Just Roses

My house was built on what was once a corn field. I was told that roses grow well wherever corn can grow, which gave me the confidence to actually try them out. Since a neighbor let me dig up my first starts of Austrian Copper and the Harrison's Yellow old-fashioned roses--until they became so huge I had to remove them from the garden--roses have been among my favorites. They are not only stunningly beautiful, but often they are in bloom when nothing else is.

I haven't been growing White Licorice, above, very long, but it has zoomed to the top of the list of favorite roses. I love everything about this rose--its banana-cream color, the perfect hybrid tea blossom form, its fresh fragrance, and the clean, perfect foliage and mounded plant habit.

Another of my very favorites, the Easy Does It rose. This blooms constantly. A photograph can't capture its changing color and ruffled, scalloped blossoms.

The indispensable floribunda shrub Iceberg. These grow so large for me I have had to dig them out completely. I keep trying different spots that can handle such a shrub, but I will never be without it. Tall and even wider, perfectly hardy, with nearly thornless canes and persistent fragrance, this is the perfect white cutting rose to blend  in a vase with other, brighter blooms.

Perfectly formed, shrimp-pink Sheer Magic hybrid tea

Brilliant orange-red Cinnamon Twist roses glow in my back door garden

The loveliest  of gold roses, Honey Perfume. Meltingly beautiful with soft appealing color. These bloom in bursts, June and then several months later

Hot Cocoa, another uncapture-able shade of orange with chocolate overtones

Sweet Juliet, a fragrant David Austin rose

Dainty Bess, the charming single rose that has been around since 1935

David Austin Heritage rose, a very strong grower for me. Tall , wide, and generous, during June it is covered with hundreds of the most perfect old-fashioned, fragrant blossoms, with scattered bloom during the rest of the season.

Dreamweaver, the modern pillar rose with blooms the size of peonies

The aptly named Voluptuous rose. Perfect in form and large in plant stature, it is covered with these fuchsia-colored blooms all season.

The antique Bourbon climber Zephirine Drouhin, circa 1868. Neon pink roses burst into bloom on arching canes in the spring, with scattered blooms the rest of the summer.

Antique in form, the beautiful Pure Perfume quartered white rose

Antique hybrid musk Ballerina that leans over the fence so charmingly

Is it any wonder we are in love with roses?