The Knock-Out Roses are blooming again, starting into their second cycle of the summer. While never as showy as the initial blooming, they are still a welcome sight, a bright spot of color among the withered baskets and dried up lawns of early August.
If you want a low maintenance, easy to grow rose then Knock-Out Roses are the rose of choice. I have 24 of these rose bushes and it was one of the best garden investments I’ve ever made.
At $20 per pot for the pink double ones I’ve had ten years of beauty from them.
If you are not familiar with the family of Knock Out Roses they were created by rose breeder Bill Radler in 2000 and were a hit right from the start. Traditionally roses have had the reputation of being finicky plants, hard to establish and prone to disease, requiring lots of tender loving care.
Knock-Outs have become popular because they are basically no-care and disease resistant, but the biggest appeal for me was they are repeat bloomers. After a glorious initial bloom in mid-late June here, they will repeat the blooming cycle every 5-6 weeks. New growth on the bushes is seen as red shoots/leaves. One year when we had a particularly late fall, I had roses up until December – they looked quite strange with a dusting of snow on them.
Well more than a dusting….
They are also self-cleaning in the sense that there is no need to dead head them, although you can if you wish. I spray mine with the garden hose on jet when they start to look too shaggy. They are also heat tolerant and do well in most hot sunny locations, requiring 6-8 hours of sun a day. The two I planted on either side of the house do not generally do as well as the others as they do not get enough sun, likewise several at the back which are in the shadow of the house.
Made in the Shade
Although that is not true this year, as we have had horrible heat close to 100 for days, so the ones in the shade are doing better than the rest. We also had a late cool rainy spring with little sun, so the bushes have failed to achieve their usual height. I should point out that most of these pictures are from previous years, lest anyone think I have created miracles during this weird weather year.
They also don’t need much water, so as they are the perfect plant-them-and-forget-them rose, especially important if you are a lazy gardener like me who hates to drag the hose around.
As tall as the shepherds hook
Pruning and height: I prune mine back to about 12 inches in early spring, although last year I misjudged and pruned in late March then we had two more weeks of wintry cold, so I learned my lesson and waited this year. If no pruning is done, they can reach 3 to 4 feet wide and 3 to 4 feet tall, and some years I have achieved this when we had a milder spring and a good growing season. Although they may be shorter than usual this year due to our poor spring, they still have plenty of buds on them.
This year’s shorter bush
Caring and fertilizing: I give them a dose of bone meal in spring and a sprinkle of controlled release fertilizer and that’s it. The website suggests some winter protection in colder climates, but the year I blanketed them with a layer of fallen leaves, was also the year I noticed a lot of blackspot on the stems the following spring. The nursery owner suggested I forego the leaf layer and spray them with horticultural oil to treat/prevent any fungal disease, which I do now every spring. I do mulch them, but other than that they have survived our brutal Canadian winters, although this year I was a bit afraid as the stems were so late greening up and looked so dry and brittle for weeks, but they eventually came along….sigh of relief.
Here’s the company’s website, with a page of FAQ’s – link.
There are ten colors. I have the Double Pink Knock-Outs, as I love bright pink and when I bought the first lot the nursery owner suggested keeping the color the same if I wanted to make a statement. The Double blooms are fuller and put on a nicer show, so I always recommend the doubles. Unfortunately three of the Doubles I bought a few years later came out as singles, despite the silver grower tags on them stating double – liars!
I really wish they had climbers, but they only have shrub roses so far. They do have a tree rose, which stands about 6 feet, but at $90 I found it hard to justify when I have so many others and being a small tree, I wondered how it would over-winter here?
Knock Out Rose Tree
Of course there’s always a gardening mishap or two. One year some unidentifiable slug (I was never able to capture one), started munching on the bushes on the west side of the yard and managed to steadily eat their way along the whole row. I was busy with work and by the time I noticed it was too late – they had decimated six bushes.
2015 was not a good year!
Although I tried everything – soap, powder, washing them off with the hose – they continued their stealthy munch munch munch. But the next spring they bounced back, good as new.
Although they are bred to be disease resistant, a few years ago Rose Rosette Disease (also known as Witches Broom), started attacking the Knock Outs in some parts of the United States (see Southern Living article), but it hasn’t affected mine so far. Knock on wood that it never moves this far north, but if does, then it’s game over and they all have to be dug up and discarded. Best to check with your local nursery to see if this virus, spread by mites via wind, is a problem in your area before buying.
While I do have other roses – an ancient climber,
with prolific blooms,
This years abundant blooms.
and a ‘John Cabot’ climber, (also very short this year due to the difficult spring), the Knock-Outs remain my favorites.
So if you are looking for an easy care rose which will provide beauty all summer long, these are the roses to pick!
PS. An old oil painting of my mothers.
Roses in a Vase
thehomeplaceweb 
Oh for a garden of my own again. Now I must go for a walk to smell other’s roses. Thanks for the prompt, Joni.
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Sometimes I think admiring other peoples flowers would be just as lovely and a lot less work!
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WOW Joni your knock out roses are stunning! Way prettier than mine! I hope my roses will look as nice in the future but the deer are really taking a toll of them now. They have a funny shape and many super long shoots. They are less than a year old at my home but I am already pruning them, hoping to regain a nice shape. Way to go…I am so inspired by your lovely roses!
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Mine looked like that the first few years Denise, but remember I have had them for about ten years now! I bought them all in one lot in 2009? I think and then filled in with a few more the next summer. They will come along….. I wonder why the deer are eating the middle of the bush? You would think the thorns would be enough to deter them!
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Your roses are beautiful and I’m not at all jealous. We had knockout roses, many of them, but they were hit with the disease you mention and they are no more. We replaced them with drift roses which are supposed to be hardier. They’re not as pretty as the knockouts but they are alive, so I like them.
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I’m sorry to hear that Ally, and I’m worried it might come this far north, but if that happens, then I’m prepared as at least I have had ten years of beauty from them. What are drift roses? Are they resistant to the disease? From what I read, they suggested not even planting any kind of rose in the same spot, so I guess I would have to plant lavender!
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Well, you’ve convinced me: knock-out roses it will be. When we moved into our home many years ago, there were gorgeous rose bushes. But our shameful neglect took its toll. However, your selling job was most effective, and I intend to try, carefully following your instructions about their care and feeding.
Your mother’s painting is simply lovely—as well as an inspired close to this post.
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I’m glad I was able to inspire you, but I should have written that my bushes are ten years old, so you have to give them a few years to get established and full. And check the website for the different colours, I believe there were different shades of pink, and also red and yellow too. My mother used to do oil paintings, which I like for the texture, but oil is smelly and takes too long to dry, so she only works in acrylic now.
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PS. After the spring pruning and bonemeal/fertilizer feeding, I don’t do anything else to them the rest of the summer, except if it is really dry then I water them once a week. So they are perfect for people who don’t have the time or inclination to fuss.
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What a fabulous garden! just beautiful! I just planted a sunflower in and 2 days it shrivelled up and died, I cut it off at the base, do you think it will come back next year?
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It might. I don’t plant sunflowers, but my neighbours did all over their back yard, then they moved, and some of them came up the next year. It has not been a good weather year for gardening.
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No Joni, not here either, it just rained the entire weekend!
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We need some rain, so send it here!
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FANTASTIC!!
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Gorgeous! We planted roses when we first moved into our house, and they attracted the rose bugs and the Asian beetles, and rabbits over the winter, so they didn’t survive. I love the smell of roses, I bet your garden is very fragrant. Thank you for sharing how you’ve been able to succeed in growing such a luscious bunch of them.
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Thanks Shelley…..I don’t notice the smell so much, probably because I don’t stop to smell the roses!
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You’re welcome. Well…what would it take you to start doing so!?!? 😉
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Just you wait! You will find retirement so busy you will wonder how you ever found time to work! Seriously, I’ve been busy with the kitchen reno most of the early summer, and now I’m trying to enjoy what’s left of summer plus working on gallery submissions for my mom’s art, as I have been neglecting my “agenting” duties… Seriously, I don’t think the Knockout’s have as much fragrance as older type roses, one of the disadvantages I suppose.
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LOL – retirement is several or more years away for me. I’ve heard that it is busy, and I’d like that if I was busy doing what I want versus what the job dictates as tasks. I do love my job, though. Delicate smelling roses would be nice.
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Your rose garden is beautiful Joni! I am envious as it is picture perfect with all those pretty pinks. My first foray into roses was planting tea roses. I wonder who convinced me that tea roses were the way to go because they were not hardy in the least, they took forever to bud and then they bloomed eventually, you have to wait another few weeks, maybe even a month, until the next rose showed up. I babied those tea roses and mulched them in the Fall, then put big styrofoam cones over them, but they still didn’t look good. In those days we did not have the brutal Winters or erratic weather we’ve had the last few years. I finally pulled them all out and planted the “Home Run” red shrub roses and they are much hardier, though mine also were covered in snow like yours which, compounded with the brutal Winter and -45 degrees F, . I ordered three Jackson & Perkins climbing roses and an umbrella trellis to train them on. They were called “Stairway to Heaven” and were to be part of a memorial garden I created – those roses had blackspot and I spent a portion of every morning spraying them to thwart it … finally I yanked them out as well as I was so frustrated with them.
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If you ever want to plant roses again, then I highly recommend the Knock-Outs. I honestly don’t do anything to them after the spring pruning/fertilizing, other than water them once a week if it’s dry. I sure hope we get rain tonight – we need it!
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I will remember that Joni – I was so discouraged at all the perennials and my entire butterfly garden that I lost after the first Polar Vortex that I’ve not replenished anything lost in my garden. My roses were once my pride and joy even though I did not have as many as you did. I am going to take some of the garden pics at its heyday and do a post, maybe in the Winter … I have mentioned my garden and it sure does not look like that now. I am amazed my Home Run roses returned after being pelted with ice and snow before I “put them to bed” – we had rain every weekend in the Fall it seemed and then an early snowfall, same as you. I like low maintenance – roses can be needy sometimes and I like that you just pelted them with water to deadhead them. I am weighing whether to go out or just stay in the neighborhood this morning – we are supposed to have rain/storm but they can’t pinpoint it. If I stay close I can just run back home if it begins raining in earnest. I heard on the news that the “pumpkin spice frenzy” has returned, earlier this year. I am usually gone by now – did a very quick post to launch tomorrow morning … I don’t want to have too many gaps between posts.
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God it can’t possibly be pumpkin spice time already? No rain last night, so now a chance on Thurs and then the weekend. I should water…..but keep waiting. Deck guys coming tomorrow to clean it and siding, finally…..I am behind on here too.
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I never even made it to Reader last night – I got caught up with e-mail from my friend who is now finished with grad school and has a lot of time on her hands before looking for a job (gerontology administration), thus a lot of e-mails from her. I’ve been reading her e-mails but not necessary commenting on each and every one or combining all my thoughts into one e-mail … been doing that for about a month while it was intense with work and all the house issues. Yesterday was not so intense at work as we wrap up everything as my boss gets ready to go to the Upper Peninsula, his yearly trip that he stays with the landlord of our building for 5-7 days at his compound in the UP . We got all the work done in advance of going and now other than saying “I won’t leave you any work as you’ve worked very hard the last few weeks/month” … no, he leaves me stuff that is file memos that he did and didn’t give me during “crunch time” or August time entries … one day I will say that “I do not need ‘busy work as I give much more effort than is needed here ” … I monitor the office phones and e-mails, and hopefully can get caught up a little more. I need to go through and organize pics again – I did that once before and then the onslaught of everything. But I did catch up with all my e-mail correspondence and wrote a few friends on Facebook that I had not caught up with in a while. Would have preferred to catch up on Reader instead of having those unread posts languishing. Hopefully you got out for your hair appointment and did not get drenched doing that and when I routinely watered when I had all the annuals all over the place and all the perennials in the butterfly garden, I used to water before I went to work … hand watering except in the front yard and I still made the bus by 7:00 or 7:15 a.m., makeup on, hair done, dressed – how did I do it Joni? I preferred that to doing it at night when they’d be bedraggled … that was something for the younger me, but I’d be grateful when we had a good rain and I’d be spared one morning, maybe even two morning’s watering efforts. Are they applying the mildew product? I have to look at my siding – it has been busy at work and all the house issues and on the weekend I walked away from it all to do walks and photo taking and not thought of it; I just needed to escape the house. I am so discouraged and disgruntled by all the money that I spent on the house this Summer, not to mention the disruption – I still have not contacted the handyman to tell him he forgot to do the cement patching and I’m sure he needs to be be done before November when he does the Fall gutters. So I can’t shut the water off til then I guess. I had thought about a new mattress, but will defer that purchase until next year. I have some ideas for Saturday – I found a sunflower field that you can go to – been looking for one for a while, but they are not near me and I don’t like driving on the expressway. Yesterday I thought to Google “sunflower fields around me” and found one, maybe 15 miles away. I don’t know if the construction will be problematic in that part of town, so will check into it Friday and find a map to get there/back. I am thinking if it doesn’t rain (not supposed to until evening) perhaps I can parlay that into a post about the flowers (flower power) … hoping so, and maybe a few pics from my friends’ band, though they are from the era before (fifties … they were originally a “greaser band”). It’s been ages since I saw the band perform and it is a free concert in the park, so if it rains, no $ lost (like so many other ventures the past two years where you pay in advance). I’ve booked a lighthouse tour in September and hope we don’t have rain again as I didn’t go last year and $15.00 down the drain. A neighbor down the street was selling canvases of his work at his house on his street corner about 3 weeks ago. I took pics of his work and then went to “Art in the Park” then ext day (he couldn’t get in – too many vendors booked as he registered late) … I promised him I’d write a post and include his work, took his picture and I encouraged him to start a free blog on WP to showcase his work. He has done that and he also does some rock painting as well.
I hope to get that post done this weekend –
I am behind…some pics I took almost a month ago.
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It sounds like you have lots of ideas for blogs percolating, so I hope when boss is away you get to write them down! Not very nice of him to hand you last minute non-essential things, esp after just saying you deserved a vacation after all your hard work??? Does he know how many hours you put in in your “part-time” job?! Yes, do the Woodstock post – I’m going to post the Tall ships today or tomorrow, and won’t be putting Woodstock up until next week. Deck guys have come and gone, all before 11am, the time they said they would arrive. I set my alarm for 10am, just in case, as I have been going to bed fairly late, and there was a knock on the door at 8am – he said he misread the schedule. He (the owner) power washed the deck and railings, front and back, in an hour – $210 & HST! So $210/hr for deck washing …..um….and he was going on in the spring when he gave me the quote about how miniumum wage had gone up so his prices had to go up etc. Plus he was by himself. A bit later, two other guys showed up to wash the siding, and that took about an hour too – for $150 & HST – so I would say that is pretty good profit, even considering the costs of running a business, (Workman’s comp, coverage, benefits if they get any etc). It does look nice, but won’t stay that way. I don’t know what they used in the tank, some kind of cleaner, and didn’t ask, but i did ask him if there was anything I could use to prevent it, and he said nothing that they supplied. I still haven’t been back to Lowe’s to look for the Spray and Forget but I will when I go to check out bathroom light fixtures. Then the siding cleaning guy tells me there’s a wasp nest under the siding, and I can see bees or wasps going in and out of a couple of small holes, so that means another trip to the hardware store to look for wasp spray. It’s always something….PS. We had no rain on Mon/Tues so I’ll have to water tonight, as now none in the forecast either……
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This morning I went grocery shopping – hated to in the nice and cool refreshing weather but I am still going to the other store and it is a 10-mile round trip and don’t know my way around. I figured I had nothing to do except two piddly things and he had a meeting at 10 – 12 so I went and took a little longer. I got here and he gave me a 35-page handwritten document on the investigation he did three weeks ago and what got me so swamped the month of July. So, he said read it first (this was an interview and usually he tapes this stuff, and he did this time, and I would transcribe it, but he decided to listen to the tape and do a handwritten summary). I will take forever to do it and I’m going to ask him for time entries before he leaves. Plus he had nothing to do a few months ago and did some stupid long and involved summary about the war in Israel (historical through the years) – don’t ask me why and earlier I had to do one on England. I had revised it back in late June while he was at the cabin or something – also long and he never asked for it as we got busy and hoped he forgot about it – so what does he do — he asks me if we ever did the revisions. I should have said you never gave them to me. Stupid busy work and I resent it very much as I put lots of time in that I am not paid for. We are supposed to have two thunderstorms tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. It is an outside concert and begins at 7:00 p.m. So it will depend on the weather. They are actually a “greaser band” like a 50s band. So I just Googled to see if they had a test demo to show you – well this was a surprise, it showed a YouTube video of them at the Concert in the Park (same as this one tomorrow) and they are not in 50s attire – they used to be dressed like greasers with hair slicked back and black pants, white tee-shirts with a pack of cigarettes rolled up in the sleeve. They played all the songs from the 50s and they were great – I don’t know about this from 2015:
I do have a lot of ideas if I could get some time to write them and compile the pictures – I had hoped I’d have some time with Robb gone. Last year we had a big Brief due and he kept going to a client’s office and asking them to print off what I e-mailed and then he’d edit it and then have them scan it in to me. Yes, he takes advantage bigtime. I deal with it as I am glad I’m not in the workplace anymore – not the commute, not going to Detroit and not with all the things going on anymore.
Hope you get rid of the hornet’s nest – I had the black wasps which I’ve never heard of and they were huge and Jim the handyman sealed up the hole and then their relatives were buzzing around. And yes, it is always something. We are supposed to have rain Saturday afternoon so hoping I can get to the sunflower farm at 10:00 and to the other park and be home long before it arrives. And 90 degrees on Sunday – ugh. I’ve not been in my e-mail today and just looked and there are about 40 e-mails there, some ads, some from friends – I hope to get some Reader done as well. This is the last week for peak sunflower viewing, but I’m thinking I’d like to use the title “Flower Power” for this Woodstock weekend. My friend posted a notice about Windows 10 critical updates – I don’t know if Ron set it up to launch on their own if not turned on, so I guess I have to fire up the laptop (on the stove) – you have Windows 10, right? Here is the information she posted:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/14/tech/windows-10-microsoft-security-update-trnd/index.html?fbclid=IwAR2_fFZXr2lgSVJ8KiUu36VJzGe_KFI0LeGUny0jQMT4E3eRYfpAFgScX3U
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Thanks for the windows link, but I have my computer set to automatic updates – it does it just before I shut it off, when I exit. The other link for the group didn’t work. We didn’t get rain, but when I went out to water after supper, the temp had dropped ten degrees and it was cold! So I came back in, and turned the A/C off, and now it’s humid again. Must have been a storm blowing away over the lake. Do you think your boss is writing a book on Israel or England, and that’s why he gave you those assignments, (maybe he planned to revise on his vacation?), or is he just trying to give you things to do to stay busy, when he doesn’t have any cases, which is good intentions/nice I guess, but it would be nicer if he paid you for the ACTUAL TIME you put in on the cases he has! I went to the hardware store and bought some wasp spray but will wait until grasscutter comes. I also found out today what was digging up all my bulbs – a mole – I saw it running across the yard to under my deck, where it has burrowed two large holes. So I boarded it up with a long piece of wood and a couple of bricks, but I’m sure he can dig out underneath someplace else as he is an experienced digger! I must have swept the damn dirt back into the flower bed three times today. I’m surprised it would be out in broad daylight. Shades of Wind in the Willows and Mr. Mole. or Moley as he was called in that abridged children’s version I had to read to my niece over and over again. It was called The Adventures of Mr. Toad. Maybe I should do a blog post on him – The Garden Adventures of Mr. Mole – make it a wrap up to summer. At the end of the book Toad and Mole and Badger were sitting in front of the fire drinking cocoa…..so I have this visual image of Mr. Moley under my deck snug and tight preparing for the cold winter ahead! See you can get a blog out of anything – I should go to bed…..
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I think it is ignorant of him to be honest – when I had to do these two documents the last time, it was before we got so busy with the investigation project and a series of about five or more of our clients, some which we’d not done anything for in a while, deciding to terminate employees, and in one case demote employees, and all this was going on at the same time as the report we were doing. I don’t know if he is writing a book, but it is more likely he wants to memorize it to discuss with people? I have never been interested in that kind of history so did not know any of the names or events he referenced and had to Google for dates/names and it was painstaking. History was not my forte.
This morning I e-mailed him when I checked in to ensure the computer system was fine (I do this every morning) … I said to give me his time entries to do after the handwritten 35-page document (that is real work) because I don’t want to end up like last month and the end of the month is Labor Day weekend” … I always say to him, that if we send out our bills late in the month (we did it the 8th of August, not the first of the month like usual) that you cannot send out bills three weeks later – he disagrees. I wonder how he keeps clients … he said “they don’t care” … whatever. You should indeed write a post about who lingers in your garden when you are not tending to it … get their pictures. I think it would be fun … meanwhile I am thinking if I use my head, I might be able to come up with post about the Summer of Nineteen Sixty Nine and what I was doing … maybe will do that and I hope the weather holds out because sunflower peak is this current week. That will be a post called “Flower Power” and I will go when they open at 10:00 a.m. so no crowd and they have observatories … just big metal stands that you can climb up and view the sunflowers in the field from a different perspective … I’d rather get there when not crowded … I see you can buy sunflowers too – I think they said $1.00/stalk on the Facebook page they have. I should not have gone to bed at 10:00-ish and stayed up with Reader instead. I am getting old … doing the grocery shopping, and it was a bigger shopping that I’ve done lately and hauling it in and don’t know that store, so a lot more walking than on a normal trip and it wore me out.
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I never did understand the history of Israel, although I had a geography teacher once who explained the background of the dispute there over the land, in a fascinating way, but I’ve forgotten it all. Does he expect you to be the fact-checker too? English history, (The Tudors and kings etc) doesn’t interest me either, although I liked Downton Abbey (1920’s), but the Victoria series bored me to tears. That sunflower field sounds wonderful. Do you have any lavender farms around? I would love to visit a lavender farm. We had a few spits of rain this morning, and it is still cool, but we have a week of hot humid rainy weather coming in tomorrow just in time to ruin the weekend. I’m staying in today to work on the art submission, which is writing but not fun writing. I did part last night, the submission form, whereby they asked the same question four different times – what is the theme of your exhibit, how does it fit with the mandate/mission of the gallery, what do you expect people to learn, who is your audience etc. I guess they have their rules, but I am not good at that kind of writing. I had to do an artist statement last year for mom, and had to have two of my artist friends to make it sound artsy. Today I am working on the storyboard, bits of writing explaining each piece. This was pointed out to me in her last exhibit last Sept, when I played tour guide, that people seemed interested in the story behind what inspired the painting, so I’ll give it a shot. Just want to get it done and sent off next week. It’s work for me, but will be okay once I get into it…..
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I often have to Google because I can’t read his writing for normal “work stuff” and I was Googling a lot to figure out what he was saying or referring to – I don’t know anything about that history stuff and if I did it was 40 years ago, or longer, when I had history in school, likely high school, not college. A lot of times he writes something and doesn’t finish a word, or a sentence. And he is left-handed. After 19 years of working for him, and today I did a letter and left at least eight holes, in a three-paragraph long letter. I usually try to figure it out but I really had no clue. I was happy because he came in this morning and left the office at 1:00 and did not have time to edit the Israeli history as he was on a long telephone call, but I had asked for his time entries as I assumed he’d be gone until a week from Sunday – nope, he called me from the road and is returning Monday – and was on the road at 3:00 p.m. – he won’t get there until 10:00 p.m. and that’s if there is no construction. I wouldn’t go all that way for a handful of days – I hope he stays longer. I had counted on him staying longer – sigh.
I wish I had thought to Google “are there sunflower fields/farms around me?” earlier since this is the last week for peak sunflowers at this farm and we had a torrential rain about an hour ago and still raining (good thing I decided not to go to the Park bank event). And we are having more rain tomorrow afternoon – hopefully they are still in good shape on Saturday.
We do have two places that feature lavender fields and they are not near me. Funny you ask because the one lavender field has been there for ages and every year they have a lavender festival which is a whole weekend event. This year, a farm close by started having their own lavender event and copied a lot off the original event – there was talk of suing but I don’t know if it happened or not.
That sounds like a lot of work to get the pictures ready to exhibit, but at least once you do it once for each of the paintings, you will be able to re-use it again, unless there are different types of questions to identify the history of the painting? Hopefully it goes faster next time. Does your mom go to the exhibit opening?
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I’m jealous of your rain. Maybe boss will stay longer, although if it’s hot up there, maybe he won’t. I worked on the art submission 4 hours this afternoon, and it’s done, although it needs editing. Now I just have to plug the pictures in, although I’m not very organized with my pics so that may be time-consuming. It’s a one time thing, although I suppose if she gets accepted there, other gallerys might want the show, if it’s successful. And it’s for 2021, as they were booked up for next year, that’s my fault for taking a year off. Mom always goes to the openings, and enjoys it while she is there, although she grumbles about it before hand as she doesn’t like fuss. She has two paintings hanging in a gallery this month, and we were at the outdoor art fair on Sunday and the lady who runs it came up and told her she had sold one, so that’s good. We priced it at $100 not thinking anyone would want it. It’s motivating when she sells, but she would paint anyway.
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I am hoping so – I’ll tell him how hot it will be here and it is much cooler up there as it is so far north. He was evasive about when he was returning … I don’t know why but maybe he felt guilty being gone when we still have things “in the hopper” though not as bad as before, but I didn’t get too far on this 35-page handwritten document and I assure you I won’t finish it before he returns on Monday night. I only asked for his time sheets because I’d rather do them than the Israel history and month end is in two weeks and it is Labor Day weekend. That’s good your mom sold the painting – wow, that is an incentive to paint even more, not just liking it, but selling them as well.
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She doesn’t sell very many. I wonder if it is wise to book a show 2 years from now, she will be 95, but if she doesn’t feel up to it, we just won’t have an open house. She says she wants to go ahead with it, if she gets accepted, and I do think it gives her a goal, something to live for.
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I would go ahead and do it Joni, just because it’s exciting for your mom to know she has entries in a show – like you said it is a goal, and gives her something to live for. You said she does her paintings whether she exhibits or sells them or not. She’s got a great attitude right there. I think it is great being active and to keep going like that. I hope I have the stamina and the passion to pursue a hobby like that when I am even approaching your mom’s age, let alone 93. So there is a park that is in Flat Rock, Michigan where the sunflower farm also is. I was hoping it would be nice as I wanted to go there tomorrow as well. I have signed up, but not paid for (since you pay at the door) for an event called “Walk, Talk and Sketch” … it is advertised as:
“Take your art outdoors. Learn some of the basics of field sketching; then hit the meadows and woods of Oakwoods Metropark for inspiration.”
So, I thought it might be fun. I e-mailed and asked if you needed supplies like a sketch pad or charcoals – she wrote back and said they supplied a clip board, a number 2 pencil and computer paper. So I was grocery shopping and saw a small spiral-bound sketch pad and picked up a pack of mechanical pencils. I thought maybe it would be fun and I’d stay there after the event was over. I took that drawing class at the City when I was 12 or 13 and really enjoyed it. We went to various locales and sketched. Anyway, that is next Saturday afternoon – $5.00. Hopefully it doesn’t rain, but no money lost if it does. There are places on Pinterest where you can learn to draw. I used to have some big books that gave step-by-step directions for some animals and just simple sketches. So, if I can go, it can made into a post too. I had thought I’d go tomorrow and take pictures so I didn’t take any pictures next Saturday but I guess I could do that before the class starts. At least the blog helps us to get out, explore, take pics and write about it. I only used to Council Point Park, even on the weekends before, so right now no geese, ducks or herons at the Park – just my trusty squirrels, and a few cardinals and jays.
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God Linda, I think we must have been separated at birth! I’m going Plein Air Painting (outdoors with a local artists group) next week, because they will be in my area. I was supposed to go last week but cancelled out due to the weather. I am not good at painting, (I’ve tried a few times) but thought I would just take a sketch pad and coloured pencils and pretend, and then I could do a post about it. Plus my mom wants to go, as she knows some of the ladies. I agree, blogging does get us out and about trying new things, so we have something to blog about. Bed for me, the Woodstock party was tiring tonight, but at least I have a nice comfy bed to crash into, and don’t have to sleep outside on the soggy ground!
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I believe that and now you are going to do the sketching too! I think I had the pastels downstairs and the charcoals but the pastels probably dried up as that’s been five decades ago too. I took the class at the City either at age 12 or 13 and I was going to look before I write that post as I did a post on the class last year when I went to the cemetery to take pictures – it is a very old cemetery and I wrote about the art class so will likely link to it. Did you take pics of the Woodstock party or just your outfit? It is nice to just come home and not sleep on the ground with a half million others.
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HA! I was going to add something to my draft about going home to my nice comfy bed instead of sleeping in the mud! I did take a few pics, but they were not great. I was trying to be discrete as the neighbour I went with does not know about the blog, and I can’t really put any residents in. I just took a pic of my top and jewelry on the bed, and a pic of the die-dye sheets they had on display. I tried working with oil pastel crayons a few weeks ago when I was supposed to go on the first art trip, but found them very messy with the powder all over my hands. I had thought they might be more portable for transporting. My drawing ended up looking like something out of grade one.
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You should add something to that effect Joni, as one of the other bloggers responded to yesterday’s Woodstock post by saying she didn’t go as she had an appendectomy but her friends went and said it rained a lot. I remember hearing that it rained a lot as well. Who wants to sit in the rain?
In college, our newspaper staff hung around together as a group, even when we weren’t at school in the newspaper room where we put the newspaper together. It was nice, just a fun group and we did a lot together, guys and girls – no attachments, except one girl, who joined the staff after we’d been together as a group for about 18 months. I figured her out right away – she liked one of the guys, the shyest guy in our group and set her sights on him. He fell for her hook, line and sinker. I never saw it coming as she was loud and boisterous but they ended up marrying and I searched on Facebook one time and there they were, with their grandchildren. Stranger things have happened I guess. Anyway, we always had our series seats to Pine Knob, an outside concert venue, and went for six concerts each year, three years in a row – they were lawn seats and I have to say in all those times, we never had rain – so, did it never rain as much as now? I’ve been saying that the last few years – perhaps that is a blogworthy topic. We got lawn seats as they were cheaper. I had allergies and it was before I started the allergy immunotherapy – I started in 1975 but it didn’t help the following Summer, takes about a year to really cut down on the allergies (grass/pollen). My mother would say to me – well you sneeze all the time and you want to sit out on the lawn for four hours or more?
She had a point! But you wanted to be with your friends, so you just sneezed away. We must have been lucky as I don’t think I’d have sat out in the pouring rain for a concert ever – and that includes concerts not in the series and even the two concerts we went to at the Ex in 1976 (Chicago and Beach Boys). I’m no fun I guess.
I have not touched the pastels in years and I wouldn’t want the powder all over my hands, especially if I was taking pictures at the same time. When I feed the squirrels, I get the peanuts with no salt as I don’t want to be touching the peanuts and having salt on my hands and handling the camera and getting anything on the lens, or buttons. My drawing will likely look like grade one too. I once did a post where I featured a drawing in grade one of my dog and it was in crayon and had the teacher’s grade on it as well. I wonder if sketches will be birds, flowers, reeds? Likely it will be raining or something else and mess up my plans.
So this afternoon I did a post and mentioned you – this time I mentioned that blog post about beach reads and music that year (1969) and started to link to it then remembered I had discussed my boss and his medical issues, and looked back to verify – yes, so thought better of it. I told you one time I mentioned starting a blog and he asked if I was paid for it and I was angry and said “no!” and have never mentioned it again. I see no reason for him to ever find it and read it, let alone the comments, but left well enough alone. My friend recently said to me “I really don’t know how you can spend so much time doing THAT blogging” … I put “THAT” like I did as I really interpreted the way she wrote it (rather snarkily) to be the same as she would have thought it in her mind. Yes, I get it and no, we’re not interested in the same things. She is big on knitting and going to fiber festivals and that is not my cup of tea.
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Best you left the link out then, as it was really just about beach books, other than that one 69 one. Your Pine Knob concert attendance is impressive, but I do think it rains more now. One of my art friends said she had started for Woodstock with a group of friends and turned around and came back……probably a combination of the forecast which was rain, the drugs and negative publicity, and for me it would be lack of washrooms etc. I would never have gone to a concert like Woodstock – I hate camping and anything to do with a tent – we used to sleep in the tent in the backyard once or twice a summer, as my cousin would always want to, and I would very reluctantly agree, but would go in to my bed around 4. I did edit my draft to add my nice comfy bed, but won’t post it until Wed/Thurs, as I want to re-edit it again, it’s fairly long, and need to get this art submission off – it’s bugging me. Speaking of rain and art, my outdoor Plein Air class is off as of this week, and rescheduled for two weeks, which is better as it will probably be cooler than, plus Wed is humid and more rain forecast, so it’s just as well. It’s also a different and better location, a park with lots of flower beds, so maybe I will practice drawing some flowers. Wow, it’s really raining out right now again! Not sure we need that much rain. It seems every time it does rain, it’s a torrential downpour – it’s very strange. Better maybe for you to stay inside and have a restful weekend.
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That would not be a draw for me – yes, we were very lucky as I don’t remember ever dodging raindrops all those times. We never thought twice about getting the lawn seats. Camping would not be my idea of vacation and a crowd the size of Woodstock, even back then, would not be a draw. Amazingly I think I heard the other day only one person died of a drug overdose but I suspect the drugs were rampant. I am going out shortly and will just walk in the neighborhood or take the car for a run to Council Point Park. We are having severe weather today, starting this afternoon so will try to do a short post about the art and get that done as I told that guy I’d write a post after taking a slew of photos which I’ve not even looked at. I went to the art fair in the park the next day and it was a disappointment – I saw only one thing of interest and it was vintage aprons so will touch on that if I can get the post done before the storms begin. Not looking forward to the potentially severe weather.
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Oh vintage aprons sound nice! I would be interested in that. I took mom to a local art/craft show yesterday, just for a short walk around, and short it was, as there were 60 booths but absolutely nothing of interest, just a bunch of junk, mostly homemade jewelry etc. It was only $60 to rent a booth, which is cheap as the art fair I went to the weekend of the Tall Ships is $270 to rent a booth, but I don’t why some of the people bothered they had so little stuff on display, or not nice stuff or were beginner painters or crafters thinking people would buy? We’re not an art buyers market here even for the good stuff. I see beautiful stuff done by professional local artists and crafters and it doesn’t sell. We ran into a couple of artist friends, otherwise came home after an hour. I hope your neighbour can sell his art, but it’s a tough market, even if you have a unique look or niche.
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I wish I remembered how much the fancier cobbler’s aprons were to tell you – I was surprised about $20.00 for a square and straps. Most of the crafts were not something I was interested in, but my mom and I used to go a big craft show years ago – it was in a venue where they hold wedding receptions, large parties and once a year they had a host of crafters there, after the same group of crafters made the rounds at bazaars or church rummage sales. My mom and I would come home with country-type items for the house, usually decor for Christmas. And always my mom would get me one of the sweatshirts that a woman created with holiday themes or animal themes. She had a pattern with a fabric then ironed it on and traced around the edges to give it a three-dimensional look. Very nice and if she didn’t have your size, she’d make one up and you’d go to the next rummage sale and catch up with her there. It is hard to be artistic and make a living. You almost do need a day job.
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I think those people who show at craft shows must just do it for the fun of it, as I don’t even see how they can break even with the booth rentals so expensive? Same with painting, – I guess that’s why they call them starving artists! Going to bed, at least no rain to listen to tonight pounding on the roof and the chimney!
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PS. I don’t like painting and am hopeless at it, I clench my teeth when I’m doing it, so it’s not a good hobby for me. But several of my art friends tell me youtube and facebook both have tons of videos on how to draw and paint, so you can teach yourself.
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I’ve never looked at YouTube – I will look there as I find a lot of how-tos on YouTube, especially for house hints and computer hints mostly. I will look – I didn’t want to be too fancy and get colored pencils since the woman who is teaching (likely not an art teacher, but a Metropark employee) said they were just passing out clipboards, computer paper and number 2 pencils. Maybe I’ll be the only one who signs up? Hope it is fun and all these little activities do get us out of house to do posts on them. I like the idea of teaching myself – those art how-to books are expensive … I looked on Amazon or Michael’s one time.
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If you can draw that’s half the battle….the rest can be taught. I find perspective to be difficult, and proportion, but then I never took art in high school where they may have taught those things.
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I don’t think we had art in high school and if we did it was not mandatry – the first two years of high school the millage did not pass and we had reduced school hours (4 classes and nothing extracurricular – that was bad for kids who hoped to get scholarships based on band, drama club, glee club or sports) … in 12th grade (last year of high school for us) we had a regular school day and went longer hours and could take college prep and had amenities includes, but not driver’s education – our parents had to pay for that. I think it was $75.00 at that time and that was 1973.
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I don’t know how they could get away with that, even back then? Penalizing kids knowledge and careers due to lack of tax money as I am assuming millage is? There should be laws against that.
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I agree, but it was like that for two years – four hours of class only, and not only that … the teachers with high seniority got to stay which meant that I had a history class taught by Mr. Branch who was the football coach before the millage issue. He had seniority so he got to stay. Other teachers who were coaches were given subjects to teach only because of their tenure. A horrible education is what I got and you wonder why I never read the classics? I was well read though at home so I’m surprised my parents never had me reading the classics by borrowing them from the library or buying them. They had subscriptions to “National Geographic” or nature magazines and I watched those types of specials on TV back in the day. Always the National Geographic specials, Jacques Cousteau or Wild Kingdom. And the national and local news as well.
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You always seem very knowledgeable to me Linda, esp for someone who doesn’t watch tv at all, or read non-fiction books. I know you listen to your radio news, so maybe that is a much better venue for knowing what is going on in the world, that and the computer. I find if I want to know something I go to Wikepedia or google it. It may not be accurate but you get the basics – like what happened at Woodstock. I find most of the classics highly over-rated. I was only ever able to get through Jane Austen,’s Pride and Prejudice and Emma, and only because I had seen the movies, but true fans have read all seven of her books. Having to analyze poetry in high school killed it for me, although when I read other bloggers poetry I find it nice now.
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Thank you for the compliment Joni and whatever I learn about the news or even pop culture is strictly from listening to the radio and news stories online. I stopped the newspaper, both the local paper and “The Detroit News” as I thought it was not worth the money for either of them. I can read tidbits online for either paper and often the rest is just “fluff” – especially the Sunday local paper … they raised it from $81.00/year to over $100.00 and that clinched it for me and coupons were not great as mostly for diapers or dog and cat paraphernalia. For years my parents had read the newspaper cover-to-cover and the newspaper went on strike and no longer delivered the paper after being on strike for over a year. I used to buy it at the cigar store in our office building – it went from $0.25 to $1.00 per just the Monday-Saturday editions – the Sunday paper was outrageous. I got it for my mom, but after she was gone, I let the subscription lapse.
I Google for so many things – I find myself checking words because I still spell Canadian-style as to the “double-l” and while I don’t use the “re” for “er” or put the “u” in for words like “color” I still want to put the double “l”. Spellcheck didn’t like “rebelled” and it doesn’t like “travelled” and it didn’t like “gawdy” (striped apron) wanting to put in a “u” instead of a “w” – I know I’d never seen it spelled that way so checked. I kept it the way I wrote it. And so often anymore if I use a phrase I’ve used for years, I’ve been double-checking to ensure it does not have some other meaning – that’s happened before to me. Surprising sometimes the words with double meanings. Thank goodness for Google and Wikipedia.
I hated dissecting novels in school – it took the joy out of reading them and some I had to read over and over again for different classes. And I was not good at analyzing poetry either. I do make an effort for the bloggers who write poetry though. Never read Jane Austen at all – and seven books!
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My mother still gets the local paper, although it is shrinking and very expensive for what you get, but I read it for the obituaries and the local events, like the Tall Ships. I think it’s $168/year. She likes to do the crossword puzzles in it. I usually read a whole week’s worth on Sunday. I use Canadian spelling on my blog, and don’t care. I know it flags it but I just ignore it. It’s the same as British spelling. Maybe my American readers think I don’t know how to spell!
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Ha ha – my mom when we first moved here continued to use her Canadian lingo (serviette, chesterfield and toque) and that’s okay, but I was ten and was laughed at for my Canadian words and accent and spelling – even the teacher had a laugh at my expense. I’m proud to be Canadian – lived here 53 and still a Canuck and that has to say something.
Now it is easier to keep current with the news due to social media but my trusty AM all-news station is never far until college football season – they will pre-empt programming all day long for pre and post-game coverage and game coverage, luckily online you can catch the news as it is streaming there 24/7. It is hot in the house – I’ve not even stepped outside yet. I am ready for Fall Joni.
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Yes, Americans love their football season…..never really understood football even when I went to high school football games. It’s not a big sport here, more hockey.
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Canada = hockey! When I was a kid and we lived in Oakville and went to visit my grandparents, my grandfather was either watching wrestling or hockey. I went to high school football games and didn’t understand the game either. My father never watched sports on TV and having no brothers, I never grew up knowing anything about sports.
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It’s raining again and I just checked and both Saturday and Sunday mornings it is going to rain – that might wreck going to the sunflower field. I’ll wait as they are often wrong – it was my understanding that rain was not coming until late in the day Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I never thought to Google before or I’d have gone last week – I do have all the wildflowers and water lotus pics I took at Lake Erie Metropark two weeks ago – that will work for “flower power” if need be … I was going to call the post “Wildflowers and Water Lotuses” but if no sunflower field, then that will have to work. The rain is a pain – I’m happy to turn it over to you Joni.
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Yes, send it here, everything is so wilted looking, and rain forecast is only 40% for next 5 days. Going to bed, it’s late, and you should too!
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We have rain/storms every day to Wednesday and hot and humid. Wish I could send you some rain your way. I was up way way too late last night Joni. By the time I shut the lights off, it was midnight and I wanted to get up early this morning to write the post about Woodstock so up at 4:30 a.m. … I am going to catch up here and Reader (yeah as I finally caught up last night and that’s why I was so late). I think I’m going to table the sunflower field/farm. We have this big Dream Cruise tomorrow – thousands of classic cars converge about 25 miles away from me. People come as far as California to drive their classic car up/down Woodward Avenue (it is the first/oldest street in the USA). So the weathermen have been asked all day “what’s the time frame for the weather – should people take their prize cars out and risk getting them wet or ruined, especially if convertibles or old Model A cars with rumble seats? The weatherman are not predicting anything accurately and we’ve discussed that before … so most have been saying “just keep an eye to the sky” and my regular meteorologist has not been around all week, so don’t want to drive miles and miles away and get in a storm – Sunday may be severe weather. I found another place, about 25 miles away and it is out in the country and it’s still around in September, but they have two “Harvest Weekends” with sunflower fields and pumpkin patches, corn mazes – that would be interesting, but it has bounce houses, etc. so lots of kids and it costs $15.00 to get in – I’m frugal. I’d have to give it some thought as I’ve already done all the 5Ks and have the lighthouse tour already paid for. And, will think on the bullying walk – it’s free, but you can donate by buying a teeshirt. I told myself I should indulge myself for the Summer that left me frazzled – in Winter I don’t go to anything as I don’t want to make plans and then it is icy/snowy.
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You could blog on the classic cars then – I always thought I’d do a blog called Hot August Nights – as they have a car show here called that , but I always seem to miss it. Maybe next year. There always seems to be more to blog on in the summer….more activities….
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That’s a good idea for a title – I had that album by Neil Diamond, really liked him back in the day. Ours started at 9:00 a.m. with a million people and 40,000 vehicles and in all this heat. Cars will be breaking down and people will be out in the sun too long and getting sick.
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I’m sure I’ve been harvested again. Published Tall ships this morning, 29 views, 24 of them from the United Kingdom, (where I have no followers), and only 7 actual views from inside WordPress…..sigh….it’s so annoying.
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I don’t understand that at all – maybe you should write to the WP Happiness Engineers again. I just looked at mine and the majority are from the U.S. followed by India. I have a lot of followers from India but I have not followed back – they are recent followers. I have not followed back anyone recently, except my neighbor who started a WP blog a few days after I spoke with him – this is someone in the next block and he paints and was selling his paintings on the street corner and I took his picture and some of his paintings and suggested he try WP out by a free blog. So he did. I was on the phone umpteen times with my boss and didn’t get here until later. He is still enroute to his destination – won’t get there until 10:00 p.m. Hope he packed a thermos of coffee. He was up swimming at 6:00 a.m. and no nap.
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It is puzzling. I just checked and I have 46 views from 39 visitors, 24 from the UK, 16 from US, but only 16 are on the Tall Ships post, 15 are from Home page or Archives, and the others on older posts. It doesn’t make sense. It’s like this every time I post a new blog. You might want to check out those New Followers – I’ve been doing that lately, and finding some are spam – they look authentic, but are posting the same 4 posts repetitively. I guess that’s how they escape the spam barrier. If it doesn’t look legitimate, I go to Followers, and click on Remove. I reported someone that was advertising Financial Services. I would delete it, and then the next day it would be following me again. H.E. said it was a bot, who was following a lot of people, and he dealt with it and I haven’t seen it since.
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I had something strange about a year ago – all these people following and had the same extension on their e-mail, like “outlook.com” I believe. And they all commented at the same time, said the same thing on all posts – I knew then it was not legit, but wondered with all the followers with the same outlook extension – I alerted the H.E. and they went ahead and blocked them. I haven’t seen it since. Strange – people have nothing better to do.
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I often wonder why those spammers don’t just spend their time and energy on a real paying job!
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