More Surgery! But Not For Me!

Delicate surgery on three of my  standard Iceberg roses whose roots had gone through the holes in the bases of their tubs and were travelling happily onwards and downwards between the pavers!  I only became aware of the problem when I saw one of the tubs full of water and not draining away as it's supposed to do!  Tipping the huge cement tubs was no light task, even with a shaky helping hand from Jim, all the time wary of breaking the precious plant into pieces!

Once the rose was lying unhappily on its side, I began the delicate surgery I've already mentioned : Removing all the soil, which had turned to mud and had to be scraped out by hand; partly refill the tub with new soil, replace the uncomplaining, semi-conscious rose in its tub, top up with more soil, drag the tub back into position and pray to God they would all survive their operation.  This, three times! To give them a good start, I cut off most of their wonderful display of flowers (see photo) so that all their strength could be given to recovery of their roots; when more buds appear I'll know the surgery was successful.

In the meantime, every shelf and every table in every room in the house is now filled with vases of white Iceberg roses!

Needless to say I didn't run or 'play' pool today.  I don't even know why I wrote all this, except that it took all day and I do love my roses!