Last year the planet lost a sweet little woman named Avis, who shared with me her love for flora. Over the years we had fun trading plants until she became too frail to garden anymore. Recently I got permission to dig up a rose from Avis’s now sad and unkempt yard to plant here in her memory. I have several plants around our place that are memorials to people now gone. And I figured Avis would like to see one of her roses get rescued, as the old house will likely be torn down and her yard probably buried in the process.
I zeroed in on two small roses that would hopefully be easy to dig up. They turned out to be sprouts off an ancient root, planted decades ago. Unlike most modern roses that are grafted to a wild root stock, this is an own-root rose. I shoveled out two good chunks and planted one, potted the other. Now I can say hello to Avis while I’m working in the garden.
Here is a biography of Avis written in 2008. I tried to convince her to let me help publish her memoir, but she was too shy. Her grandkids now have all her writings, and I hope they do something with them. Avis was one of a kind.
"Be part of something good; leave something good behind." 
What a lovely blog. And I learned something, too: I didn’t know that most roses grown today are grafted onto a different rootstock. Great photos, too!
Thanks, Barbara. Maybe you could have a rose on your deck!
Lovely, Robin…I’m guessing that Avis is smiling down on you–and on her lovely rose.
Thank you, Robin. She lives in my memories.