“It’s easy to take the time to stop and smell the roses but one must be willing to give of themselves enough to also stop to admire and understand life’s weeds.
― Colleen Dougherty
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When I moved to Texas, I discovered how beautiful and resilient Knock Out roses were. They seemed to bloom and thrive almost all year round. But then a few years ago, some ugly disease started spreading like wild fire.
When I go for my daily walks, I see the long row of Knock Out roses that wind along the path by the pond, and unfortunately, they all seem to be afflicted. Here’s a little snippet what I read about it:
A killer disease has set its sights on America’s most beloved landscape shrub, the rose.
Even the seemingly invincible Knock Out roses, with their reputation for superior pest and disease resistance, have succumbed to a virus known as rose rosette disease. And while Knock Out roses are its most famous victims, the disease is a threat to all commercial hybrid roses, including favorites such as hybrid tea roses, floribundas, grandifloras and old-fashioned varieties.
Bill Barnes of Barnes Horticultural Services in Bucks County, Pa., says that the disease has been around for a long time, but has only recently started to appear in cultivated roses.
What I learned from this is, even the heartiest roses may succumb to disease, but they continue to blossom and thrive and burst through the thorny stems and clusters of ugly leaves. They are not as vibrant and pretty as before, but they survived. They will continue to blossom next spring even after they are cut down to almost nothing in the fall.
Sometimes I feel like that rose. So, when I passed these roses today and took this picture, I smiled and thought…
“Even when you are cut down to the core, just remember that after you survive the harsh winter, you will blossom in the spring.”
~Toni Armenta Andrukaitis
Toni Andrukaitis 
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