It’s 9:30 pm here and it’s been a warm, sunny, summery day. The kind where we really don’t need a sweater. I’m talking in the 70’s and it may have even broken 80 degrees.

Back in March I ordered 45 Hansa Rugosa roses for a hedge along a high retaining wall (something to keep the grandkids away from the edge). There will be a fence too, but the roses are to keep the kids back even further away from the fence, kind of like a thorny moat. I bought these roses from a Canadian rose supplier who has proved to be a good source of the kind of roses that like it up here in the cold winters of Idaho. These should reach 5 feet high the first year. Anyway, these roses were due to arrive today via fedex, and we were not ready for them yet, so my husband took the day off just so he could prepare the ground. So he worked in the peat moss and dug (with a shovel) forty-five holes for me.

We had company for dinner, so I figured I would plant in the early morning tomorrow. But then our guests left, the evening cooled, and I thought I should just go for it and get those poor little dry root roses into the homes prepared for them. Especially since they were not exactly free roses.

So it was nearly 8 p.m when I gathered up my gloves and hose and headed down. The clouds started rolling in and lightning was flashing on the horizon. It was quite stunning. But I thought I had better hustle before the storm got right over me. It stayed all around me but not directly overhead. Light sprinkles while the lightning in the distance continued. I think I got well more than half in the ground even though it had gotten dark. I lost count. The outdoor lights were pretty helpful, and I was thinking that as I was shoving dirt in the holes with my hands, that I was glad I could not see any of the critters or worms if there were any.

But the sky got even darker and was looking pretty ominous overhead. I was just headed down to pop a bundle of five more into the holes, when I had second thoughts. Maybe I had better wait. I don’t want to test the Lord over these roses. And I don’t want to be lying on the ground with my hands in the mud when lightning strikes!

So I came in. Not five minutes later we had hail. No fooling! Little balls of snow (I ate one, so I can promise you that’s what it is) and the temperature in the 60’s! Now it’s quiet again so I think I may be able to go finish up. I’m so muddy already that it seems a shame to waste the evening. On the other hand, morning has its advantages. I think I will call this my midnight rose hedge. Moonlight rose hedge sounds more like a title of a grocery store novel. And besides, there is no moon in sight. Maybe my lightning hedge. Now that has a ring to it.

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