Blaze, you seemed to be the perfect rose for late springtime.
They told me you would bloom repeatedly from early summer to fall.
How excited I was to bring you home and introduce you to my garden!
Your profile showed no negatives.
You were:
Shade tolerant,
Resistant to rust,
Had moderate thorns,
And could be trained to climb.
What a keeper!
You certainly seemed to be the prize rose bush!
I planted you and waited eagerly for those profuse semi-double red blooms–but they never came…
Day after day you sat there drinking my water and eating my food
without so much as a bud appearing.
I reread your profile to see if I had missed something,
but all I saw were more amazing attributes :
Grows quickly,
Blooms profusely,
Brings forth thousands of flowers,
Brilliant scarlet red clusters,
So easy to grow it is recommended as a gardeners first rose .
Such amazing attributes do not fit you, the Blaze in my backyard .
You certainly are not a vigorous grower. What is wrong?
Each day you seem to get weaker.
I don’t want to give up on you,
but you seem to have given up on yourself.
The more I try to make you grow, the less you do.
“Talk to him more” mom said.
” Tell him you really care about him.
Encourage him to grow because you know he can.
Start listing all the attributes he has.
Tell him you believe he will become a beautiful blooming bush someday.
Try it and see what happens” she said.
I did. I tried. I talked. I cared.
You grew. You flourished. You became what you were created to be,
a Blaze of scarlet in my backyard and the first rose to bloom this spring !
(Written about Laura Jae’s little late bloomer, Blaze, rose bush.
He is a living testimony that we should never give up on anyone.
For as long as there is life there is hope and with love, care and encouragement,
people, as well as rose bushes, will usually grow and bloom profusely to reach their God ordained destiny. )
Leona J. Atkinson
05-13-13
Leonas Lines--Poetry Plus 