Little Roses
It’s been a long time since I’ve written an update on my little roses. The one surviving stem is in the garden below a bougainvillea and behind a daisy plant, trying to stay out of the sun. But it keeps stretching its arms in that direction. It’s just put out a bud:
A while back I tossed the dead stems of my other five poor children and planted a few new ones. This time I tried two or three stems per pot, and I took them from all over the yard. I am trying to keep these babies out of direct sunlight:
Just the other day there was an article on roses in the Redlands Daily Facts. Here is what I learned:
First, I discovered that the white rose (the one that may soon blossom!) is an Iceberg, a floribunda. Floribundas are a traditional variety of rose with long-blooming, clustered flowers, but they are apparently high-maintenance. Oh well, she is worth it!
I still haven’t replaced the red rose from the front yard, which is called a Mr. Lincoln (hybrid tea). In my pots this time I put some backyard roses. I don’t remember exactly which ones I picked, but they were probably these:
Queen Elizabeth. This is a pink rose, a grandiflora. Grandiflorae have big flowers (of course) on big bushes.
Dolores. This is another tea rose, but Mom says it is red, pink, and white. I don’t remember clipping any such roses. Hybrid teas are admired for their spiraling blooms with elongated centers, but they are also high-maintenance.
Summer Sunshine. This is a yellow rose, another hybrid tea.
There are a couple roses by the front door I may have clipped, too: a yellow one and a red one. But I couldn’t find tags on them to tell me their names.
According to the Facts article, older roses like floribundas and hybrid teas have richer aromas than more modern shrub varieties. They also produce better-formed bushes and “large, single blooms on long stems that show well and last long in a vase.” But people like the shrub varieties because they are more resistant to disease and cold weather. The high-maintenance roses need to be covered in the winter. Is that all? That is a kind of high-maintenance I can handle.