A Casualty

I was going to post something else today since it's Tuesday, but will wait.

Instead, what came to mind was this beautiful rose, Gypsy Moth.  These pictures are from my previous post of last year here and even then they were photos from 2010.

 Above is a single bloom.

And here was a cluster of three blooms all opening at the same time on one stem.

When I was home in mid-March for a week, the plant, which had always been in a pot since before Marty and I were married (18 years in June) was looking really good.  I came home this time to find it dead as dead can be.  He did not water it at all.  In fact, he had not done much in the back yard at all, other than mow the little bit of lawn that's there - and frankly, I think Nick did that!  The lawn's on automated sprinklers, so it is still living, as were the volunteer, reverted-to-wild, strawberries which he didn't mow over so that I could see them, loaded this year with itty bitty berries that taste awful - I'll leave them for the birds, or squirrels!  Oh, and the weeds in our terrace area are doing quite well thank you, without water!  Why can't they be the casualty and my rose have thrived?

But my poor old rose bush, dead, dead, dead. It was my only rose bush.  I'd had another, but it died several years ago and it's name was Garden Party.  Marty said he'd replace it.  I told him not to bother as it'd end up dead too, especially since I'll be back and forth between two states frequently.  Roses, and all other such things will have to take a back seat for now.