FAREWELL TO NOR'EAST MINIATURE ROSES RETAIL

Even as it fades, Michel Cholet miniature rose displays a lovely array of colours.

Miniature rose Stardust has both the perfume and the elegant shape of Heirloom Roses.

I am probably the only person left in my village who still ends her wishful sentences with a "G'd willing and the creek don't rise." first of all, the creek no longer is what it used to be on colonial days when it powered seventeen mills. Building the village meant altering its course so that it vanished from some places while going underground in others. Luckily, it continues to run behind the houses on my block and the sound of its waterfall persists as one of the most pleasant remnants of its former glory.

For all its gentle nature, the creek does rise on occasion, as it has been doing after a particularly heavy, three-day long rainfall. If I am not shopping for a new canoe just yet--my friend Bob bought the older one and I hope he does not mind that it tends to veer to left--it is that there has never been a flood in my neighbourhood. It does feel good to be on high ground just the same as changes have been known to take one by surprise. Such a change has taken place at Nor'East Miniature Roses, a nursery with which I have done business for almost thirty years. During that time, I tried its Judy Fischer, Jean Kennely, Rise'n'shine, Cupcake, Starina, and Beauty Secret roses, finally settling on the mini climber Jeanne LaJoie as the most suited for my garden. Only last year I ordered red cascade minis for container gardens and lovely it was with peach coloured geraniums for company. This year, I added Michael Cholet and Stardust to my collection. Alas, after June 30th. Nor'East Roses will discontinue its retail business. At the moment, it is selling its roses for the ridiculously low price of $ 3. 75 plus shipping. Though at such low cost I can order two of the the Yellow Lady Banks climbers I have coveted for years but dared try, given they are most probably too tender for Zone 6. I will plant them by the sunny wall against which the tender Fortuniana has thrived. I will surround them with Fiala lilacs, Grant Mitsch daffodils, Duchesse de Nemours peonies and Hidcote lavender. How can they fail to flourish? I will miss Nor'East Roses all the same.