prairie point

We celebrated the first day of Spring with a drive in the country. This time we headed northwest for a change. We skimmed across the northern edge of Fort Worth to Highway 199. It had been a long while since I had visited this corner of the world and I was dismayed to see how suburbanized it had become - all chain stores and fast food.

We headed north on the Jacksboro Highway but it was not until we got past Springtown that we finally escaped the urban traffic and settled down into a relaxing drive. Jacksboro turned out to be a pleasantly sleepy little town.

We had heard about a new rose nursery opening up there and that was the ostensible excuse for our trip. All we had to go on was a street address and no map but it was a numbered street. I resisted the plea from Tricia to stop and ask directions; eventually we crossed a “Fourth Street” and from there it was easy to get oriented. The nursery was a modest operation right at the edge of a residential area.

It turned out that we arrived on the very first day that the nursery was open to the public, although they have been selling wholesale for several years. The owner and his wife were on hand to show us around and offer us a Dublin Dr Pepper from a washtub full of ice. They sell “antique” roses which are plants grown on their own rootstock, as opposed to grafted roses.

We picked out five to bring home - Ducher, Buff Beauty, Prosperity, Valentine and Zephirine Drouhin. All of them have strong scents, which is the quality we were after.

We took another route home through Bridgeport trying to get as far as we could on country roads before hitting the city traffic. The countryside was greening up but there was little sign of wildflowers that far north yet. At least it looked better than this however.