In the summer of 2016, I submitted one of my photographs of the rose "Deidre Hall" to the Garden Club of America Photography contest and it was awarded a blue ribbon. I was quite surprised and delighted, of course, but pretty much left it at that until a friend saw the photo and remarked that it would make a lovely notecard. The power of suggestion!

From that remark was born a new and "Oh- so- fun" business endeavor. I started a notecard business using a selection of pictures I had taken of the roses I have grown in my yard over the last 20 years. I now have five different boxes of notecards in production, each containing 12 (a dozen) rose notecards, matched with a color coordinated envelope. On the back of each card you will find a brief description of the rose and a fun fact about its name. I also established the webstite of www.TexasRoseLady.com to promote my business and display the individual cards in each box. Also included on my website is a bio of how I became a rose grower and there is also a section that highlights one of my roses each month with a photo and description.

How much fun it has been to turn a passionate hobby into a small business!

In June of 2016, my rose garden was inducted into The Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Gardens. The garden's documentation, now part of the Garden Club of America Collection, furthers the educational mission of the Smithsonian to promote "the increase and diffusion of knowledge".

In May of 2013 the Dallas Morning News came to my home to interview me about my rose garden. The photographer spent about two hours taking pictures of my roses and me in the garden. It was quite fun! A few weeks later, one the staff writer's for the paper came to the house to tour the yard and interview me, which also took a couple of hours. In great anticipation, I waited for three months to see what had been put together and as luck would have it, when the news article was printed on August 8th, 2013, I was out of town on vacation in West Texas with my boys.



http://www.dallasnews.com/lifestyles/home-and-gardening/headlines/20130807-dallas-rose-enthusiast-keeps-detailed-track-of-her-children.ece

Just by chance, we had a holiday today and I was home this morning when the doorbell rang. I opened the door and before me stood this lady unfamiliar to me, but she introduced herself as the neighbor that lived across the street and down a house. I had seen her driving by many times but sadly we had never met.

She began by telling me how much her mother loved my roses and that just this week she had brought her by to see them. She explained that her mother had encouraged her to stop and pick a few, but my neighbor had explained to her mother that it really would not be a nice thing to do without my permission. I thanked her for all the nice compliments she had paid me about my roses, and since they were in full bloom I was not surprised that her mother had enjoyed them.

And then my neighbor went on to tell me that her mother's funeral was this morning. Her mother had died unexpectantly sometime during the week. She apologized for the request but wondered if I would pick just one of my roses for her to bury with her mother because they had brought her so much pleasure.

I was floored. I wanted to cry, not only because of this last request for her mother, but because of the lost opportunity to personally share my roses with her mother for the many years she had been admiring them. How touched I was that this woman, through all the grief and turmoil in her life during the last week, had thought so much about what would have made her mom happy... a singe rose from my yard. Wow.

I grabbed my clippers and my neighbor and I went thru my yard in search of a rose that would be appropriate for its destination. I cut her a "Sunset Celebration", a "Forgotten Dreams" and a yellow rose, because she loved yellow ( I think is was "Aunt Gerry"). My neighbor left pleased and I went back in the house and thought.

During this time of year when my roses are in full bloom there is constant traffic by my house... people walking by, people driving by, people in my yard taking pictures. It is what makes the effort of growing roses that much more satisfying. If I am out in the yard, stangers stop to talk to me about my flowers and I love it. I love the fact that my garden is a destination for hundreds of people I don't even know. But it is stories like the one above that truly touch my heart. We all want to know that somewhere along the way, we make a difference to others.