O Rose Thou Art Sick!

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With apologies to William Blake and his 1794 publication of the deep-meaning “The Sick Rose” poem, it occurred to me that I was indeed deliberately trying to weaken the pictured rose (multiflora) by mowing in my back lot and continually chopping off the terminal shoot of this rose. In my case, I see this mowing as a metaphor for typically improper topping that I will negatively highlight in my pruning talk at the Cultivate 2016 program a week hence. For trees, top not, you clod-loppers: it releases adjacent buds resulting in hormonal imbalance and tufted, weak growth.

 

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