a Rose is a Rose is a Rose

There is nothing like fresh cut roses to add fragrance and cheer to any room. Roses are easy to grow, relatively low maintenance, provide a quick and satisfying landscaping effect, are long living, and give wonderful blooms that change every day. Watch the bloom unfold and change colors, a bouquet of wilting drooping roses is a personal favorite! Roses are the perfect plant for the garden and equally accessible to every level of gardener and garden. It is easy to slide into the role of a rose collector. The variety of roses that are available to the home gardener is astounding. Whether you prefer long stems, long blooming, reds, apricots,  variegated, double blooms, cabbages, fringed petals, a climber or for a pot, there is a rose for everyone.

The purest in me prefers antique roses, pre-1900,  but I have been known to buy the occasional David Austin rose! My first garden was the one I created with my now ex-husband. I learned a lot about gardening and, I think, the most important lesson was that the garden is dynamic. The pleasure of gardening, besides weeding, is watching it change. As a novice, I had to learn not to be afraid of moving plants  if they did not thrive where I wanted them to live. Also, plants get sick and it’s okay to pull them out! I had a rose, Reine Victoria, that I loved but no matter where I moved her, she was always sick. Occasionally she would gift the perfect bloom with the most memorable of scents but always on the most pathetic looking bush imaginable. After several years of nurturing that produced very little effect, I decided to remove her. Sad but liberating! My collection of roses quickly grew to almost 40. I know each by name and blooming habit. Oh how I love when Cardinal de Richelieu begins to bloom! Such closely formed buds that open one petal at a time until, suddenly, it opens fully. And what an incredible color, almost a deep purple. The Cardinal only blooms once and for a very brief period but I look forward to his visit every summer…

One tragedy of my divorce is having left my garden behind. All my roses, espalliered fruit trees, quince tree, and the most productive of plum trees. Fortunately, my ex and I are committed to co-parenting and the pursuit of friendship and creative collaborations! And since we are neighbors, I have full visitation rights! For my new, and smaller garden, I have finally made my decision. A Variegata di Bologna, Quatre Saison, and Ispahan. A reunion with an old friend and two new, and a new garden is born. I buy my roses from Roses of Yesterday and Today.

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