Tough Old Rose

It’s a tough old rose bush. It’s more than 50 years old. But no matter what the weather, or what is going on in the world, this old rose shows a lot of “pretty” every summer, year after year. It begins blooming in late May and keeps at it until early fall. Neither temperatures in the 90s or twenty-below zero seem to trouble it. I never water it, never fertilize it. Occasionally I do a little pruning. But that’s all.

The old rose stands nearly six feet tall. Different from many of the more fancy roses, my old rose bush has made it through the coldest of winters with seldom a dead branch, and without even any “dying back,” which is common with many rose varieties.

Its flowers are plain. Not nearly as fancy as the roses you buy in the store and give to your wife on Valentine’s day. I like plain.


My dad grew a rose bush just like mine. He didn’t have time to fuss with it—that would have been the language he would have used. He didn’t have time for fussing. His rose bush was as tall as mine, maybe even taller.

My hometown is Wild Rose, and my farm today is in the Township of Rose. I feel some obligation to grow at least one kind of rose. How could you live in the Township of Rose and but four miles from Wild Rose and not grow at least one rose?

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Roses are red, violets are blue. I have a tough old rose bush, how about you?

UPCOMING EVENTS:

--July 27, 9-4, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County

--August 3, 1:00 p.m. Chilton Library. With Sue. Old Farm Country Cookbook.

--August 7, 5:30 p.m. Downtown Madison Historical Museum. With Sue. Old Farm County Cookbook.

--Sept 8. 10 a.m. Mt. Horeb Library, Once a Professor.

Purchase Jerry’s signed DVDs and books from the Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):

Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
Phone: 920-622-3835

DVDs: His latest Public TV show, One-Room Country School is now available. It’s based on his book, One-Room Country Schools (also available). Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)

Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)

The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows,)

Never Curse the Rain, (based on his book with the same title)

The library has several of Jerry’s signed books for sale including Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Once a Professor, Every Farm Tells a Story, Living a County Year (reprints), One-Room Country Schools, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guidebook for those who want to write their own stories.

Contact the library for prices and special package deals.