I planted 6 rose bushes and about 40 sunflower seeds in June.  Digging foot deep holes for the roses wasn't easy with my mountain desert soil, but the inch deep holes for the sunflowers went pretty smoothly.  I begin this story with basic gardening ideas...make a plan, dig a hole, plant the seed, water daily; a continuation of scheduled routines that are kinda second nature by now.  

I think a lot in my garden. I think about what I need to do, who I need to call,  how I will never get everything done...and my garden answers sometimes.  Not in a real voice, but in a voice that I hear through my senses other than my ears.  

Now that it is September; going towards the end of 3 full months of sunflowers and roses, the sunflowers have reached their full bloom and have slowly bent their necks; the spent blossoms now full of seeds.  The cycle is truly beautiful.  Tiny seed grows to an 8 foot stalk with enormous sunny bloom surrounded with 4 inch petals...I watered them everyday.  I watered them everyday and now I no longer need to water them because they will no longer continue to live.  I think a long time about how their full lives have been in my yard, under my care, and they will still not live any longer.  Yes, there are seeds in each one  so the cycle may begin again next year if I choose to keep the seeds.  I decide I will let the birds eat them instead.  Another extension of my sunflowers continuing to be  the food for bees, birds, and butterflies.  

My roses have grown as well; I admit I was nervous a few times when some leaves had burned edges or a bud didn't open quite as perfectly as I had hoped.  But my roses now have new growth; the tiny reddish leaves that appear when I'm not watching.  I didn't have any set reason on why I chose 6 bushes...I just chose each for it's color and probably made "eye contact" with them in some strange Druid ancestral connection to the earth.  My favorite rose from the 6 changes everyday.  One has coral-red blooms with bright green leaves, one is short and stocky with yellow blossoms, one has sage green leaves and perfect pale pink buds, another blooms in clusters of deep red, the fifth reaches out with longer stems, and the 6th is steady and a soft lilac.  I made water troughs around them with broken pottery edges; and I love thinking about how they will look next summer.  

I don't pretend that I am the first to see the advantage of the perennial versus the annual, or try to explain why they actually exist.  But I have felt the change inside each one; sunflower asking for water, rose asking for time.  Doesn't it make sense that if I keep watering the sunflower  it should continue blooming and blooming???  No.  My garden is telling me something.  I just don't know if I really want to listen.  

I decided to name my roses.  Myrth, Fred, Charles, John, Paula, and Hattie.  They have unknowingly become my connection to memories  of very  special people.  My special people.  Speaking to me with each new red leaf.  

The sunfower turns towards the sun and optimistically thinks life is forever and my roses turn towards the sun and know that I will take care of them for many years.  I think some more about next year's garden.  I will tell my sunflowers that they are growing where others were so happy.  And I will introduce them to my roses.