We all have remarkable, frustrating, or downright silly stories about roses. Let's share them. Mine is a silly one.

Many of us have been asked for rose cuttings. Someone who saw my photos of 'Fee' sent me a message asking for cuttings of my rose, explaining that her mother's nickname was "Fee." I replied that I was sorry but I had to refuse because my 'Fee' bush was a small and skimpy plant that didn't produce any excess growth for cuttings. She then asked me to dig up the whole bush and send it to her. (I apparently was supposed to do this for free, by the way, because she wasn't even offering to pay for the postage.) I refused, saying I had only one 'Fee' bush and would rather keep it than send it to her. In a brazen and indignant response, she asked me: "But was your mother's nickname 'Fee'?"

I decided to ignore her and didn't respond. In retrospect, though, I wish I would have told her my mother's nickname was "Rose" (it wasn't ) and demanded that she dig up everything in her garden with "rose" in its name and send it to me.

I have frequently been asked for cuttings/budwood and I consider each inquiry based upon its merits. I also have requested material from others and have always attempted to be as gracious and grateful as possible, always at least offering postage. Probably my most outrageous ones have been those (yes, MULTIPLES) who have weedled and cajoled me into providing them what they desired, then emailed once they were received, "Now, TEACH me EVERYTHING there is to know about how to root them!" EXCUSE ME? Now, requests are responded to with, "you are familiar with how to root them where you are?" If not, go learn. There are many tutorials on line on many sites, including my own blog, where all information required is available. Once those are digested, should you have specific questions, I'll happily entertain them, but no more spoon feeding. There isn't sufficient energy for that.

I have a totally different silly story which I may have told before. In this case I am the silly one. I was given some cuttings of the great rose Mermaid by a nursery when I admired their only specimen - it was huge. I successfully rooted them in pots and then sort of forgot them for quite a while. They survived freezes and lack of water among other things. When I finally decided I must put them in the ground, I planted them next to a dead sycamore tree which they enthusiastically climbed as planned. Unfortunately the tree fell down after about a year. At this point I should have cut the thorny monster back when I removed the tree, but, no; I spent most of a day unwinding her many canes and training them onto a nearby fence. Well, she outgrew the fence and climbed across an alley onto a shed. Clearly she needed an arbor to support her to keep the alley useful. So using cattle panels bent into an arch, I shored her up from underneath. I do not recommend this technique. I now periodically jack up the "arches" and add stronger supports as Mermaid continues to thrive and increase. I see no end to this pursuit! If only I had done the whole process in the reverse order...

Har, har, har, porkpal-I'm ALWAYS doing stuff like that,lol. In a way, my whole garden is a "silly rose story"...

@Zuzu that story about the Fee rose is hilarious. I think the person who practically demanded the rose misread when she saw your pictures and thought it said FREE rose. She obviously wasn't the brightest bulb in the package.

Now, let's get down to business here....you had many roses that I have admired over the years how about getting the spade out. digging them up, packaging them and mailing them to me, for free of course.

But of course.

This is the sort of thread I love. I'll have to give some thought to my best rose stories, but in the meantime I'll share this: I came across an article this morning entitled, "Roses will grow healthier beautiful blooms if gardeners add kitchen scraps to the soil." It went on to recommend banana peels, egg shells, and coffee grinds. And then I began to wonder: how many banana omelettes and gallons of coffee would I need to consume on a daily basis to come up with enough scraps for a garden my size?

I feel the same way about our garden scraps!! I do plan on getting a 5 gallon bucket with a screw on lid for putting compost in and will keep it on the back porch once I get some spots cleared off.

Love your new profile pic!! Perfect tiara for the Rose King!!

Mike, so good to see you back, and I love the tiara pic! Your story reminds me of the (very nice) renter next door, who told me that her friend saves water from their shower to water their garden. This was a couple of years ago, at the peak of our recent drought. I have ~250 roses, almost all out front, so visible. I thanked her, and chuckled to myself...

We've missed you, Mike. The best part of your story is the reference to "banana omelettes." It's hard to imagine anything less likely to get me up in the morning.

Thanks everyone. I'm sort of like a grumbly bear during the winters and go into semi-hibernation, only coming back out again when the forsythia blooms and the roses need pruning. Nice to be back in the warmth of spring!

For some reason this memory popped up in my mind today when I was working in the yard, and it might be appropriate here. Some years ago, my neighbor from several doors away knocked on my door and asked if I would cut him a big bouquet of roses for his wife's birthday. He said he wanted to do something really special for her. She now lives most of the year in Costa Rica.

He wanted to do something really special for her by allowing you to cut a big bouquet of your roses for her? What a generous guy. I'm surprised she isn't in Costa Rica year-round.

This guy sounds like El Cheapo. What nerve! He couldn't order up a dozen roses from a florist?