This Spring, our robust climbing rose brought us and our neighbors a lot of joy when it was in full bloom. I even received a text from a previous neighbor who had happened to drive past our house about how beautiful she thought it was. We have had this darling climbing rose for three years now, and, after much labor on our part, it has finally taken the shape we had intended and envisioned for it since it was delivered to us as one-foot-long bare branches from whiteflowerfarm.com. Over the years, David has been pinning the climbing branches on the wall around and under our flower box so that it will eventually frame our window on both sides on its way to reach towards the roof.

I remember thinking, as the rose burst forth into a multitude of buds and then an abundance of flower late May, that we had never grown anything so lovely before. How we have nourished and shaped this climbing rose over the past three years has at times made me and David feel as if we were professional gardeners although I know for certain that we are only amateurs at this stage. We don’t have greenhouses as professional gardeners do. We do all our seeding and potting on a table on the back porch and many times I would squat down right on the floor to repot my plants when there is no space on that small table. Therefore, I sometimes find myself dream of a screened-in porch and a proper greenhouse some day when we can afford to spend more time and money on a landscaped garden with a variety of butterfly-attracting foliage and shade plants.

We took so many photos of the rose buds and blooms because we fell in love with our rose bush this year, if it is possible to fall in love with a plant. It was almost impossible for us to try to stop ourselves from taking endless photos of it. We admired it in the early morning when David left for work and at noon when he came home so that we could take a mid-day walk together. When David came home from work in the afternoon, the sight of the rose would uplift his spirit and help him let go of some of his work burdens. When he told me this, I instantly thought of a book I had read a couple of years ago called “Beauty and the Soul” written by an Italian psychologist. Indeed, this rose bush was the very “beauty” to our “soul” this Spring.

Many happy cheers to the various forms of beauty that have revived our weary souls in this postmodern age!