Continuing on Friday’s blog on my Old Roses in the Beech Borders, let us now move down to the bottom end of this area and look down on the waterlily pond.
New Dawn grows into a Rhamnus prinoides, one of our loveliest small shrub-like trees endemic to the farm – slightly to the left the rose I call Mothertjie (read all about her!) grows into another Rhamnus; the Afrikaans name of this tree, Blinkblaar, means ‘shiny leaf’. I photographed her a month ago (below) – her season is over now. This was her first year of maturity, and how she had grown in a year!
We move on towards The House that Jack Built. From the cottage the view of the bridge across two examples of Felicite et Perpetue is beautiful. Around the bridge white hydrangeas start their season.
Felicite et Perpetue, raised in 1827 by the gardener to the Duke of Orleans, commemorated his, by the sound of things, very virginal daughters. So I thought – checking my facts I find it commemorates a pair of virgin martyrs. But virginal it is. Tiny red buds open to perfect palest pink pompoms which fade to white. It is considered one of the great ramblers.
A slight deviation to a wonderful day spent in the garden with friends yesterday. Their daughter entertained my dogs endlessly – here they are catching tadpoles. And here is a fascinating example of a more-frog-than-tadpole. As always, by the children we are taught…
Other roses are also doing well in this part of the garden.
Several bushes of Penelope (cream) and Jacques Cartier (pink) scent the air around the cottage. Also grown from cuttings. (Although every one of my 30 plus cuttings of Penelope taken in July 2010 was unsuccessful. I shall try again in summer. I need many bushes for the planned Mothers’ Garden, due for construction in 2011… I shall still write about that – but it is marked on the plan I included last week.)
A little further down, at the jetty, you will find one of the great classics of the rose world, the Common Moss Rose or Rosa centifolia muscosa. In this serendipitous composition the hairy moss glands can be seen on the bud to the right of the pale pink flower.
The Rondel Garden (click on the name for more info on this garden) might not warrant a post of its own this year, but there are still some lovely roses there.
Rosa moyesii ‘Geranium’ is a beaute, even though its season is short and it has yet to form the beautiful flagon-shaped heps for me. It was one of the most exciting cutting-grown discoveries amongst the grasses next to the Beech Borders!
Souvenir de la Malmaison is one of the most delicately lovely of the Bourbons, especially when the buds are not balled by excessive rain. In fact we can thank the dry October for our beautiful display of roses this year! Raised in 1843 this wonderful repeat-flowering rose is a fitting tribute to the Empress Josephine and her important collection of roses in the garden at Malmaison.
Any help in identifying the sumptuous deep pink rose in the next two photos will be greatly appreciated!!! I call it Aunty Corrie’s Rose, because it came from her garden. One of the most gloriously scented roses I know, it suckers freely, grows long wands reminiscent of some Gallicas, and is once-flowering. The flowers make me suspect it is a Centifolia. Ironically I have a near identical rose from another aunt, over 1000km away, which I call Aunty May’s Rose. It is much more of a climber, and less inclined to sucker. Only when I pulled apart two perfect blooms together was I certain that they were not the same rose. But none of my reading has thrown any light on their identity. Both appear to have been in their respective gardens for a very long time. And both are the epitome of a rose!
Highly scented, deep rose pink with a silver sheen to the reverse of the petal? Any ideas?? PLEASE!?!?
PS, later: see the comments for some fascinating further developments. And the following for a more detailed post at Mooseys by me on these roses: http://forums.mooseyscountrygarden.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=633&start=0&hilit=Aunty+May+Aunty+Corrie
