In other centuries if you had important friends you might have had a rose named after you. In these last two centuries that concept has not changed. But if you want to know why the 1865 Hybrid Perpetual rose by Frenchman Lacharme is named Souvenir du Docteur Jamain you will be out of luck as you will also if you want to know anything about the Bourbon Rose Mme Pierre Odier. Who was she? Who was he?

In our garden we know who Rosa ‘Jacqueline du Pre’ and Rosa ‘James Mason’ are named after.

Recently as an excuse because I happen to have Rosa ‘Königin von Dänemark’ Rosemary purchased the English Rose, Rosa ‘The Queen of Sweden’. What Swedish queen is this one?This is what I found out: 

Named to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the Treaty of Friendship and Commerce between Queen Christina of Sweden and Oliver Cromwell of Great Britain in 1654.

That is pretty unromantic. As for the rose in this scan I incorporated the smallish early bloom (not opened completely yet) with Rosa ‘Princess Alexandra of Kent’.

In these lazy days of late July, where the weather enables me to sleep at night on the sheets in my birthday suit ( a decadent pleasure in my opinion) I dabble in the garden with Rosemary and notice our roses and I have to make the decision of enjoying the rose right there or to snip it and scan it. Few people visit us so there is no reason to keep all those roses in bloom to show them off.

It is relaxing to scan them. I have been doing this for so long that I have learned most of the tricks involved. But then the most important element of rose scanning is having my ears tuned so that when a rose tells me, “Scan me now.” I am there with my secateurs. I tell people that roses talk to me and they thing I am crazy. I often tell our cats, “Why don’t you talk to me?” I guess they do showering us with affection.