It is âmoonlight and magnolia blossom timeâ in the Hill Country counties of North Mississippi as the spring season progresses with nature in full bloom as the old English red roses of May add their beauty to the landscape as well. A vibrant, running pink rose can still be found blooming near the old Warren-Graham home place near Sand Springs as a Texas relative once wanted to find a cutting as the flower had been described to her by her great-grandmother many years ago. The jaunt by Jeep driving down the old country roads had several bushes even flourishing on the ditch banks and running alongside the ground at the old site of the pioneer familyâs homestead. I have been told that the old roses are not as susceptible to the varied blights or diseases that often attack other modern-day rose varieties. That may be the case as well with other plants in the Hurricane neighborhood as they continue to bloom with abandon at the now abandoned sites. By the way, I think that we have been in perpetual âblackberry winterâ mode during the first sixteen days of the month of May as the continued cool spell in the mornings seems to fit that weather pattern that the old-timers dreaded as it could stunt their spring gardens or their early crops. A photo session on Sunday with the âgrandarlinsâ in their church clothes by the new âKnockoutâ variety of pink roses at our Shady Oaks farm added to the collection of another generation of our family posing in âGrannyâs rosesâ as the late Sally Warren Grahamâs last photo that has been shared throughout the years by her descendants from here in old âSippiâ to the American West shows that our familyâs traditions with the rose bushes are still intact.Â