Believe it or not, this rosebush was grown from seed. About 15 years or so ago, on a visit home to the 'rents and their then-new retirement cottage, I had made them a little woodland wildflower garden along the margin of their yard. I like wild roses, and so on a lark I planted (in a very haphazard and inexpert way) some open-pollinated species rose seeds from J.L. Hudson, Seedsman , a delightfully eclectic and eccentric seed catalog. I thought of it as a sort of grownup science-fair experiment.
Much to my shock, the seeds actually produced plants the next spring...but they languished in the shade, and in the years that followed they failed to bloom. My parents eventually lost interest in the roses and the other plants, and so did I.
As they say, life happens, and I found myself living here. One day I got the urge to play in the dirt, and I decided to transplant two of the stunted rosebushes to a sunny spot on the east side of my garage. The bushes shot out into sprawling shrubs, and the following year one of them finally flowered, its branches laden with beautiful hot pink blossoms, for just about a week and a half in early June.
A couple more years passed, and the other bush sported blooms in the springtime. These burst into creamy white roses.
So if you can wait about 15 years for results, try roses from seed. As one (in)famous gardener we all know would note, it's a good thing.
In the meantime...I just wanted you to see my bloomers.
5 comments:
So who are the primary purveyors of Trinitarian Warrior Princess bling bling??
Well...the three-ringed, so-called Russian wedding ring (I suspect it's neither) on my pinkie finger is from an art-fair silversmith; the Celtic Trinity ring is from Clare, Michigan, a community that gets a lot of retail mileage out of its Irish heritage...they have a Celtic-merchandise store, and a lot of the other shops in town carry Irish-themed articles.
Usually, though, I "bling" in the area of earrings. They're like potato chips...can't have enough.;-)
So wait. Is this a rugosa? Looks like it.
I love those - and I normally don't like roses. Way too fussy for my taste, but the wild ones are hardy and have a heavenly perfume. They grow these days, at least in the East, along the coastlines from Delaware to Maine, and they survive nicely. I used to go with a friend to pick rose hips for tea from plants like that, at the National Seashore at Cape Cod.
It could well be...I checked the J.L. Hudson catalog to see if any of the current listings rang a bell, but I just can't remember. All I know is that they smell lovely and bloom profusely...today the entire shrub is covered in roses, and since we're expecting thunderstorms I think this will be the last day to enjoy it at the peak of loveliness.
The pink shrub, which usually blooms just as profusely, seems a bit skimpy on buds, but we'll see...the leaves are still unfurling, so there may be more appearing. And the third rose, still under the trees...the buds are getting larger, and I think that may be another white rose.
If they are rugosa, that would explain the lack of pests...these are really easy roses...I usually throw some fertilizer around the base in the spring, and that's about it. And the earth around the garage foundation is mostly sand.
Ever try growing a rose clipping under a glass jar? My maternal grandfather used to have a special touch with this...He'd just stick a slip...I guess even a rose from a bouquet once...in some dirt, put a jar over it like a mini-greenhouse, and that was that. One of my coworkers, whose job sends her hither and yon to visit clients all over the area, likes to clip slips of interesting old roses from abandoned farmsteads, cemeteries, etc. I don't know if she uses the jar method too, but she's had pretty good luck getting her slips to grow.
I do not think so.
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