🧔🏻 “HoW mAnY?”

👧🏻 …

🧔🏻 “How many bushes are coming?”

I’ll never forget that question and how the answer was both funny and terrifying when my true ✨gem✨ of a husband was asking me it sometime last December. 

I had gotten caught up in too many pretty pictures on Facebook and weekly rose releases. Somehow turned into me ordering 28 bare root rosebushes for delivery in early 2025. 

This, mind you, despite me never having grown ANYTHING successfully before—much less a single rose bush. Now we had dozens on the way and zero clue how to care for them.

Somewhere in my mind, I beleived caring for five was the same as caring for 10, which was probably close to caring for 20. That same ✨delulu✨ thought process is what ultimately got me up to 50 rose bushes throughout this season (even after realizing  really early on that roses really are a lot of work). 

However, there is something incredibly rewarding when you get it right. And it’s addictive when you do.

That’s not to say that we have it all figured out. We’re in the humid south, battling black spot and other fungi that I can’t say I have fully identified. Some of these bushes look healthy. Some of them have scraggly canes. 

But the joy these rose bushes have brought me, (and the joy I hope my amazing husband has found vicariously through me) makes it worth it. 

As time passes, I’ll share more about this wild journey. How it began, what I’ve learned, certainly what I plan to do now that the seasons are turning–and probably most importantly–what I will do differently next season.  

But, if I understand it correctly, we still have a couple more good months here in the South. I’m still doing a little bit of fertilizer to hopefully get some more blooms. At some point, we need to most of these 50 roses that are still in pots into the ground before it freezes.

And much to the hubby‘s [likely] chagrin, I’m not through buying yet. Bare root ordering season is about to open again for 2026. 😜

The joke when I first started clicking “Add to Cart” on all these beauties last year was that I was turning D into a rose farmer. Farmer D. I started picturing him in overalls and everything. 🧑🏻‍🌾

Somewhere along the way, I became the rose farmer.

As I write this, the air is crisping up in the mornings, some of the leaves on our trees are just starting to turn. The roses seem to like this coming shift in the seasons.

Their blooms are big and beautiful, and I still can’t believe the transformation in both me and my backyard.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

With love,

Farmer JZ