Wisdom from flower gardening

This summer's drought has had me doing my darnedest to keep my plants alive.  I religiously water them twice a day....a good long soak once a day has not been able to cut it in the Ohio heat.

My plants are still alive, still producing, but I wouldn't go so far as to call them thriving.  They're just too stressed from the heat and the dry and the root shock of being parched most of the time and suddenly needing to wake up for a drink.  My techniques that produced golf-ball-sized cherry  and sunsugar tomatoes last year have given us marbles (though still sweet and lots of them) this year.  And the foliage on my flowers gets wilty every day.

I was pondering on my frustrations in all of this when I walked past a grocery-store manager's special rose on my counter (if there are roses on the rack for under $3 in the checkout, I buy them for us to enjoy so they don't go to waste...there are few things I dislike more than a wasted blossom....anyway).

And I realized that my flowers were giving me an analogy for dating/marriage partners.

Growing roses is like having a high-maintenance girlfriend.  The blooms are really pretty, and some varieties have an intoxicating effect because of their color and fragrance.  And people will admire them and compliment you on them.

For the two weeks in early summer that they bloom.

Get what I'm getting at here?

Roses are labor-intensive.  They'll LIVE if you leave them alone, but  if you want the best results they require time, and some research and expertise.  You have to monitor soil pH and fix it when needed, water them in multiple short doses, prune them enough but not too much, and heaven forbid at the wrong time.  Plus fertilizing.  And the best varieties for appearance and scent are often not disease or pest-resistant.  Typically with roses you get one or MAYBE two positives there - pretty or hardy or strong-smelling - but not all.

Personally, I'm more a zinnia, aster, snapdragon, sunflower girl.  The MOST labor-intensive I get is gladiolus bulbs (here you have to dig them out in fall and re-plant them in spring because the winters are too cold).

When you plant zinnias and asters, every single seed grows.  You can transplant the extras and they come right back.  If they get dried out, you give them a good soak and they'll perk up within the hour.

Snapdragons are great because the more you hack off of them, the more blossoms they produce.  I have blooms on my plants from April (I buy those) to October (ones I start myself).  And they come in all sorts of flamboyant colors!

Sunflowers love harsh conditions....in this heat and dry and in the sandy soil of my yard where nothing else will grow, the big ones got 12 feet tall this year.  The other, shorter and more colorful varieties I planted to act as trellises and some shade for my glads and tall snapdragons.  In this heat they've really needed something to lean on, and my sunflowers have done the trick.  They took care of themselves and kept my other plants alive.

So it all depends on what you're after.  If you want marvelous, exceptional, stand-out beauty that everyone will comment on and be jealous of, go for the roses (or the girls like them).  If you want a flower patch (or marriage) that will be colorful and varied and survive awful conditions that are outside of your control, go for the hardy-but-not-so-flashy flowers (or the girls like them).

Personally, I only have roses because my Uncle John gave them to me.  And I want to keep them alive just for the challenge.  I'm totally a sunflower-and-zinnia girl.