The Rules for Planting Roses (Poem)

The Rules for Planting Roses

I knew all the rules:
how you plant only after

you have everything
you need at hand: soil, water,

knowing where to cleave,
and how direct sun won't be

enough if you lack control
and crowd the ground you have

to turn over, or fail to stifle
competition where the crabgrass

has lain dormant 100 years.
At bare roots, I knew, the hungry

don't feed the fussy but take,
and the ball, if bound, won't bed

and reach its full potential.
Sometimes you have to amend

what the earth does not provide
for, adjust for variety, mulch

for moisture, check for black spot,
powdery mildew, inevitable rust.

Pruning doesn't mean expecting
the same performance from every

rose. You have to practice to remove
the weak, the dying, and the dead

well before their infection spreads.

© 2012 Maureen E. Doallas
________________________________

This month, the Image-ine theme at TweetSpeakPoetry and Every Day Poems is Roses. Go here to learn how you may share your own poem or read the contributions of others.