Everything’s Coming Up Roses

Several people have asked me about the status of my roses, so I decided to use this post as an update.

On January 21 I was interviewed by KABC Los Angeles. The end of segment features my roses which were almost all untouched by the fire.

Shortly after the interview it dawned on me I needed to relocate the roses quickly if I wanted them to survive. I had originally planted them in 15 gallon landscape pots to prevent the gophers from eating the roots. Most garden and landscape enthusiasts know gophers can wreak havoc on a garden, putting my roses in pots was added protection. The question was whether I could pull them out and would they survive?

My youngest sister and I returned three days later to find out. And since we were going to be digging in the soil, we donned PPE.

Safety first!

OK, so it’s far from my best selfie, but it’s proof that I wore PPE. It was so strange to see all that devastation against a backdrop of the foothills and a practically clear blue sky.

It turns out I wasn’t the only person who returned to the neighborhood. There was a lot of activity.

The neighborhood comes back to life if only for a short time.

My sister and I started digging around a bush and were surprised that we were able to easily pull it out from the ground!

The Great Rose Migration

Begins

You can see the one bush that was hit by an ember and burned the bush and melted the rim of the pot. We had to take extra care in removing it from the soil.

With all twelve bushes out of the ground, the next phase was to transport them to where I am staying.

Ray to the Rescue!

My wonderful gardener/handyman Ray brought his truck and transported the roses to their temporary home.

Home Sweet Temporary Home

The roses are safely relocated to my temporary home in Pasadena.

Once I had the roses where I could tend to them, I needed some guidance on whether special care was needed. A Sunday afternoon FaceTime with my friends Manson and Tim was very reassuring. They confirmed the roses looked OK (lucky because they were relocated during bare root season, which may be the only good thing regarding the timing of the fire) and offered suggestions for the eleven bushes and the one that had burned.

An Impressive Comeback!

A couple months later and the roses are happy and healthy.

Even the rose that the ember had burned is showing signs of life, and that makes me very happy.