A Rose a day...
I aim to highlight one rose each day, most from my own garden but some from elsewhere.. I have enough photos to cover about 90 roses, taking me through to early May.. Obviously this is a personal selection, many of which may not appeal to everyone..
Posted in alphabetical order, so I shall start with the 'A's.. limiting photos to 6 per rose.
If you have a plant collection yourself, with a considerable number of varieties, e.g. Clematis, I urge you to start a similar thread as I'm sure many of us would like to see them...
'A Midsummer Night's Dream' [Rawlins, UK 2001 – unnamed seedling x unnamed seedling]
Height up to about 2' 6'' [75cm], continuous blooming through summer. Semi-single to semi-double bloom form.. Buds almost black, petals rich, dark and velvety, redder in heat.. Grows well in a north facing site. Suffers black spot after the first flush but soon recovers..
I especially like the sparkling centre with glowing stamens... some fragrance..
tomorrow... 'Absolutely Fabulous'...
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'Absolutely Fabulous' [aka 'Julia Child'.. Carruth, California USA 2004... pollen parent 'Summer Wine']
Floribunda/Shrub, capable of much larger than stated.. expect 5' tall x 6' wide with light pruning in UK after 3 years... buttery yellow fading to creamy yellow, strong aniseed type scent to my nose, I loved it, very unusual.
Virtually continuous blooming through summer, with a short gap of about 2 weeks between first and second flush.... may blackspot in first season, but a really healthy rose when established from 2nd year, with medium sized, glossy mid green heavily veined foliage... quite thorny, especially lower down..
A bulky rose that will demand room in a border without careful spacing. Grows well in dry conditions.
Unquestionably, the best fully double, yellow floribunda I've ever grown in 36 years covering perhaps 700 roses... this is a nonpareil, unassailable, and I know of only one yellow shrub rose with similar large double citrus scented blooms, that performed for me marginally better when grown at the same time, and where continuity of bloom was the main criteria...[see 'The Poet's Wife' Austin 2014]...
..first summer from Spring bare root planting..
..after 3 seasons it forms a wide spreading bush..
..for comparison, the purple Phlox are 2 feet tall..
..in a Dry Garden border..
..view from an elevated position.. it's in excess of 5 feet tall at this time..
..tomorrow.. 'Adam'..
I love my Ab Fab/Julia Child too, such astonishingly continuous bloomers. I have a group of three (foolishly following stated sizes) but they merge together nicely and stay fairly compact, smaller than your single one - behaving according to the space allocated, perhaps. They also get blackspot pretty badly from mid-season onwards but produce new leaves with ease and keep on blooming regardless. My summer climate is hot and humid though, not exactly relevant to most members, so I’ll shut up now 😆