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The English rose in the garden plot under my bedroom window is exquisite, and it is wonderfully fragrant. Nothing I can say here is up to expressing even a tiny scrap of its perfection. Each and every bloom leaves me breathless.
My rose is called "Heritage", and it was one of David Austin's first roses. To create it, he crossed an unknown seedling with a white floribunda (Iceberg) and his own pink shrub rose (Wife of Bath). Through the latter, my rose has other illustrious forebears including a legendary hybrid tea rose called Madame Caroline Testout, an exquisite floribunda called Ma Perkins, and Austin's own magnificent Constance Spry.
Living as far north as I do, my rose requires a lot of coddling. Every few years it expires and has to be replaced, but my late soulmate adored it, and I plant another specimen for him. Ideally, there would be heirloom and David Austin roses in every corner of the garden, but that is not going to happen. On long winter nights, I pull out my rose references and dream, but the reality is that summers are too short here, and much of the year is too cold for many of the roses I long to cultivate.
How grand it would be to look out my window on a summer morning and see a whole garden of roses with literary names: Maid Marian, The Lady of Shalott, Emily Bronte, Sceptered Isle and Sweet Juliet, to name a few. Just imagine! To have one, I would have to move further south though, and that is not going to happen.
3 comments:
Roses! I think the deer snip off mine. I have four. The first was given me by my sister-in-law in memory of Mom, 20 years ago. It and the others have never flourished or amounted to anything, but for the past two years I've added used coffee grounds to the soil (just laid it on top) and there does seem to be more bloomage. Yellow roses make me think of Mom because one was given to her when she was ill (it was small, kept indoors) and had a lovely scent. I don't wrap or protect my rose bushes (or anything in my garden) so they live or die on their own strength. They are beautiful though.
Beautiful! And lucky you. Last year I planted David Austin's Malvern Hills in memory of a friend who had recently died. I actually bloomed several weeks later but this year it was dead. Our winters must be too severe. When I enquired, they sent a refund. I doubt it will be replaced.
Frances, your Malvern Hills rose is a gorgeous climber, and I considered it once upon a time, but it is only hardy to zone 5, and barely so - it probably would not survive here. David Austin roses can be temperamental at the best of times.
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