The Mystery of the Rose

My husband and I have had a disagreement.  It is over this rose bush.

He planted the rose on the west side of the garage between the Cherokee Rose and the purple flowering sage.  It is not very big yet but blooming well after the first good rainstorm of the season.

The other day while we were enjoying the weather and returning the hanging planters to their places on the front porch after I filled them with pansies, he commented on the rose bush growing below the porch, fully in bloom, and then said as he ran down the stairs "Cheri's rose looks really good too."

When he came back with another heavy pot and we placed it on the hook, I said,"what did you mean, Cheri's rose?"  He said, "the rose she gave us by the garage." Above is a picture of that rose in our back yard in April 2011.  Cheri is my sister-in-law.  Hubby and I each have conflicting stories of where this rose came from. I have decided that one of these 3 things is happening:  1) My husband is going crazy.  2) I am going crazy. 3) My husband is trying to make me think I am going crazy.

Cheri is my sister-in-law. Hubby says that at some point in the last year, she came by his work and brought him this rose as some kind of a birthday present.  I find the present idea rather odd, because I know it wasn't a present for my birthday, which was just last August, and hubby's birthday is in February, and that is a really odd time of year to give someone a rose.  He says she gave it to him and he came home and planted it right then. (Another reason February wouldn't be likely.) His memory of this whole supposed-happening is very vague... when was this? why was this? what is Cheri, who lives in a rented home and isn't much of a gardener, and has never taken much of an interest in our yard, giving us a rose as a present for in the first place?

Now, I of course have a completely different story of the rose.  I went with a friend to a yard sale in Placerville off Coloma Street in the lower front yard of the Nick Fox House.  The sale was put on by the Heritage Society and a couple of friends of mine were selling there.  I bought several old urns that I now use on the front porch and have begonias in them, and this rose, which at the time had one bloom on it, and was rather straggly but showed promise.  I placed it on the deck, and there it sat, since my hip was not in great shape, and I wasn't sure where we should plant it.  I had my operation last December, and through the winter and spring didn't get outside much, and by the time I did, I discovered hubby had planted the rose by the side of the garage.  I had to water it frequently all through this past very hot summer, but it did well and seems to be surviving the poor soil and heat.

To confuse the issue even more, last spring at a garden sale at my ladies club, I bought another rose which sat for a while on the deck and hubby planted in the early summer in the little flower bed below our front porch.  So when I told him that "Cheri's rose" was my "Nick Fox House rose" he said "you're thinking of the rose by the front porch" and I said, "no, I bought that rose at the Shakespeare Club garden sale".  I tried several times to tell him about the yard sale and the Nick Fox House, but being the stubborn man he is, he refused to listen to my side of the story.

This rose above is the rose from the Shakespeare garden sale, it is white and has a couple of ground covers surrounding it which were in the pot with the rose when I bought it.

When we left off our "conversation" about the mystery rose, hubby said he is going to ask his sister when it was she brought the rose by his work, and why. (I find the fact he can't really "remember" the why and when rather telling...) That was a few days ago and no mention of it yet...

Meanwhile, I don't bring up the subject, and don't plan to, since I didn't really get to explain my side of where the rose came from.  The one main question I had to my husband was, "if that rose is from Cheri, where is the rose from the Nick Fox house?"  He says the rose below the front porch is that rose, but I know it is the rose I bought at the garden sale last May.

The mystery remains. I KNOW this rose was my Nick Fox House rose. I know that my sister-in-law is not a garden person and the idea of her giving my hubby a rose in a pot to plant in our yard is definitely an odd happening. 

So here we are back at the 1, 2, 3. He's crazy, I'm crazy, he is trying to make me think I'm crazy.

So mysterious...