Wordless Wednsday: The Shenandoah River at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia

Wordless Wednesday: Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge

Encountering the Old Blush rose at the Hollywood Cemetery

Last weekend I visited Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA. Even though the east coast had some warm weather recently, I was very surprised to find a rose blooming near James Monroe’s grave. Soon I realized that there were roses all over a moderately sized bush. A helpful marker identified the rose as “Old Blush, Class: China, Intro date: 1752”. I was charmed by these lightly scented blossoms appearing in the middle of the quiet cemetery, so when I got home I decided to look them up.

Old Blush is a rose with semi double pink flowers that appear darker or “blushing” in the sunlight. It is one of the oldest roses and the Chinese cultivated it for more than a thousand years. Old Blush and other China roses were brought to Europe by traders like the Dutch East India Company. These were later crossed with other varieties to make modern hybrids. Any rose varieties that existed before 1867 are labeled as “old” while those after it are “modern”. Older roses tend to be smaller flowered and more rambling. Old Blush can grow well in poor soil but can get out of control if left untrimmed.

Rooting basil

I had a very busy weekend, which included a trip to Richmond, Virginia. But, I left my camera in my friend’s car and so I have to find something else to post this morning. Hence, the cell phone photo of a coffee cup full of water and basil.

Yesterday in Richmond (rather, near Richmond) we ate at a pho place. Every time I go into a pho place these days I inspect the basil to see if I can pull off a piece large enough to root it. I don’t want to take the whole thing, see, because my dining companions and I also need to eat it. The last time I went to this same place it was very hot outside and I didn’t have anything to put the basil in, so it didn’t make it home. Yesterday I wrapped these in a napkin with some ice and then put it in a coffee cup with a little water for the journey home. While I realize the folly of carting basil cuttings from Richmond to Baltimore when I can easily get them here, I was happy that they made it.

These cuttings are a bit short, so I relied on a trick showed to me by an old friend who gardened a lot. The wax paper here not only keeps short cuttings out of the water, but also keeps from evaporating as quickly so the water doesn’t have to be refreshed as often. Hopefully, these will root and I will report on their progress.

When I checked Examiner.com this morning I noticed that my article on utility safety for Baltimore gardeners is listed as “most popular” in a sidebar. Hmmm…I can’t imagine why, except that people must be doing a lot of digging this week.

Charlottesville and Waynesboro, Virginia

I’m back from a relaxing trip to Charlottesville, Virginia where my friend and I stayed with our accommodating friend, Joe H. On Friday we explored downtown Charlottesville and poked around the bookstores down there. I was amused to discover this tree with a bit of guerrilla knitting on it. In my old blog I once did a post on guerrilla knitting and have since tried to hunt up pieces of urban knitting in Baltimore. But, since that sort of thing comes and goes I am not always successful. So, I was happy to find this in a little park near the library, not far from an equestrian statue of Robert E. Lee. From maps I guess that this would be near the corner of 1st and Market.

I love Charlottesville, or “T.J.’s town”, as out host sometimes calls it. It has a pleasant country charm but it also has a lot of cultural things that I am used to up here in Baltimore: movies, bookstores and museums. They even have some sort of shopping promenade near this park, with lots of cool little shops and theatres. I wish the area around our harbor here in Baltimore was like that instead of full of chain restaurants like the Cheesecake Factory.

On Saturday we tooled around Waynesboro, which is just over the mountain from Charlottesville. It has a great Salvation Army, Chinese buffet, music store, and an excellent little museum operated by the Waynesboro Heritage Foundation. This museum is free and packed with things related to Waynesboro history, from the Civil War, to local industry, to their movie theaters and drug stores. If you like 19th century history there is a lot to see in this little old bank building.

After that, we wanted to go up on the Blue Ridge mountains and travel sight-see along Skyline Drive but it was closed. Our host speculated that it was due to storm damage, not only from the February snow, but also from the recent wind and rainstorms that were ending as we arrived. There seemed to be a lot of storm damage on trees down there, even more so that up here and we got it pretty bad. Still, the rain cleared out by afternoon and so our host took us to a place where we could get a few scenic photos.