The Rose Show Dilemma

I am a member of a local Rose Society and this past weekend we had our annual rose show.   I have been in this society for several years, and this is the first year I exhibited.  (Don't ask me why.)   There is general agreement that this rose show is the high point of being a member; one horn of the dilemma.  It is, after all, the one time the members act as a group and there is a frenzy of activity surrounding the event.  There is an amazing amount of scurrying around to arrange a venue and to move all of what it takes to actually show the roses.  As an exhibiter, I had to cut the roses the night before the show and appear early on the morning of the show to prepare each bloom.  Several times I asked myself if this kind of exhaustion was why I joined in the first place.  And then there are the rules of just how to show the flowers – one flower per stem, arrangements, and bouquets, multiple flowers per stem.  I believe there were 35 exhibition categories.  It is less the amount of work involved that is tedious, but rather the plethora of rules surrounding the event that make it questionable.

The other horn, and thus the dilemma, is growing the roses.  Actually, they are rather easy plants to grow.  They are not the thirstiest plants, they want sun and a place that is relatively undisturbed so their nature can have full rein to do its thing.  And they give back a lot in beauty and fragrance.  However, on my own accord, I find myself having to do a lot for them: fertilizing, mulching, dead-heading, replacing the unproductive ones with new plants.  Not to forget standing back and adoring them and getting close and smelling them. 

So the best I can resolve my dilemma is to tell myself that there is no such thing as a free ride.   With relatively little mental and physical effort, I can have both.  And so, forward I go: growing and showing.

photo by Lowell Cooper

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