My first Austin rose. ::sniffs::

[leene_chan]

Crushed in Body but not Spirit: David Austin English Rose "Jude The Obscure.", a photo by Leenechan on Flickr.

This morning I ran down to the bottom-of-the-hill garden, (which I've dubbed the Long Garden) to bear witness to "Jude the Obscure"'s first bloom. This flower was being molested by at least five different members of the insect kingdom, most of which I've never seen before in my life. I cried, "Hell naw!" and beat the bugs off the blossom with a plant stake. The only one I managed to kill was the Japanese beetle.

So here it is, bruised and beaten but not destroyed. It smells like grapefruit. I think that if the bugs ever let up on this one it's going to be fabulous.