I have mixed feelings on the rose bush in a container on the top of my stairs on my front porch, the plant that is closest to my front door.  The concern may be that I am so concerned about it.  I have tended, preened and pruned to plants that I am working to produce something to put on my kitchen table.  I have never, however, been one for fussing over a flower.  Don’t get me wrong.  I appreciate them as much as the day is long.  I think they are one of God’s most intense, delicate and magnificent creations [I think most folks would agree, having the freedom to enter their higher power of choice, of course].  But I’m not sure how I feel fussing over them.  But fuss I do, and probably not as much as I should.  I really am very proud when I see a bright pink rose bud burst into full bloom right there in front of my doorstep, as if to shout a message like one of those you might see on a 1970s tee – Someone in Cheyenne loves me.  “A green thumb in Brooklyn loves me!”  Maybe it trips me up a bit because I am reminded of the Type A rosebush fusser in that really cool movie with Kevin Spacey where he lusts after his kid’s friend and she’s got the rose petals falling up all around her nakedish body.  What a crude juxtaposition…wifey with the rosebud clippers snipping manically away while he makes his life liveable being creepy.  Ah, I may not be remembering it perfectly well but there may be some association (think rosebush competitions) between rose growers and gardeners who get their rocks off manipulating God’s (or Whoever’s) roses into humble submission.  It doesn’t stop me from being duly impressed by one who lords him or herself over the seemingly untameable force that is the Rosacae, clippers held high victoriously high above the lowly but wild and free Eudicot (yes, I wiki’ed that one).  But now, muah ha ha, eep!  I’m one of them.  Maybe not, though.  I can’t say I’m successful enough to count myself in the class of clipper wielding rose obsessed gardeners.  But I’m getting there.

That said, the QUESTION that came to me today is how to use coffee grounds in your roses, or if it’s better to put the grounds in the compost.  ANSWER to follow…