03/03/2026
🌹 A Springtime Proclamation
from
E. D. Wilson Roses, Oddities & Amazing Things 🌹
In the Manner of the Bard of Avon
O hark! Ye gentle keepers of the rose,
The vernal trumpet sounds—our season grows.
From winter’s slumber stirs each thornéd queen,
Her buds once bare now blushing soft and green.
Yet mark me well: where tender shoots arise,
There creeps a foe with many thousand eyes.
The aphid—villain small, yet legion-born—
Doth hatch its brood ere breaks the rosy morn.
A single dame, with mischief in her womb,
Can spawn a hundred heirs before the noon;
And thus a bud, so chaste at break of day,
By eventide is swarmed in green array.
But fear not, friends! For nature’s knights draw near—
The ladybug, in armor bright and clear,
And mantis, monk-like in his patient stance,
Both sworn to keep your gardens in romance.
These noble hunters, guardians of the bloom,
Feast not on petals, but on creeping doom.
They smite the pest, its eggs, its hidden kin,
And cleanse the rose of all that crawls within.
Now hear my call: the hour wanes full fast.
This week alone these champions may ye cast
Into your plots, to serve ’til summer’s reign—
Fresh from my hand, not languished on the plain.
Should none lay claim by Sunday’s rising sun,
I shall release them all—each valiant one—
To roam my fields in merry, watchful bands,
And lend their strength unto my thriving lands.
Yet purchase now, and I shall set aside
Thy chosen host, reserved with gentle pride,
’Til thou dost come, at ten of morning’s chime,
To fetch the troops that guard thy blooms in time.
So step ye forth, good stewards of the leaf,
And let these tiny warriors bring relief.
For though my farm hath many helpers sure,
In spring’s great battle—aye—there’s room for more.
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