Monday, just like any other Monday, when settling in at my desk to start my workday, I saw one of my co-workers coming up the stairs from the parking lot. We extended the usual pleasantries and “how was your weekend’s” just like any other Monday morning. She asked what I did over the weekend, I asked what she did. That is when she said she and her husband had spent the weekend working in their yard pulling up shrubbery that they planned to replace with with something else. Little did any of us know that this mornings conversation would have a Paul Harveyish twist to it.
Today when seeing each other, she asked me if I remember how the previous weekend she and her husband had spent pulling up the bushes around a certain portion of their home. I responded, yes I remember. That is when she said that the reason they had done this was because they had planned to replace those shrubs with a variety of roses called Knock Outs. The neighbor had several Knock Out rose bushes and they had really admired them and had taken a few slips in order to cultivate a few for their own yard.
Now seeing as the spring season is upon us and in order to help fill in the empty areas with a more seasoned rose bush of the same variety my friend and her husband checked the local home stores for the best price on this particular rose bush. They found them to be quite pricey. In order to get the biggest return for their dollar they called their daughter who lives across town near a Pike Nursery and asked if she would mind pricing this variety of roses for them. As any loving daughter would, she said, but of course.
The request was made to the daughter on Saturday, by Tuesday she had completely forgotten to check that price for her parents and when they called inquiring she said that she would get right on that and call them back right away. A couple of hours later the daughter calls back:
Dad: Hello?
Daughter: Hi dad. I called the Pike Nursery about those roses.
Dad: Oh good! What did they have to say?
Daughter: They say they don’t carry that variety of rose.
Dad: They don’t?! But it is very popular, I wonder why they don’t carry them?
Daughter: I don’t know dad. In fact the girl I spoke with wasn’t very knowledgeable at all, she said she had never heard of Knocked Up roses.
Dad: What?…… I guess not!
Daughter: Why not? You would think that someone that works at a nursery would have a working knowledge of the more popular varieties of roses!
Dad: Darling, they are called Knock Out Roses, not Knocked Up Roses!
There you go folks, “and now you know… the rest of the story.”
My Mama grows these type roses…she may be able to give a few clippings if they lived through the winter. I could ask her for your friend if you would like me to.
which ones Sandy? knock out or knocked up.
Sounds like something I would do because of my hearing loss. I’m gonna look it up on line and see what they look like.
I looked on line and they are really good looking roses and tolerent to cold and heat, very easy to grow. Thanks Annette I’m going to shop for some of these.
So funny!
I have these planted around my pool. They bloom spring, all summer and until frost, no clipping needed. You cut them back early spring for the year. They now have a variety of yellow that have a smell. The pink variety is a no smell version. The pink ones found most anywhere are usually around 16.00 per plant, unless you can find them on sale. The yellow ones with the smell I have only found at a nursery and are much higher over 20.00 each. Sometimes you can find a sale, but usually late in the year. I plan on putting some yellow ones in.
LOVE THIS!!! Laughed out loud!! Just proves our kids really aren’t listening to us!