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| Rosa 'John Davis' April 27 2019 |
Anybody has kept up with this blog since I started in
January 2006 must know that I (and Rosemary, too) am crazy about roses
especially old roses and English Roses.
Since about that time I have perfected my technique of
scanning them with my Epson flatbed scanner. These scans are an accurate record
of the roses and other plants from our garden. Some are no longer with us and somehow
those scans are comforting to me that my roses, those that died are alive in my
memory.
One of my constants is to post a blog with the first rose to
bloom in my spring garden. For many years the honour went to the Rugosa, Rosa ‘BlancDouble de Coubert’.
When we moved three years from our large Kerrisdale garden
to our present (and small) one in Kitsilano we could not bring all our roses.
My eldest daughter is a school teacher in Lillooet with an almost acre sized
garden. Since she is Zone 4/5 we gave her many of our extra hardy Gallicas and
Blanc Double de Coubert, being a rugosa, is hardy, too.
At today’s date, April 27 my first roses to bloom will (I
repeat will!) be either the English Roses, Rosa ‘Fair Bianca’, Abraham Darby or the Gallica, Rosa ‘Charles deMills’ or James Mason.
But I can cheat if I want to. I purchased on Thursday at the
Save-On on Main and 16th (can you imagine finding this rose there?)
the Canadian Explorer Rose, Rosa ‘John Davis’. We bought, two as this rose is
Zone 2b so it will do just fine in Lillooet. The rose is supposed be fragrant.
Perhaps because of the cold I have yet to notice any scent.