The Old-fashioned roses in the Rondel Garden

1 Nov '06 6:54 pm

I am always envious of the stock of old roses available to NZ gardeners, Anna! I am sure you will be able to track them all down in NZ. As for cuttings - I've grown many roses from cuttings: some strike easily and flower away, others take 5-6 years to turn into anything worthwhile. I have had no success with rugosas, the cuttings all dying. So it varies. But pencil sized cuttings taken in late winter and treated with a semi-hardwood rooting powder gives an interesting success rate!

Your blue flowers, Dixie: if you are talking of the rugosa bed, they are not from SA! They are Tradescantia virginiana from the USA, also known as wWidow's Tears (apparently because the flowers only last a day! Often there is remarkable cynicism in common names!)If talking of other blue flowers: the inky blue and white daisy? - Osteospermum; little sky blue yellow centred daisy? - Felicia or Kingfisher daisy.

2 Nov '06 3:33 am

Dear Jack,

Thank you for all the photos of your old roses. They are just luscious, as are the names.

I had the opportunity to visit the gardens of a Doctor in a nearby city last weekend. He had some gorgeous roses; and lots of other beautiful plants, trees and shrubs also. He very generously gave me a rooted cutting from his Mutabilis with the warning to plant it where it has lots of room to spread. I am so excited to have it and have it soaking in a bucket of water right now. I hope to put it at the back of my newest rose berm when we build it (hopefully this coming weekend). I have contacted the fellow who provides me with loads of topsoil and am hopeful that he will be able to bring three loads on Friday. This rose berm will be shaped like a giant horse shoe with a small stone seating area nestled in the inner curve. I have a Monet style curved bench waiting to claim that spot.

Isn't it fun to plan a new garden?!!

Faith

2 Nov '06 12:27 pm

I don't know why but where we're living now I'm having a lousy strike rate with my cuttings. Must put in a proper cuttings bed instead of poking things randomly in amongst the other plants. I forget they're there and they get swamped with the other plants new growth. Ok yes, and the weeds too. Very Happy

I don't doubt I'll be able to get most of the ones I want through Wairere or even the 'chain' nurseries. Smile

6 Nov '06 10:32 pm

....by your latest photos, dear Jack! Yes!! Your photos work on me miracles,.....like mine work on you!! But I cannot express my feelings in such a poetic way like you do... I am just SO grateful for the serenity I feel, and ,yes, the deep human interaction! The Prince photo is SO poetic! I would so much love to have it in full screen and ...dream with it...The Rugosa and friends colourful, joyous blooming party , is brilliant! I adore all these colours! The close-ups are all exceptional, but I mostly loved that one of Boule de Neige ; I feel like putting my ..nose on my computer to smell it...So vivid! I needed this today, dear friend! I am so grateful!

17 Nov '06 10:40 pm

The Rondel is past its prime...

The heavy rain in early November took its toll; last weekend (11/11) I discovered both Fantin Latour and Mutabilis had collapsed under the weight of wet flowers. During this week I saw Frans had steadied them, but they are now more fortified with foundation garments than any Victorian matron! They will both be severely pruned. Interestingly neither seemed to have suffered broken branches - they just collapsed - as did my beautifully pruned group of 5 Ballerinas in the Rosemary Border; their young growth couldn't take the weight of the wet flowers and the perfect shape I was longing to photograph in full bloom was lost.

I also need to remind Frans of the value of dead-heading... with all his careful work to steady plants, not a single spent flower or even balled bud had been removed. Still - he 'sees' things like I do, and he works with such serenity that I can't imagine gardening without him.

And so - here is a pic taken last week to update you on this garden. I took more... but they weren't very good!

18 Nov '06 3:12 am

Wow, what an amazing rose, Jack!! It doesn't quite seem real, does it?

18 Nov '06 3:57 am

Yes indeed! So sophisticated in mixing a lovely indian pink and pure white..Divine Art in its most playful moods! Wow!

18 Nov '06 10:11 am

It is indeed a beauty.

*adds to evergrowing list* Very Happy

19 Nov '06 9:46 pm

Wow, such an exquisite beauty! Lovely colours! Thanks for sharing, Jack! Very Happy

10 Apr '07 8:16 am

For the first time in ages I visited the Rondel Garden today. I love the 'lost garden' quality it develops in late summer, overgrown, rather sad, and yet valiantly producing - at leat on some roses - a final flush of blooms. So here is an update on what is in flower in the Rondel Gdn.

Rosa chinenis 'Viridiflora' (I've just checked the correct naming procedure!) is also known as the green rose. Not everyone likes it. In fact my mom loathes it, finding it 'grillerig'. Now how does one translate that, other than with 'gives me the shivers'? It is a mutant with no petals but an endless supply of sepals. It looks better in cooler weather, when the reddish tinges are stronger, and it has its best flush in autumn anyway. So now is the time to admire them. They live rather grandly in two copper tubs I bought on auction at Sotheby's (admittedly rather cheaply!) at the time I was laying out the Rondel. There is one on each side of the sitting area at the top of the Rondel. One tub is more like a flat bucket, the other was obviously a large cooking pot. Their green oxidation (is that the word?) complements rather than matches the flowers. I quite enjoy them as a talking point and a rather tongue in cheek statement of snobbery... who was it who said "I really love flowers on plants as long as they are very small, or green or brown."? (Must find it. It is from my favourite bedside-reading gardening book called "Yew & Non-Yew - Gardening for Horticultural Climbers" by James Bartholomew. Well worth searching out. I can not, despite regular reading of it, decide whether I am a horticultural snob or a pleb. Perhaps us colonialists can be both, even if the English can't Question

Rosa chinensis 'Mutabilis' (which I've also just looked up) is possibly one of the closest true shrub roses. It flowers endlessly, is disease-free, and changes character constantly, as the roses change from butter-yellow, through salmony to red. Also known as the butterfly rose, because the flowers seem to perch like butterflies, this is an example of the flower at its mature best, before it darkens and starts to shrivel and drop.

Whilst on the subject of single roses: the hedge around the Rondel contains four roses. Dainty Bess and Golden Wings, the stronger two early in the season, are now without flowers. Irish Elegance is well named and presents itself beautifully. Mrs Oakley Fisher, on the apricot side of butter yellow and with a ravishing clove scent, must be one of my favourite roses – although I must admit that there are sentimental reasons for this as well.

Peerle D’Or (Golden Pearl) is misnamed – it is pink and shaggy, with narrow petals. It is a little like calling a mongrel mutt ‘Princess’.

Another rather shaggy rose is an old trouper called General Gallieni. He has flowered for me in June and July and in the cold his youthful high colour becomes aweatherworn ruddiness. I picture him jovially leading his men in retreat, despite the fact that his wooden leg sinks deeper into the snow than his shod foot. In fact I discover that General Gallieni was the first French governor-general of Madagascar, and any ruddiness in his face was not likely to have been caused by the cold…

The Old-fashioned roses in the Rondel Garden

Rose cuttings and blue flowers

Old Roses

I am so deeply moved.....

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