This sweet guy, my surviving rose, is an incredible producer. Year after year, he hangs tough against gophers, insects, and benign neglect to surprise and delight me.

It starts out as a nice, orange-peach when it is budding …

…and then lightens to a wonderful peach color. For someone who loves a garden, but doesn’t have time to take care of it, Just Joey is perfect.

Oh, and on a similar note, I discovered a new gopher product today – a “green” gopher product that is non-toxic. It is pricey, but I like the idea, so I ordered one to sample it. If it works as claimed, and I can drive the gophers from my garden, I will be ordering 5 lbs of the stuff! I’ll keep you posted. Gideon and Dakota are both pretty good gopher hunters, but Gideon is still on house arrest for another month.

If you want to check it out (this is not a commercial plug) or are curious, you can find this product here: Gopher Goo