LACE~ the rose that rose again!

For many months she sat dormant..

 in a black plastic pot under the sheltering branches of the lilac and photinia bushes that grow along our old paling fence.

"I don't think it's going to do anything",  he said wistfully as he studied the bare stick of what once was so vibrant,  "looks to me like it's dead!"

We had tried to transplant the rosebush that had taken the liberty of crawling right up the brick wall of the front of our home.

So high had she climbed, that in a breeze she could easily touch the guttering and scratch under the eaves of our bedroom windows. 

We don't know how long she'd been growing in that garden bed - certainly for at least a few years before we bought the house.

Laying in bed one miserably cold night ..trying to sleep while the wind on our hilltop rushed through the garden.. and hearing the unrelenting sound of thorny branches grating against the glass and metal above our heads.. we decided that this rose needed to be moved!

My husband tried ever so carefully to dig out the massive root system so as to preserve the plant - for although we didn't like what it was doing, we desperately wanted it to survive!

It was not co-operating very well, I'm afraid.

The process of dislodging it was quite arduous and only some small pieces remained with any roots still attatched.

I put them in soil-filled pots and watered them and tucked them away from the worst of the wind and heat.. and waited to see what would happen.

Over the months I kept checking on them and watering them gently in the hopes that I would be able to salvage something from the lovely but rebellious rose.

But I could see..nothing.

For a long time it seemed as though nothing at all was going to come of the unpromising looking bits of life that I was trying to save!

In fact, I was tempted to think that maybe it wasn't working out and so I began to quietly neglect those black plastic pots hidden away under the bushes.

Then one day as I was moving things around in the yard and tidying up, I happened to glance over and spied embryonic green shoots on the bark of the rose slips.

"Come and see this!", I called out to him excitedly "look - the rose bush is alive!!"

"Wow..I thought it was dead for sure!" he said with a smile of sheer relief.

For months he'd been blaming himself for killing the plucky rose and was convinced it had truly bitten the dust, and was no more to be enjoyed by it's black-fingered owners!

And yet here it was- growing all the time in a dark and near forgotten recess of the garden.

The ugly black plastic pots were no longer suitable homes for the two pieces of rose that had survived against the odds.

So I placed them in the large blue ceramic planters that stand in the middle of the yard surrounded by daisies, lamb's ears and marigolds.

Where the rain and warm sun could grow them up strong and where we could see vitality and beauty returning to them day by day.

Shy leaves gradually unfolded and then two infant buds appeared which soon began to swell with the ripening promise of new blossoms.

And just this week,
the full face flowering of the once dormant rose,
triumphantly greeted us in the bright rays of the noonday sun!

We were so blessed!

Blessed to see it come back to life!

Dear friends, perhaps you have some hopes and dreams of your own, or even people that you have been  tempted to give up believing in..

I urge you today -  keep looking and never stop hoping! 

One day you just might find that small sign of life...
hiding away underneath...
just waiting for the right season
to be beautifully restored to you in full flowering once again!

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linked to Growing Home
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Hello dear friends, welcome to LACE!

This meme is for encouraging one another and is based on Philippians 4:8 

Whatever is..Lovely. Admirable. Cheerful. Encouraging. ~ LACE

To join in and share your lovely and encouraging post about life, faith and beauty in the christian home please..

link up only to your LACE post

link it back to here

and kindly leave a comment after linking

- don't link and run!

Please try to visit each other with a friendly word and leave a blessing :-)

Thank you and God bless you all ..Trish

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