Sunday, December 4, 2011

Guessing game...what rose is this?????







I have a number of mystery roses in the garden, and they came to have this status bestowed upon them in a variety of different ways...mislabelled roses from the nursery of origin; lost labels after planting and before I could note their identity and position in my map book of the garden; me just being too slack to record their details in the map book to begin with, and finally roses appearing where I have absolutely no memory of ever having planted anything in that particular spot.



The rose above is from the latter school of origin. I have no idea how long it has been in the garden, and I certainly have no memory of having either ordered a rose that fits its description or of having put any rose in that position. It is growing almost at the base of a Felicia, and I most probably thought it was yet another errant Dr. Huey, if I in fact had noticed it at all.



I was walking around the garden this Spring with my friend Linda when I spied the red from amongst the powder pink of Felicia. Upon cursing another outbreak of Dr. Huey, Linda replied that no, it wasn't the Doctor. I stopped and had a proper look, and could see immediately that it wasn't old Huey. The leaves were totally different, the flower form didn't match and the colour wasn't even as 'in-your-face' red. There was also quite a pretty splash of white around the centre boss of stamens. In short, it was nothing like Dr. Huey, and I felt guilty for proclaiming him guilty before conducting even the most basic of investigations.
The mystery rose has long arching branches , and I am not yet sure if it repeat flowers. It is earmarked for surveillance over the summer and autumn seasons, and I will report back next winter.

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