Everything's coming up Roses

Well maybe not everything. In fact, it looks like it's gonna rain again, but the first thing I saw on looking out the window today was my "Faithful Friend" rose, blooming away for all she's worth and if that can't cheer you up, then I'd check your pulse!

Faithful Friend

"Faithful Friend" is a lovely HT (hybrid tea) with fully double flame gold and orange flowers with beautiful full petals and delightful, typically HT pointed buds. All in all, a really pretty rose, though orange isn't to everyones taste. I have to be honest here though. I bought her by accident thinking I had a different rose! Ahhh the perils of garden centre displays when it's raining and you don't stop to check the label lol. I just grabbed the most likely looking plant in the area that the one that I DID want was, and shoved it in the car.
I didn't actually realise I had the wrong rose until the first time she flowered, when I was slightly taken aback by orange buds on what I thought was a red rose. Just goes to show, thinking is NOT my forte. At first I wasn't keen, but after her first few flowers, and after having sniffed the lovely scent i started to get used to the colour, and now,  I wouldnt swap her, even though she really doesn't go with any of the other roses I have.......which is ofc, a good excuse reason  to get more roses. Not that an ex......i mean, REASON is needed here. It's more a matter of space, and/or pots and potting media.
Another good thing about those attention grabbing blooms is that the pot containing "Faithful Friend" is down by my fruit trees and next to the carton containing the five new roses I should have potted out over a week ago! I do have to say in my own defence, that I've been sick over Xmas, but plants wait for no one and Im thinking that as long as it doesn't rain today, I will have to get at least a couple of them potted up and find a place for them. I'm really pleased with these roses though, "Guy Savoy", "Claude Monet", "Paul Gauguin", "Cecille Brunner" and "Triple Treat"
I've been looking for severalof them for a long time, namely "Claude Monet" and "Paul Gauguin" both of which are what's known as "painted" or "handpainted" roses, and part of the french rose breeders, Delbards, "painters series".
Now if there was ever a polarising flower, I think striped roses have to be up there. People either love em or loathe em, I'm not too sure why.  Perhaps its a holdover from other flower species where a colour break can be a sign of a virus, like in tulips. That really isn't the case in roses as its a mutation that causes the dramatic colouration.  "RosaMundi", the famous red and white gallica was first described in 1583 and was said to be found on a branch of the "common red rose". In any case, I'm definitely in the love camp, and as such the "painters series" of roses have always held interest for me.  Of the two that I now have, "Paul Gauguin" is flowering already, not too surprising as it was bought from a garden centre as a gift to me from my best friend. It's a truely spectacular flower (at least, I think so), a bright magenta/crimson/red striped and flecked with white, with a nice light perfume. I will be interested to see how he grows and develops.
My other "painters" rose is "Claude Monet" and fittingly for an impressionist painter, his colours are softer and more pastel, though some might say the colour combination is somewhat vulgar. Not me tho, I love it. It's a pink rose, liberally splashed with pale yellow and cream, and the form has been described as "camellia like". The one I have here was rescued from a rose breeder and sellers fields when the property was sold so is still pretty small, but has already produced one flower. Hopefully it will be the first of many. Like its brother rose "Paul Gauguin", "Claude Monet" is a HT, but a modern HT with the softer growth habit that i find more sympathetique than the twiggy old fashioned HTs.
While these two roses are relatively easy to obtain in NZ, i have never seen any of the others of the series for sale, which is a shame because I would dearly love to have them.
Roses like "Edgar Degas" a semi double flower, amber yellow at its base, then flecked and spattered with tones from pink to raspberry. Or the stunning "Alfred Sisley" with large double burnt orange and creamy white flowers, or my favourite, "Maurice Utrillo" which boasts large double blooms in a riot of bright red, striped with yellow and white. Now thats a striped rose lovers rose!
"Cecille Brunner" on the other hand, is the epitome of good breeding. Can there be anyone who doesn't know and love "The Sweetheart Rose"? There's just something about those perfect tiny little blooms with their ethereal silvery pink colour, and the lovely fragrance of the flowers when open that is compelling. The rose was introduced in 1881, and is classed as a polyantha. She makes a lovely shrub, though mine is only a few cms high atm. Still flowering though!
The final rose waiting to be planted out is a "Triple Treat". Now, I've never grown this rose or seen it flower before so Im going on descriptions from catalogues, but its supposed to have double blooms of white with red edges aging to white with red splashes and a touch of pink. Most sources I've looked at say it has a light citrusy fragrance. It will be a while until I can see mine flower though, as it was also a rescue from the same source as "Claude Monet" and is at present a stick! lol Having said that, it IS putting out new growth though, and hopefully next season I can post photos of it in flower