Cockroaches, Cher, And My Roses

 ...is the answer to the question  "What three things will be left standing in the smoking aftermath of Armageddon?"

This might be a little rough, but please, don't cry for me, Argentina. I had to face the reality, and I got through it just fine - with a little help from The Angiosperms!

 YEAAAAAAAAAH WE'RE THE ANGIOSPERMS!  YEAAAAAAAAAH WE'RE THE ANGIOSPERMS!  WE'LL SAVE YOU FROM STUFF WITH OUR HAIR!   (Meet The Angiosperms 1972 Arista Records)

Here we have a picture of Rancho FirstNations two years ago in June:

Here's a picture of the Rancho today:

Yup, it's abandoned.  

Here's what happened.  We sold out to a local man who was keen on taking advantage of the situation created by the flood, acquiring local properties fast and cheap.  Mere weeks after we cleared out, we pulled the trigger.  We got cash on the barrelhead, done deal, and made a modest profit, feeling lucky to have gotten out from under. 

 

About three months after the sale was final, the State and the Feds changed all the flood zone definitions in Sumas and upgraded the development regulations - and now the poor dude can't do a thing with the place.  It would simply cost too much any way he might want to jump - he can't even afford to tear it down! so he's stuck.  But since the property is within city limits he has to keep up the lot or get fined, so he sends in guys to hack everything back.  As you can see, they do 'hacking back' thoroughly and well.

Try as they might, though, you can't keep a good rose down!

Utterly indifferent to all the spilled diesel fuel, asbestos, cess pit effluvia and other nightmare substances that now lay on this valley like leprosy, THIS ROSE LAUGHS!

I lead off with 'Munstead Wood', the queen of my heart.  There it was, smelling like heaven, making bees happy, a huge umbrella of a plant.  Man, I felt proud.

I also felt hurried because I was trespassing, so I had to do a speed run through the place; hence the lack of more and better snaps.

Here's a landscape rose I bought. I forget the name. It's just a Star Rose.  But I mean look at this thing:

It's clean as a hound's tooth, too.  All these roses are! Thriving on neglect.  Not a bug. Glorious new growth. 

Celine Brunner, the frowsy old harridan, living her best life, coming down off the first flush of May.  Check out those leaves!

Here's one I never expected to make it. Not in a million years. It was cranky, it was whiny, it was a heavy feeder, the bugs adored it; and look at the goddamn thing now.  This is Jackson and Perkins 'Fourth of July'.

Here's another picture of it because it just blew me away.  There's some nice dead canes sticking up, but I'd be surprised if there wasn't on this bastard. Best striped rose on the market IMHO.  Hardy, too!  You see the proof!

Even this bugger!  I bought this rose as a band! It cost me a buck at K-Mart!  Yeah, the pieris to the left is a dead duck, but this damn thing lived!

And here's the star of the Survival Show:

Improved Josephs Coat!    

I will never stop singing the praises of this rose.  This plant stopped and held a full-sized floating steel dumpster during the flood! It was knocked halfway to the ground, half-covered in flood-wrack, and all the branches were broken! It's been backed over! There's a two-foot hole right next to the roots where someone dug up the Itoh Red peony, it's had no care whatsoever and the fucker is blooming!

There are buds on it!  This is all new growth!      

Many of the perennials are coming up and are ready to blaze. It's going to be a colorful abandoned property, that's for sure, and I hope people come by and steal more plants. 

I'm going to pat myself on the back here.  I damn well knew how to choose and where to plant.  I knew what the hell I was doing.