Well the first roses have started to open, and Madame Gregoire Stachelin also known as Spanish Beauty was the first to bloom.
What isn't obvious with the photos is that each bloom is around 5 or 6 inches across. I am not sure who the original Madame Gregoire Stachelin was, but she is an English Beauty in my garden.
This rose was bred in 1927 by Pedro Dot. and is a cross between Frau Karl Druschki, a strong growing white popular in the early part of the 20th century and the weak growing but well scented Chateau de Clos Vougeot with deep red flowers on nodding stems. You can see how the large blooms of the Madame nod downwards on the pergola in my potager. Pedro Dots other claim to fame is the lovely cream flowered Nevada.
Flowering at the same time is a lovely delicate rose Desprez a fleur Jaune, whose flowers are not really yellow at all but a really delicate cream and with a beautiful scent. It is a Climbing Tea Noisette and was bred in 1830 by Desprez/Sisley and is a hybrid of Blush Noisette and Parks Yellow Tea Scented China.. The blooms are abaout 3 inches or so across but there are loads and loads of buds ready to open and will cover this climber.
One of the buds looks rather pinkish in the middle and I had to check that it wasnt Iceberg which is growing nearby with Pink Perpete growing in between the two.
It has a really lovely scent and Max my German Shepherd was climbing up with me to have a smell. He is a funny dog and loves to smell flowers, he is like a big baby really and likes to do what his mummy is doing.
Iceberg is the next one flowering below, and looks rather similar to Desprez at the moment, but give it a couple of days and it will be smothered and dripping with gorgeous ivory tinted pink blooms.
Iceberg is also known as Fee des Neiges and Korbin, and is a repeat floribunda bred in 1958 by Kordes in Germany and is a cross between Robin Hood a Pemberton bred hybrid musk 1927 and Virgo a large flowered hybrid tea 1947. In 1983 it won the Worlds Favourite Rose Award, and it was the very first rose I bought. We always had Icebergs in our family home and I have always loved it, so when I moved here around 29 years ago and had my very own garden I bought not one but several, bush and climbing varieties. They always look a spectacular sight in my garden and always bloom up to Christmas for me. David Austin used Iceberg for some of his most lovely roses the Heritage strain I think.
The rose that took me by surprise while walking up one of the paths this morning was Gertrude Jekyll, a David Austin rose that I have had for several years and along with Iceberg must be my favourite. There are about 200 buds already on Gertrude and she climbs up an arch along with another Iceberg but I hadnt noticed one of the blooms open until I was taking some photos of the garden this morning. David Austin introduced this beautiful rose in 1986 and it has the most wonderful old rose fragrance and along with the Rugosas must have the most beautiful scent in the world of Roses.David Austins website states it is a short climber - he wants to come and see mine,there is nothing short about it! This photo doesnt do her justice, if only it was smellyvision blog! After the sad day of yesterday (mums 3rd anniversay of her death) my heart is lifted today by my roses and the anticipation of everyday to come, with about 70 odd different varieties of roses to bloom.
5 comments:
My goodness ~ talk about a magnificent rose garden! Your roses are amazing! I think you are right about my David Austin being a Heritage. That sounds very familiar...:) Love all your climbers....I've never grown an iceberg, but would love to. Don't they get really huge too?
Oh thank you for the beautiful tour! I'll send some of our wet weather your way :)
xo,
Shellagh
Think we will be getting the bad weather soon Shellagh!.....Yes, Iceberg gets huge, I chop my Icebergs back quite hard each year but they grow to 12-20 ft plus without a blink! Cant wait for the next few weeks when all my old once flowering roses will be in bloom-looks like a good year for roses xxx
no wonder you called your blog Country Rose Corner - your roses are so beautiful and you have written such an interesting piece about them too. I just found your blog through blotanical and wanted to pop by and say hello.
Thanks Rosie, half of it was from books or internet, other half from what Ive gathered over the years. Couldnt be without my roses,other than my children and pets, the love of my life!
Betty x
Thanks Betty for the follow on my blog its much appreciated. Just to let you know that all plants featured in my posts are from my own garden. I'm running out of space for any more!!!!!!!!
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