‘Rose de Rescht’ was named after an Iranian city near the Caspian Sea, though its hybridizer, true name, and origins remain a mystery. According to the American Rose Society, it was “originally introduced into England about 1880, but was then forgotten about and re-introduced in the 1940s”. The most widely accepted story is that the …
Gray squirrels busily gathered plump acorns as browning elm leaves swirled across the Marin Art & Garden lawn, the Rose Garden now in the lengthening shadows of an Indian summer afternoon. I had come for inspiration for our last Rose of the Month column. The difficulty is not to be influenced by favoritism or personal …
This month I’ll venture off into a land I’ve not had much experience with, miniature roses. Although I planted lots of them for my mother, (oh yes, watered, pruned and fertilized too), they were HER roses, and did very well there. However for me, not so great. But there are some that are guaranteed to …
‘Gold Medal’ is one of my favorite roses, being a fan of yellow anyway. Hybridized by Christensen in 1982, it has withstood the test of time. Also known by the name ‘Golden Medal’, it has parents of ‘Yellow Prize’ X ‘Shirley Langhorn’, ‘Granada’ X ‘Garden Party’. It won the New Zealand Gold Star of the …
Most of us know ‘Ballerina’ as it is a favorite of most rosarians given its dainty flowers, nonstop bloom and multiple awards on the exhibition table with an incredible American Rose Society rating of 8.5. This rose is a single flowered one with five petals shading from the pink bud to open white/pink and healthy …
In 1999, ‘Fourth of July’ was the first climber to be awarded the All-America Rose Selection in more than 23 years. True to its name, ‘Fourth of July’ welcomes the Independence Day festivities with an explosion of red and white blooms just in time for the backyard picnic. The foliage is bright green, very disease …
If we were sitting with David Austin, having a spot of tea, and he remarked that he could not think of any other rose with quite so strong a fragrance as ‘Gertrude Jekyll’, I should rather think we would take note. Indeed, ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ is one of the best and most popular of David Austin’s …
Several years ago, I converted a small storage area outside my office into an enclosed patio. Sloat Nursery had the perfect fountain on sale and Sunnyside offered two oversized clay pots. But with northern exposure and a ten-foot fence, the lack of direct sunlight was a major concern. I chose two ‘Sally Holmes’ and have …
I was a little before the Beatles, but that doesn’t keep me from appreciating a rose named for one of them, ‘The McCartney Rose’. Also found under the names of ‘Paul McCartney’, ‘Sweet Lady’ and ‘The MacCartney Rose’. This is a hybrid tea, in a rich medium clear pink that was hybridized by Meilland and …
‘Sombreuil’, sold in Europe as ‘Mlle de Sombreuil’, dates back to 1850. It is sometimes found as ‘Colonial White’ as well. Legend has it that it was named after a heroine of the French Revolution who is reputed to have drunk the blood of an aristocrat to prove her father’s non-aristocratic status. (Wonder why they …