Roses

This warm weather after all that rain this last spring has created the nicest roses I've had in years. Above is small pink flowered Bonica.
And the oldest known rose still in commerce, Rosa gallica officianalis, dates back to the Roman empire. These flowers just glow.
Probably my most favorite rose of all is Abraham Darby, a huge English rose of impeccable shape, color and scent. It makes a huge bush. I love it.
This year the honeysuckle and Gloire de Dijon rose are blooming at the same time. They are about the same color and the combination is lovely.
And the big bush of wild multiflora roses is in full bloom and full of little bumble bees. It scents the yard and fills it with a constant buzz. I love it when the roses are all in bloom. I give myself rose tours of the yard every day.

Altissimo Rose

I saw this rose at the county fair years ago and last year finally bought one. It is the most gorgeous large single red rose. It's a climber and I hope eventually to have it all over the back of the house.

Wild Roses

We are in the midst of a spell of really warm days, up into the 80's, which we are definitely not used to. The garden, however, is thriving and so are the wild roses. This island has literally acres of Rosa nutkana with their beautiful pink flowers and wonderful spicy wild rose scent. In this warmth the whole island smells wonderful.

Requiem for a Rose

We have come to the very sad conclusion that our gorgeous Rosa Banksia Lutea that has graced the front porch of our house for over 20 years didn't make through this last winter's cold. It isn't leafing out and Joel says that he checked the trunk and the wood is dead. It isn't a reliably hardy rose but until this winter it has survived. We will cut it back to the roots before we dig it out and see if it will come back. But I have the David Austin rose catalogue out looking for a replacement. We have all loved this rose. Although it only blooms once in May, it would be covered with literally thousands of tiny little double yellow flowers. They are only slightly scented but when you got that many flowers they smelled delicious. The rose was a wedding gift from a dear friend, Edith Patten and we will mourn its passing.

More Roses

Years ago I fell in love with David Austin's English Roses. Crosses between modern tea roses and old roses for the most part, they have big beautiful flowers, healthy foliage, and usually form large shrubs. I have over a dozen of these roses. My favorite of all is Abraham Darby, above. it's color is a mixture of pink and yellow and apricot, it smells heavenly and has the hugest, most beautifully formed flowers.
Another favorite is Brother Caedfael, a true pink color. I'll admit I bought it because I love the Brother Caedfael books by Ellis Peters, about a monk in 12th century Shrewsbury. But it doesn't disappoint as a flower.
Buttercup is an English rose that I saw years ago on the cover of the magazine of the Royal National Rose Society in England. But only recently could I find it available in this country. It is a semi double flower which has the advantage of not getting moldy during a period of lots of rain. As much as I love Abraham Darby its huge very double flowers have trouble opening if they get rained on a lot.
And another of my favorites is Graham Thomas, a lovely yellow rose, not quite as large and full as Abraham Darby but truly lovely.

Roses

I love roses. I have planted all sorts all around the farm, species roses, old roses, English roses, roses rescued from construction sites. I've gone out and taken pictures of a few of them.



The deep pink rose is rosa gallaica officianalis, an old rose that dates back to the Romans and from which attar of roses was traditionally made. The small white single one is rosa spinosissima which grows wild near Deer Harbor, WA. I grew this one from cuttings taken from one of those.

This red single rose is a wild rose rosa moyesii which I grew from seed. The big white bush is rosa multiflora, the parent of many, many rambling type garden roses. The pale yellow is Harrison's Yellow or the Yellow Rose of Texas. When I was a kid I rode my horse with a local drill team and we did our presentation to the song, The Yellow Rose of Texas. I have a special fondness for the song and for this rose. The pale pink one is probably my favorite rose, New Dawn. A garden rose at least 100 years old, there was one growing on my grandmother's house when I was little. She gave me a cutting for a present which is still growing on our old place in Tacoma. When I first moved to Waldron in 1972 the cabin I lived in had a New Dawn growing on it which made me feel right at home. I took cuttings of that one and have two big bushes of it here on the farm.