This week I worked in the backyard to reclaim my knockout roses from what had become the wilds of the back forty. Over the years, that portion of our yard has been a lot of things but much of the time, it has tended to be what gets a bit wild and out of control. I planted knockout roses when we had to replace the fence because Moose had come along. Moose was just about 6 months old when she realized that she could leap the fence in a single bound. We had a three foot wooden fence for years and Jingles (the best dog ever) never tried to jump it. But along came Moose and she was outta there. Even after we built the 6 foot fence, we discovered that she had a vertical leap that rivaled the deer we sometimes see in our neighborhood.
Anyway, there are six roses by the fence and to be honest, I’ve never loved them. I think my idea of roses are the more traditional ones that my dad used to grow; bushy and full with well-defined flowers. These are not those roses. But still, they have their moments when they are quite lovely and they just keep going and going most often with little to no input from me. Over the past couple of years, I have worked to build in pollinator plants throughout my yard. One of the things I didn’t plant but thrives is the spanish needle (bidens alba). Some folks may call it a weed but if the bees love it, it’s good enough for me. They had mostly been in my front yard but this year I noticed some in the back. It was one of those summers that I mostly ignored the back yard and noticed that the bidens were sprouting up in and among the roses. I knew that they could get out of control but I thought, “but the bees!”, and just let them go.
Finally this weekend I went out to assess what had gone on during the long hot summer. A couple of those suckers had grown so tall that they bent over, snaked through the roses and then put shoots down in the ground and started over. I never realized that they would grow that way. And because it’s getting late in the season, they had all gone to seed and were covered with stickers. As I worked my way through the mess, I was covered from head to toe with those little stickers. And I couldn’t even be mad about it because that’s what they do.
Whatever is 