Top Most Enjoyable Roses?

 On one of the rose forums, this question was posed: What are your Top 10 Most Enjoyable Roses? In thinking about this question, there are a few things I realized. It doesn’t matter how beautiful a rose is if the rest of the package doesn’t satisfy. If the bush only produces a few extraordinarily beautiful roses a year I won’t consider it to be enjoyable. It also doesn’t matter how beautiful a rose is if the bush is ugly. If a bush won’t grow, or is terribly susceptible disease or other problems, if I have to spray it, or try to control how much sun it gets, I won’t enjoy it. On the other hand, if the bush grows beautifully, but the flowers are ugly, there is no point to growing it. So keeping these things in mind, I only came up with three choices. 

‘Bishop’s Castle’ isn’t the most beautiful flower. It is a beautiful flower, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t consider it to be one of the most beautiful flowers. What it does have it a nice bush form, strong growth, no disease, minor thrips damage, and nearly constant blooms, which are divinely, waftingly fragrant. It is one of the few roses that blooms for me all summer, through the heat and into the fall. So yes, it is a most enjoyable rose to grow. 

If you asked me a year ago, ‘Abraham Darby’ would be very low on my list of roses that are enjoyable to grow. I would have told you that he is an evil witch who has charmed me, and tortured me by withholding his charms despite all my attempts to give him everything he could possibly want. And this, for years. But this year, I think I’ve unlocked that door, and that satisfaction has elevated him to a most enjoyable rose to grow, simply because that challenge is overcome, and is the sweeter for it. This rose is the first Austin that charmed me, and you know what they say about first love. Although a miserable wretch for disease in some climates, that’s one thing he doesn’t get here. I like the form of the bush, the vigor, the size/shape/color/density of thorns. Same for the leaves. He has nice presence in the garden. The flowers great fragrance (even if not wafting like BC). The remaining downside to growing him is the susceptibility of his flowers to thrips. 

Similarly, ‘Scentuous’ was a struggle to get going since I got a poor quality plant that was dried out, frozen, or worse. It has been a joy to see it overcome its harsh beginnings, and seems to be happy to grow, and happy to bloom. Although the flowers don’t last long, they come with impressive regularity, and the flowers are simply lovely ruffled confections. The leaves are attractive, the fragrance is always satisfying.
 

 

You may notice that there are a number of roses that are not on my list for the “Most Enjoyable Roses” even though they may be some of my most beautiful roses. They might be enjoyable to grow, but not the MOST enjoyable to grow because of certain faults. 

‘Desdemona’ has been from the outset, a joy for me to grow. Her growth is mostly constant, as are her blooms. Her growth while vigorous, has been compact, nicely branching and well foliated. There has been no disease. The color of the new growth is red and the mature leaves are a nice color, texture and shape. The flowers politely drop their petals when they fade. The flowers have a most beautiful fragrance. But her flowers are to my eye not the most beautiful, and in fact are a bit disappointing in their size and form whenever I see them, so not the MOST enjoyable. 

I still consider ‘Eden’ to be one of the most beautiful roses ever created. But she is extremely susceptible to thrips in my garden, doesn’t rebloom, and doesn’t have a fragrance. ‘Huntington Rose’ is extremely enjoyable to grow because her foliage and bush form are so beautiful. Her flowers are beautiful also. My disappointments with her is that her flowers only last 1-2 days and have only very light fragrance, so I’m debating whether or not to remove her. ‘Radio Times’ may produce some of the most beautiful roses in my garden, and it is becoming more enjoyable to grow. But it has had awkward growth so far, and not the most beautiful bush. ‘Alnwick Castle’ has beautiful flowers, vigorous growth and luscious fragrance. But the bush is stiff, and the flowers only last about 2 days before dropping, and it is not highly productive or reliable.

'Peace'

 

I received some cuttings on 5/2/2021 from my friend Ginger, of her 'Peace' rose, which she wanted grown for another friend of ours. I've actually been admiring her rose for years now, so I was hoping that more than one would root. Two rooted and have slowly grown. They both have put out their first flowers, and to my surprise, they look very different. They are growing in the same potting mix, are right next to each other, in the same size pots. One has bloomed pale yellow with an apricot blush in the center, and the other bloomed pink with a similar apricot blush in the middle. The pink one has produced two blooms, and both of the blooms are pink. The cutting with the yellow flower has only produced one bloom so I don't know if it is consistent for this cutting, but it is the typical appearance of 'Peace'.  I find both the yellow and the pink forms to be lovely. 

There are several possibilities for this difference between the cuttings. One is that I mislabeled the cuttings. I think this is unlikely, as Ginger does not have any rose that looks like the pink form. Another possibility is that this is a spontaneous mutation (sport), like 'Winchester Cathedral' is of 'Mary Rose'. 'Peace' does have a pink sport that is available called 'Chicago Peace', that my pink cutting looks like. But I think that this is also unlikely since sporting is a rare event. Most likely, it's just that the cuttings received some minute difference in culture or development. 'Peace' has variable coloring, so I'm not too surprised. As this plant matures I'll see if it keeps the pink color.

cyclamen hederifolium alba

I've had this one plant of Cyclamen hederifolium alba for at least 10 years now. It's taken me a while to find the right spot for it in this climate. In other climates I have seen Cyclamen hederifolium growing strongly in the shade under trees, but here it's taken quite a while to develop size. As always, here in the high desert, it's a matter of microclimate, of exposure and of moisture. I've discovered that my plant likes it most in dappled shade. It is also happiest with regular irrigation when it is leafed out, which is in the late fall through winter and spring.

For the past couple of years, it has been in a better spot and it has grown. This is the most it has ever bloomed for me.

I love the shuttlecock flowers. If you were to lift up the mulch and trace each flower stem, you would see that each flower comes from the center of the one tuber lying just under the mulch, even though it looks like there are a number of plants here. When the flowers fade, the stems coil, bringing the seed pods to ground level. The seeds are said to be covered in saccharine, which the ants like and carry the seeds to new places to germinate. Mine has shown no signs of self-seeding though, even though I always live in hope.

For years I dismissed Salvia farinacea, the mealy-cup sage, as a tacky common bedding annual, meant to be planted en mass. I like plants with a little more grace than the ones that are sold in the stores. I did try Salvia farinacea ‘Texas Violet’ from High Country Gardens one year, because it was described as having flowers scented of grapes, but it was a bit scraggly, the color was rather pale, with typical floury white calyces. It didn’t survive the winter. That’s the other reason I stayed away from Salvia farinacea. It is described as hardy only to zone 8 and since I’m in zone 7A, it would not be reliable. I didn’t want an annual. But after seeing some looking good in the neighborhood, I decided to grow some last year. The only ones that grew to the size I liked were from seed, so I grew a dozen or so plants from seed. To my surprise, every plant had a different character. Some were more sprawling, some had lighter or darker flowers. Some grew more bushy, and some grew more spindly. Some dropped both flowers and calyces after a short time, leaving a spotty raceme. Two plants stood out as being better than the others. One plant grew dark purple flowers with purple calyces and even the stems were purple, instead of the white calyces and green stems that are typical. The other was quite similar, but without the purple stems.

To my surprise, all of the plants survived the winter. I remembered which one was the one with purple stems, and took cuttings of it, and filled my pots with them. Although it’s not a perfect plant, it’s pretty much what I wanted. It’s like Salvia nemerosa ‘Caradonna’, but as a native New Mexican plant instead of a European one. It also blooms for much longer than ‘Caradonna’. It’s not a particularly unusual variation of Salvia farinacea, but it’s closer to what I wanted and not something that can be bought in stores. Maybe I’ll try more seeds and see if I can get something better yet.

'Radio Times'

 Someone once asked me why I plant so many roses that look so similar when there are so many other colors and styles of roses. The short answer is that it’s what I like. The longer answer is that there is much more to a rose than the photograph you see of a single blossom. I started out looking for the perfect rose, and after a while discovered that there is no such thing. 

 

'Abraham Darby'

My favorite flower form is called “quartered” which has many petals in an arrangement like slices of a pie. I also like the roses with cupped shaped flowers. The color I’m looking for is peachy pink with the outer petals pale pink or white, and whose color doesn’t fade as the bloom ages. It is surprisingly difficult to get just right because to get the outer petals lighter it’s usually because the petals fade as they get older, so even the inner petals fade as the flower opens. Some flowers fade to beige, others fade to pale pink, some fade to white, some even turn orange. Some fade in a nice way, many fade in an unattractive way. Some open up bright orange then fade to peach and pink. Then there are variations of scent, flower size, and durability. There are variations in the number of petals. The flowers of some roses change with the weather, getting less petals, getting smaller or turning to a different color in the heat, and then changing again as the weather cools down in the fall. Some have flowers that last a long time, some have flowers that only last a day. Some have flowers that are easily damaged by wind, rain, insects, heat, humidity. 

 

'Evelyn'

I’m also interested in roses that have a strong scent, and one that I enjoy. I’ve tried some roses that smell like mothballs and those were removed. But the fragrance also changes throughout the day and in different seasons, so it takes a while to judge. That’s just the flower. Then there is presentation or how the flower hangs or stands up on the stem and bush. Some hang their flowers like they are wilted, others coyly nod their heads, others are regimentally upright. Does the plant bloom once in the spring and is then done for the year? Or does it bloom again? If it blooms again, how often does it bloom? Some bloom in the spring and in the fall but not through the summer. Do all the blooms open at once in a big splash or does it spread them out for a longer period of time? 

 

'Princesse Charlene de Monaco'

Then there is the bush itself. How vigorous is it? How thorny? Does it grow long canes or is it compact and bushy? Does it grow 10 feet tall or 1 foot tall? Does it grow tall and narrow, or does it grow wide? Does it tend to get diseases or is it resistant? Are the leaves shiny as if waxed or are they matte green or yellowish? Does the plant have a lot of leaves or are they sparse and far apart?

'Scentuous'

Does it like my garden? Does it want to grow? Or would it rather grow in the weather of the UK?  I grow mostly English style roses so that’s always an issue. Some plants with beautiful flowers don’t want to grow in my garden at all.

'Boscobel'

Linum perenne 'Appar'

Blue flax (Linum perenne) was a common plant to see when I first moved to Albuquerque. It's funny that it isn't seen that much anymore. Perhaps it's because it is a short lived plant, a single plant not lasting more than a few seasons. But it does self seed, from what I understand. I had forgotten about blue flax until I saw a plant in a friend's garden last year, and thought to myself, "Why don't I have that in my garden?!".

So last year, I planted this variety 'Appar', which was available at High Country Gardens.  It's supposed to be a darker blue. Planted March 30, 2019, it didn't do much that first summer, and I didn't expect a newly planted perennial to do much. It didn't look great, rather weedy in fact, but didn't seem to look any different if I forgot to water it, and I forgot to water it for weeks after the initial planting. After that, I didn't really bother.  It formed a tuft of leaves and a few longer stems by the end of summer. During the winter, it froze back a little, and when it started growing again, I pruned the damaged lanky stems back to the basal tuft.

As the flower stems and buds developed, I appreciated the fountain form, the buds and the ends of the flower stems drooping dramatically.

The first bloom opened April 9,  impressed me with the silky texture of the flowers. It still has a rather weedy appearance, but now, three weeks later, it has the light texture of a blue cloud that is hovering above the ground. Flowers last only one day or less, fading with the heat of the afternoon, and are without fragrance. They do stay open through the afternoon if the weather is cool and cloudy.

Am I happy with it? Would I want more in the garden? Will I allow it to self seed? Probably. The durability and ease of growing it is something that I appreciate, although if it self-seeds too much, I may regret it. Still, that true blue color and long season of flowering so far, is impressive. But the rather scraggly appearance of the plant without blooms is something to deal with in using it in the garden. I just learned that this is not a native plant as I originally thought, coming from Europe. If it were invasive though, I would have thought that it would have been found to be so by now, having been grown here in gardens for decades.

anticipation fulfilled

'Ila Crawford'

'World Premiere'