Mighty showy rose

Oh how beautiful!

Roses truly are the queen of flowers.

The shrub roses used as groundcover can be prolific bloomers after a mild winter. Used in mass for highway erosion control and in parking lots, they certainly are show stoppers in early summer.

But do beware...

In passing, at speed, is probably the way to view shrub roses and "groundcover" roses. Look close and you may see beneath the bloom to a thorny, leaf-spotty tangle.

Lots of people fall for them. If you do, learn to prune them to keep them blooming well and manageable in size.

We end this 45mph sighting with a message to the people who must maintain those mass plantings: Yikes, what a prickly project it must be to work around them!