A Phoenix from the Ashes

It seems like I'm focusing on plants recently, but today's good thing is that I finally got some cuttings of Mom's Zephirine Drouhin rose to root.  A couple of years before she died, I got Mom a climbing Zephirine Drouhin rose.  It's an heirloom rose, with a strong scent and bright pink blooms.  It's other advantages are that it's  nearly thornless and will even grow in the shade.  

I've been wanting one for my yard and even ordered one that I promptly killed.  Early this spring, I took cuttings of Mom's rose and none of them rooted. I think they dried out.  I tried again a few weeks ago and put all the cuttings in their pots into two big plastic bags.  They all seemed to die -- the leaves mostly fell off and looked moldy -- but when I went to throw them out yesterday, lo and behold, two of the stems had rooted and were sending up new leaves.  

There's no guarantee that I won't kill them in the next few weeks, but at least they've gotten this far -- so they must be tough.  

Yesterday, I finally finished putting together the raised garden box that I've been wanting all spring.  It's a little late for planting this year, but I still plan to set out a few things if any are available in the garden stores at this late date. Well, the box is done:  4 ft. x 8 ft. and 12 inches high, but I still have 800 pounds of top soil in the back of my van to move into the box!    So, I'm not exactly finished ....