A Rose, A Thorn, and A Bud

Many people and groups use the concept of a rose, a thorn, and a bud to describe emotions, projects, life in general or as an icebreaker in a large group.

Without simplifying it too much, the rose is something working or going quite well, the thorn is something that could use some improvement or was a big flop, and the bud is something that’s off to a good start but needs some more time.

So for today’s blog post, here’s one rose, one thorn, and one bud to share, metaphorically speaking of course.

First the “rose” is some of the lilies that have remained standing inspite of my not taking the time to stake them up. This pink one is gorgeous in the evening light!

The “thorn” shall be represented by this picture of a marigold, which is not the thorn but is growing in the vegetable garden near where the thorn was.

Just down from this marigold were my rows of lettuces, most of which had I had removed several weeks ago when they began to bolt. But I left my ‘Great Lakes 118’ lettuce growing because it is a head-forming iceberg type, and I was pleasantly surprised to see it forming nice heads a few weeks ago.

Usually, I treat this lettuce like other lettuces and cut off leaves as I want to eat them in the spring, but I decided this year to see if heads would form. And they did. I was pretty excited. I watched and waited. I made plans to write a big blog post gloating over my beautiful homegrown head lettuce.

And then I didn’t make it out to the garden for a few days.

Upon my return to the garden, I saw that most of the heads were turning brown and mushy on top. I ended up ripping them out and throwing them on the compost heap. I didn’t even take a picture.

Some thorn, eh?

Now for the “bud,” which is something to look forward to.

I call this garden bed “August Dreams Garden” because by design it is supposed to burst into bloom in August and keep blooming into September. With all the rain, it’s filling in nicely and I expect there’s going to be an explosion of blooms of goldenrod, rudbeckia, Joe Pye weed, cup flowers and more in this garden in about three weeks, give or take.

What? How can that be so soon?

That’s right. August is about three weeks away.

Sorry to hit you with a fact like that.

And I’m still waiting for my first ripe tomato!

What’s your rose, thorn, and bud this week?