. These are areas where people can really delve into the complexities and debate the merits of noisettes vs floribundas vs hybrid teas and so on, or cotton vs wool vs bamboo, etc.

Or we can just enjoy the pretty, fragrant flowers growing in the sun, while knitting a garterstitch cotton blanket, and enjoying a glass of white wine that was on sale at the grocery store. It's all good.