Rose Bush 1; Me, 0

Looks pretty innocent, doesn't it? Just sitting there, minding its own business, growing, putting out leaves. Doesn't look too threatening, does it? However, since the weather was nice today, I thought I would trim the dead growth out of this bush. It must have seen me coming with the clippers.

I bought this rose several years ago as a tiny bush in a pink pot. You may have seen them at your local nursery. This one has pretty pink "appleblossom" type flowers. It's pretty tough. It's a landscape rose, which means it grows on its own roots, and survives cold weather nicely. And survive, this one has. The branches root where they touch the ground, so we have at least two more of these growing around our yard, compliments of this big bush. This bush is at least as tall as I am, and spreads out eight feet from the roots. It is currently menacing everyone who walks up my front path. So, I decided to trim it. How bad could it be? Well, 40 minutes later, I found out. I now have 15 new scratches and digs on my arm, a semi-shredded long-sleeved t-shirt, and I'm missing a hunk of my hair!

All the deadwood was underneath, natch, so getting to it was tricky. I was wearing a pair of heavy gloves, but they only partially protected my fingers - the larger thorns pierced them nicely. The eight-foot flexible stems caught on anything - shirt, skin, jeans, hair. I spent quite a bit of time detangling these branches from my shirt sleeves, and putting several holes in my shirt and skin in the process. Then, just as I was nearly done, one of the branches pulled some of my long hair out of the hairclip, and just as I was making that last cut, my hair swung in front of the clippers, and I snipped off a chunk of hair!! Ack!! Fortunately, it's not terribly noticeable when my hair is brushed into it's normal (non)style. As for the rest of me, my arm hurts from all the scratches, and my shirt is now air-conditioned.

I'm going to get some more done on Clapotis tonight. More on that tomorrow.