Climber rose from my dad’s place July 1992
I’ve had roses in the gardens from the beginning. This was because I could not afford to buy plants so would take what I was given or could scavenge wild. This was the first rose I got, from my dad’s farm. I don’t know what variety it is; just it is a climber with small 1½” flowers.
I took this photo of the buds a couple days ago.
Blossoms July 2018
These are the tiny flowers, doubled and a pleasing pink.
The next rose to arrive was this beauty in the South Herb garden. My sister designed and planted the Herb gardens around the house in 1992 and put this rose in. Again, I don’t know the variety.
Over the years, it has done less and less well. These are all the flowers this year. Once the building is done, and I start restoring gardens, I can do something for it.
Rugosa rose bed June 2017
This is the first rose I bought nearly 20 years ago. It was from a plant sale by the local Ag School and it was listed simply as rugosa.
I’ve been harvesting the petals since it started to bloom this year, so I only have a photo of the buds.
7 Sisters rose June 2018
I bought this from Fedco perhaps 10 years ago. The selling point was the flowers were supposed to be several shades of pink (7 Sisters). But it’s only ever been the one color.
This year it started to bloom on the Summer Solstice.
Close-up of the 7 Sisters blooms
These are very tiny (about 1” across) and doubled. They are called fairy roses.
These are the multiflora rose, an invasive. But I LOVE the scent that fills the neighborhood each June. I didn’t plant them, and probably should be a responsible caretaker and eradicate them, but I so love the scent….
Multiflora close-up
Big rose August 2016
The next rose to arrive came from BuyNothing so I don’t know the variety. It had grown next to a driveway and attacked anyone getting out of a car, so they wanted it gone.
It was a HUGE old rose, with an enormous root system that extended into the neighbor’s yard. We couldn’t get about half the root system because of this and weren’t sure it would survive in May 2016 when we brought it home. But by August 2016, it was flowering!
June 2019
It flowers all season long; we had blooms in November last year, long past first frost. It’s nowhere near as big as it was, lot of winter kill. But it just keeps on going….
The last rose to arrive appeared 3 years ago in the middle of the lilacs. It may have appeared earlier, but I bet I thought it was a rugosa and tried to take it out. But 3 years ago it flowered before I did that and I discovered it was a heavenly scented Damascus rose.
Damascus roses June 2018
The rose has really grown in that lilac since I stopped trying to kill it. This year it’s not been happy with all the rain, but it is still sending out lots of buds.
So those are the roses I am enjoying right now.
