The shock of the move

etienne moving rosesPoor roses. Uprooted. Literally. We are having the courtyard entirely resurfaced as it was so damaged in the flood.  And that means I need to get all the planters out of the way so Etienne and Bebere can grade the soil, sculpt it, put down a weedproof fabric and then add a layer of hoggin over the top.

I can then put the planters back in place.  But until then, they have to sit out of the way sulking.

And we discovered that they had put roots through the bottom of the planters and were embedded into the soil.

To say they are in shock is an understatement.  If you had to chose the worst time to move a plant this would be it.  They are just forming buds.  So I don’t know if we will get roses this year from these magnificent plants as they have just had a lot of their roots severed. broken planter

Etienne was very restrained with swearing as we spent HOURS trying to move them. He kept muttering that he wasn’t a gardener as he donned a thick coat to avoid getting attacked by spiky rose branches.

He was surprised that I didn’t get too upset about the one planter that broke apart as we tried to move it.

But I do think that stoicism is one feature of the gardener’s philosophy.  Things die, things don’t go as planned, there’s always next year.

But it does mean that today I will be spending a bit of time in the courtyard moving these plants out of the dead planter and putting them into pots. I had hoped to get a new replacement one from our local town garden centre yesterday, but they didn’t have the right size.  So that will have to wait.

ivy to goAnd I have to move the ivy from the edge of the lily pond as well.

I thought I’d be upset about that as well, but actually the colour of the leaves of the ivy never really worked as it was too pale.  But you do feel a bit of a stab of guilt that six years of work has gone into this display.  I’ll try and lever up as many roots as I can and transplant them elsewhere.

I haven’t worked out where. Too busy, but something will come to me as I walk around the garden.