Sherry, you are a poet!

Jeri

Fragrance is quite changeable as well. My best example of fragrance change is Spice - from peppery to citrus, varying with the season's heat and time of day.

Last year Mrs. Dudley Cross's first blossom was almost painful in its beauty. Achingly so.

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Heat changed the blooms, adding pink tones to the outer edges. I wonder how or whether the age of the bush will affect the bloom color and fragrance.

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Gardens are such that the more you look at them, the more interesting they become, and you're right, color is part of it. Another phenomenon I discovered with fascination, is how much larger, fuller, and more beautiful roses can be in favorable conditions. I've had 'Old Blush' for six years now, and usually it's a determined mass of pink at best. But once, perhaps two times, it has produced large, full, shapely, individually beautiful blooms that I would never have suspected it capable of.

Jeri's right, your account is as lovely as truthful. Thanks for writing it.

Melissa

Sherry, you are so right and are very insightful!
The color, bloom size, petal count, & bloom form of many of my roses vary wildly from one season to the next.
Part of it may be that we have extreme weather fluctuation here in the D/FW area (except in mid-summer when it's hot, hotter, or hottest).

Here's some extreme examples:

*Mrs Dudley Cross - the color fluctuation is well illustrated in the photos in the previous post. I've even seen it a few times have CRIMSON streaks on ivory on the outer petals (it's especially awesome then). Mine also is sometimes globular and even quartered in the cool spring. But it often opens up flat in the summer, not globular at all.

*G. Nabonnand - fully petaled, huge, perfectly formed blooms in the cool spring ... will knock your socks off, beyond compare. During mid-summer it morphs into an almost single-petaled, small bloom. You would not recognize it if you didn't see it change over the months with your own eyes.

*Adam - pure soft pink in hot weather, but often apricot & quartered in cool weather.

*Gruss an Aachen - this rose sometimes looks like the perfect David Austin English rose in the fall. That is its very best time of year. But sometimes in late spring or early summer, it has a distinct and very modern looking pink trim on the edges of the bloom petals. I love this rose, especially in the fall, and the plant habit is perfect in my opinion, but I don't like that period during the year when the deep pink trim appears on the petal edges. My Pink Gruss an Aachens NEVER have that deep pink edge trim and that is one of the reasons I prefer the pink sport.

*Basye's Blueberry - In the spring, this is often my favorite rose. It's irresistable. It also looks pretty good in the summer. In the late summer I don't care for it, the blooms become insignificant then, and I have to remind myself to think back about all the months when it was perfect. I have to mentally tell myself to stop thinking "what have you done for me lately". I fall head over heals for it again the next spring and summer.

*Spice - it's blooms are perfectly beautiful in the spring. Blush turning to beautiful ivory on a very cupped, fully petaled, shapely, nice sized bloom. Very old rose & charming. What the heck happens in the summer? I walk outside and find that someone must have glued tiny, miniature, shapeless, dirty dishwater blooms on my beautiful china rose!

On the other hand, the following roses are kind of consistant, and have beautiful blooms at ALL TIMES of the year in my garden, no matter what the season: Souvenir de la Malmaison (a rock star of the highest order), Reine des Violettes (the color is variable but always a pleasure), Duchesse de Brabant (including its unique and always present fresh raspberry scent), & Heritage.

My other roses are somewhere between these two extremes.

Randy

Jeri, but I want to be a gardener!

Gean, I love your Mrs Dudley Cross. I have a baby one with a first bud. Ask me if I'm going to cut it off. Ha! Fragrance is a wonderful topic but I'd have to come to your garden to discuss it.

Melissa, ooh, I didn't know Old Blush makes "large, full, shapely, individually beautiful blooms". I'll be watching for those. As far as the poetry, it was really quite insufficient for conveying what my eyeballs were transmitting to my brain. But I'm glad the attempt had some amount of truth to it that reached you in the right places.

The thought that was never quite in my grasp was the amazement and admiration I was feeling at the Creator's creation that is so infinitely variable while still maintaining its beauty always. But it's the colors - all of them stored in that one vessel of delicate, perfect petals, coming out on some signal, pouring forth yellow, pink, peach, rose, crimson, bright and soft to be received joyously (wouldn't it be awful to turn away in disinterest?) by sensors that He placed in this human creation. Someone else must be able to say it better. It deserves a symphony or a sonnet or something. The rose is just plain miraculous, that's all.

Randy, thanks for the full descriptions of your roses. I'm seriously thinking of getting Climbing SdlM soon, so I will be able to personally partake of this beautiful rose and its scent. I hope it does well for me here in this humid heat. Nur Mahal is growing well. No flowers yet but nice dark green leaves!

Sherry

Come anytime after April 30 and we'll talk. Spice is usually in bloom then.

I think roses are miraculous too.

I am with you 100% on roses having many disguises. Colors can vary so much through the seasons with some roses and flower shape and petal count can vary as well. HERE'S TO THE MAGIC OF THE ROSE!!! Always keeping us filled with awe, the rose does.

Chance

Sherry --you are so poetic----You put my thoughts and feelings into beautiful words--

Even as a very young person it always amazed me that you could put a couple of ugly sticks in the ground and then be rewarded with the most amazing beauty and fragrance----

We are the lucky ones ( rose lovers) we can see this beauty---some people never appreciate it--How sad for them

Florence

Eloquently phrased, Sherry.

As I was pruning (ever so lightly) the other day, I clipped quite a few blooms from Archduke Joseph (aka M. Tillier) and brought them into the house. The inner petals were yellow, while the outer petals were various shadings of pink. I have never seen this rose with solid yellow petals. Usually, it hints at yellow, but has more pinkish, salmonish, cherry red colors. It must be the time of year. I love that roses produce such an array of color throughout the year. It makes the garden a surprising and fascinating place.

Joanne

Sherry, if you decide you like your 'Nur Mahal', don't forget ... it's really easy to propagate more. Just stick the cutting into the ground in a fairly shady spot, keep it watered, and you will have baby Nur Mahals running around your place in no time.

Randy

*** It makes the garden a surprising and fascinating place.

Yes, Joanne, that's exactly what I was getting at. Just when you think you know a rose, it surprises you. Thanks for your description of MT. I'll keep an eye out for that rare yellow.

Randy, that's good to know. So far propagation has been a failure in my garden. When NM gets bigger, I'll give it a try.

Florence, I guess that's why they say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Aren't we blessed?

Sherry

A good garden is itself a piece of poetry.

Melissa