I have posted before on here about the enormous, gigantic Fortune's Double Yellow which grows next to the bike path my DH and I go on several times a week. Of course, I love this time of year when it is blooming. I stop my bike and stare at it. Passersby look too (humans are monkeys, and always will look at something someone else is starring at), unless they are too busy staring at their phones. However, the few who make comments usually just say something like "how pretty", and keep going. I always wish someone would have a real interest, as the rose is so spectacular. Makes me feel sort of lonely that they do not.

A couple of days ago it happened - a lady stopped because I was stopped, and looked at the FDY. She looked at me and asked if I knew what kind of rose it was (good start - she knew it was a rose!). I said it was Fortune's Double Yellow, and was an old chinese rose which a Brit named Fortune had brought back to England in the 19th century. The next words out of her mouth were, I swear: "Robert Fortune?"! EUREKA! Found a fellow traveler. I told her it was a once bloomer, and that I had very easily rooted cuttings from it. She thanked me, and said she was running home to get her clippers...Made me happy the entire day - there is hope for the world.