Petals & ThornsLife From Ashdown Roses

This is the final post I will write for this particular blog. You see just as we are moving our blog is moving too. After all, without a full time nursery it seems a little silly to keep blogging...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/10/closing-chapter.html

It's been a whirlwind month. As it appears the property isn't going to sell anytime soon and therefore we will not be able to use the equity to move and hunker down until the economy gets better,...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/09/doors-closing-and-opening.html

"Hi Paul, it's Mike" This is a once or twice a week phone greeting usually around 8:30 AM on many a morning. The Mike was Malcom (Mike) Lowe. What followed was a rose conversation that could h...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/08/adieu-mike.html

My older sister is a Librarian. She has happily been employed as a Children’s Librarian first for a Public Library and for the last umpteen years in an elementary school. Her love of children�...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-older-sister-is-librarian.html

ACT ONE FADE IN: A greenhouse at an independent rose nursery in upstate South Carolina. Rose plants are everywhere in their pots on tables. CAMERA ZOOMS IN ON: A tray of rambling roses, slight...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/07/were-bustin-out-of-this-joint.html

The ongoing move to our new retail site is letting me know I've been living in a rose bubble these past few years. We are so used to dealing with rose people and passionate gardeners who are fami...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/07/size-does-matter.html

We've been potting up roses all week and now the propagation house is rapidly filling up with baby roses. And all kinds of roses including many we have not seen in years. Duke of York (left), R...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/07/congratulations-its-bouncing-baby-rose.html

This is the time of year when we decide which of the older plants should be held over one more season and which ones should go. Not to the compost heap but into the big 50% off sale we sometimes ...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/07/go-or-stay.html

There are some roses that are just hard to root. You try and you try and you try and every year you wind up staring at trays of dead cuttings. But as I’ve said earlier I’m Dutch and stubbo...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/07/roots-of-progress.html

So goes the nursery. Well, as goes Ohio Belle that is. This lovely sport of New Dawn is a rose we have not offered in probably four years. You see, we simply never got around to taking cuttings...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/06/as-goes-ohio.html

We are waiting for the property to sell. And waiting and waiting and waiting. We are at the point where we can’t move forward with our future until it does. You see, I will be using the equity ...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/06/sittin-in-limbo.html

"You've got to hold it right feel the distance to the ground Move with a touch so light until it's rhythm you have found Then you'll know what I know" Thus is the chorus of one of my favourite D...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/06/move-with-touch-so-light.html

"I don't want to try growing roses because they are fussy and need a lot of spraying" Boy, if I had a dime for every time I heard that at a garden show I'd be independently wealthy. For years an...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/06/i-dont-want-to-try-growing-roses.html

One of the joys of my job is bringing new roses to our customers. Usually this involves travels to Europe, a few dinners, touring endless acres of rose gardens, a few more dinners and then decisi...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/05/one-of-joys-of-my-job-is-bringing-new.html

Part of what makes us, well us, in my opinion is that we offer roses hard to fine elsewhere. They may be old, they may be new - but many are unique. Quite a few of the newer ones are roses I foun...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/05/our-re-birth-has-begun.html

We have been involved with a project called The Grayson Rose for last few months. It came about from a tragedy when two friends who are part of Pam's radio station family lost their daughter Gray...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/05/gods-little-flowers.html

Man, I love this time of year. Propagation season is about to really get rocking. We've already done some from the existing plants we have in inventory but in another week we move outdoors to ros...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/04/ready-set-propagate.html

I have a little secret to share with you. Wanna know the best thing about moving to the new retail location? The privacy. No, not at the new retail location but at the old location which is n...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/04/getting-back-in-touch-with-my-inner.html

Have you ever been so exhausted that even thinking about being exhausted hurts both in brain and body? That's the way I feel right now. Today, April 1, was the first official day at our new retai...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/04/have-you-ever-been-so-exhausted-that.html

Boy this has been a week. I started a series of short rose "how to " videos about a week ago and I'm having a blast doing them. I've kept it quiet from my rose world but I spent 15 years touring ...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/03/all-roads-lead-to-something.html

Paul mentioned March being the beginning of our spring. I know that while driving around town the daffodils were popping up and the Forsythia has even started to show color. That however was thre...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/03/paul-mentioned-march-being-beginning-of.html

March 1 is coming. That to me is really when our season kicks into high gear. With a little luck, hard work and creative advertising the phone will start ringing more often, the website will see ...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/02/catch-ye-breathe-while-ye-can.html

Turn on the news these days and it seems all you see are stories about people like Bernie Madoff, R. Allen Stanford and all kinds of other people whose only goal in life seems to be taking what t...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/02/simple-little-thing.html

I am a very lucky person. In my spare time I am a cross stitcher. I belong to a number of different forums and groups. As with rose growing there are all walks of life out there that share my pas...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/02/happy-to-be-me.html

Last Saturday morning in a slight rain I found myself surrounded by 7 of some of the greatest people I've ever had the pleasure to know. Here's how it happened. We have close to 3600 rose bushe...

http://ashdownroses.blogspot.com/2009/02/our-first-red-clay-day.html