This is my absolute favorite rose bush of all time. When we bought this house 10 years ago, I was so excited to have “land”, that is an actual front and backyard, I became a gardening geek. I spent all my free time researching roses, flowers, trees, and garden design. I drew up designs for every outside space at our house. I attended lectures at Roger’s Gardens, joined the Rose Society and made my family go to numerous public rose gardens. I am sure you can see a theme with how over the top I go with everything I am interested in. Well, I eventually put in about 50 rose bushes around my property, much to the dismay of my hubby Lou, who calls them”sticker bushes”, but of course he went along with my obsession and let me do what I want. Like the poor guy ever has a choice. I pruned, fertilized and sprayed on a regular basis until I developed this hideous rash all over my arms and legs.
- my Granuloma Annulare rash
How ugly is that? I went to the dermatologist, allergist, another dermatologist and my primary care doctor and of course no one knew why I had developed the rash. The first doctor took a biopsy and discovered it was called Granuloma Annulare, but there is no cure and the doctors don’t know what causes it. Ha, Ha…. I thought it was allergy related because I have always had horrible allergies and it showed up after years of obsessive gardening. So after I tried several creams, steroid shots, a yeast free diet and several other weird things, I decided to just ignore the rash. I told the doctor as long as it didn’t travel to my face, I was done trying to get rid of it. And so, 8 years later I still have the hideous rash, but it did disappear for 3 months last year. That was the 3 months I spent in the hospital with Tiara and hardly ever went outside and was always breathing clean filtered hospital air. So, the hospital stay proved my theory was right, it is allergy related and as a result I really don’t garden anymore, in fear it will travel to my face. I am just teasing. I don’t garden anymore because in addition to the rash, my head itches, my body itches, the roof of my mouth itches and I sneeze probably 100 times in a row, despite the fact I am wearing long sleeves, long pants, a hat and a hospital mask over my nose and mouth while gardening. Super attractive and completely ungeeky.
Back to my favorite rose bush. I no longer prune, fertilize, or spray, so over the years many of my roses died without the constant pampering, or they became disease infested and I had to pull them out. But not my favorite rose, Sophie’s Rose. It still looks beautiful 7 years later and produces the most amazing flowers. I am sooo grateful I planted it outside my family room slider, because even though I can’t go outside without suffering I can look at it all day from the inside. I love Spring and my roses despite the allergies. Like my Sophie’s Rose, I am super grateful to all my blog readers. My daily numbers have really increased and as of today I have made $100, instead of the $43 I told everyone about last week. This is because of all your efforts in helping me with my blog. Thank you and I appreciate all the support. I have picked the winner of the B. toffee and notified her via email. Thank you B. toffee!!! Check out this weeks give away, super cool…
I met Lou and one of your daughters at my grandson’s 2nd Birthday party. Cash Taekman) Josh Taekman and Lou grew up together. I have followed Lou’s post on facebook, but I think you write some of them too. Prayers are with your family! We are in Ct. so I hope you hear them clear across the country! Oh and the Rose is beautiful!
Thank you Karen, I hear your prayers. So nice for you that Josh and Kristin live close now. I bet you are loving your new granddaughter. Take care and thanks for following my blog.
If you still want to have roses, you might want to look into antique roses. They require much, much less care than your average garden variety rose. Mine don’t get sprayed with pesticides and rarely get pruned or fertilized, yet they still do very well. Check out The Antique Rose Emporium for ideas. If you are interested, I can make some recommendations. I live in Houston, TX on the Gulf Coast and rose gardening is very difficult here, yet I still manage with a combination of antiques and David Austin roses. Cheers!
I am highly allergic to roses, break out, can’t breathe, and so on. Imagine my surprise, planted gardenias, broke out in horrible rash. Per doctor, combined Hydrocortison Cream 1% plus moisturizers and Clotrimazole 1% antifungal cream, both over the counter, mixed together, took 2 days to start working 5 days to clear the rash.
Gardenias is part of the rose family.