For
those of you who missed our “press
releases” and the museum’s web site, here’s
the BIG NEWS. The garden club applied for and received an $800
grant from the Principal Financial Group’s Historical
Gardens Project for use at the Butterfield Cottage.
As a result, one of the first things we will
add to the garden will be a garden bench. It will be a lovely
place to sit and enjoy the flowers. Second, the grant includes
funds for a string trimmer so our king of the riding-mower,
Len Brooks, will forgive us for placing the bench on a corner
of the grass. Third, we are in the process of creating an herb
garden in our growing collection of old galvanized containers.
Appropriate planters for an old cottage garden
If
the above are not enough to entice you for a visit, think
of this – the climbing roses are blooming.
The Noisette rose on the corner of the fence (Alister Stella
Gray, an 1894 Golden Rambler) is a sight to behold. Then there
is the large one on the south end of the cottage (Rambling
Rector – 1912) and I’m here to tell you the rector
does ramble. It would gladly cover the building if allowed.
That
tall yellow rose with the evil thorns is Harrison’s
Yellow also known as the Yellow Rose of Texas. Some sources
give it a date of 1830 but A Gardener’s Encyclopedia
says it “is of garden origin in the USA, said to have
been carried west by pioneers and planted wherever they stopped.”
As I write this, the calla lilies, the iris, the pinks and
the California poppies are blooming and the smaller rambling
roses growing along the fence are covered with buds. Each week
will bring us something new and beautiful.
When
these old roses start to bloom each May, I feel grateful to
the early settlers for bringing starts of their favorites
with them. We know it was with difficulty, space was so limited.
Can you imagine nurturing a rose cutting in a potato all those
months of wagon travel. Now that’s dedication to gardening.
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