If only she didn't have blackspot...
I have Evelyn growing behind my garage, so I feel like she's my little secret. Maybe a rose like this would be a good showpiece for the front yard, but she probably wouldn't do as well without all that acidic gutter water flowing into her bed.
When I got this rose in May she came with three little beaten-up buds that miraculously opened up into three decent-looking, great-smelling flowers.
Here is our first home-grown Tamora blossom. Compared to the earlier flowers it's big and luminous. Tamora hadn't bloomed in so long that I had almost forgotten about her...not any more!
I'm having one of those moments when you walk outside and see your rose looking just as perfect as it did in all those photos you admired. Chapeau de Napoleon might only bloom once a year, but he is so worth it!
I guess that if you start with a 3 gallon Austin rose you're going to get the real deal with the first flower!
Thankfully Madame Hardy still has quite a few buds to open. I am going to miss her once she finishes blooming for the year!
I'm not sure where the 'winter' comes from. Maybe the original intended name was Winter's Tale, or something.
Anyway, I like her! Maybe I love her!
She's a short climber in her second year at 36 inches tall, but she appears to have every intention of growing taller. She still has a touch of blackspot...like most of the roses in the yard in spite of our spraying. Well, when you get 10 inches of rain in a week, what can you do?
CdN had a nice display for us this morning. The flowers are so cute and squishy!
I woke up early this morning to my neighbor feeding a 30 foot tall tree into a woodchipper. My God. At least Evelyn is looking nice.
I'm sorry. I just think that Gallicandy is so freaking cute. The flowers are actually a little more purple than the picture shows. It's funny how such a mean-looking plant can have such child-like crayon-colored flowers. They remind me of those "dancing flowers" they used to sell at novelty shops in the '80s. Maybe I should find a little pair of sunglasses for this bloom?
That's how I feel about my other white roses now that Madame Hardy has bloomed for the first time.
Yeah, the flower is a little misshapen. But there are more to come! That flower is blooming at the top of a fifty-one inch cane, and I had to bend it way down to get a picture. Mme. Hardy has mean thorns but they aren't as mean as Polareis'!
It's hard to tell because it's been raining so much, but even though I think that Mme. Hardy is more beautiful than Mme. Plantier, Mme. Plantier has a better fragrance.
The plant is tiny right now, and that flower has a very weak stem. It's absolutely beautiful in person, though, and it's a shame that red and purple roses are so hard to photograph.
This is the first of Evelyn's 17 buds to open, and it's one of the smaller ones! The color seems a lot more orange and less pink this year. Oh, me and my orange roses...
I cut this one for a vase right away, because we're supposed to get Big Rain again tomorrow. Since we haven't been getting the ridiculously hot temperatures so far this year, Evelyn's new canes are growing in thicker and straight up rather than flopping around like an octopus' tentacles. We have her tied to a fan trellis now. It's hard to believe that this is only her second year.
The bugs do, that's who!
Well, I do, too...but it's too bad that the foliage has been beetle food.
If you all haven't figured it out already!
Carding Mill keeps popping out flowers, and I love the fragrance more than anything. I'm not sure why helpmefind has it listed as "myrrh" when it's a fruity, peach scent. I'm not sure what class of rose that comes from, or if only modern roses can come with a fruit rather than floral scent. I love it! It's a real pick-me-up and doesn't give me a headache like the tea fragrance.
Paul popped his second Ricault today, and I think it has a much better form than the first one! This one has a neat inner spiral, while the first bloom was a deformed monster with three centers. I am a sucker for the centifolia roses in spite of their issues. Some sources list Paul Ricault as a Hybrid Perpetual, but he does not rebloom!
Rose gardening can be frustrating, especially in the Northeastern US, where you have to deal with blackspot, powdery mildew, rabbits and bugs, bugs, bugs all the time. If you persist, however, you will sometimes find yourself rewarded with something truly glorious.
So here's Carding Mill today, looking glorious.
After two years of struggling to grow taller than 6 inches, Prairie Sunrise has finally come into her own, bushed out and produced an honest-to-goodness flush!
Lesson Learned: Unless the rose is a disposable piece of crap like Sunny Kordana, don't be so quick to give up on it. Even Margo Koster and Julia Child have finally overcome their bug damage and filled out their pots. Phew!
