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| Rosa 'Louise Odier' & Gerbera Garvinea 'Sweet Fiesta' - 13 May 2022 |
Louise Odier’, created in France in 1851 by Jacques-Julien Margottin and known also as ‘Madame Louise Odier’ and as ‘Madame de Stella’, stands by sure among the most famous Bourbon roses, remontant varieties casually born in the island of Bourbon, nowadays known as Réunion, from the crossing of a Rosa chinensis, we talk of the ‘Old Blush’ variety, with an autumnal Damascena, seemingly the Rosa x damascena ‘Quatre Saisons’.
Vigourous and compact shrub, with clear leaves that at once evoke the Rosa chinensis, reaches the 3 m of height on a 120 cm base and can be cultivated also as small climber for hiding unaesthetic stone walls or old structures.
It tolerates the shade, even if it gives its best in full sun, with over double flowers, cup-shaped, pink with pale lilac shades arranged in clusters, they reach the 7,5 cm of diametre, have an intense scent and are suitable for enriching the house as romantic cut flowers. Good remontancy and excellent resistance to cold
Parentage : Seedling of ‘Émile Courtier’
Monaco Nature Encyclopedia
Since the first rose of the season in my garden began to bloom on April 24 it was only today, 13 May 2022, that I finally had a second rose to bloom. It may have involved a little cheating on my part as this rose Rosa ‘Louise Odier’ which Rosemary and I had in our old garden in Kerrisdale either died or we left it behind. The one that bloomed today, I bought at the Fraser Valley Rose Farm and it was in a warmish greenhouse.
I tried to find some information on Google on who Louise Odier was by putting Louise Odier in history and I was shocked that there was nothing except a man called Louis Odier and the third hit was my old blog, this one!
It was one of my first rose blogs as I started blogging in that year. And I illustrated it by casually cutting a whole raceme of them. What a luxury that was.
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| Rosa 'Louise Odier' 14 October 2006 |
We will never know who she was, nor who Madame Pierre Oger was either. And then there is that guy called Charles de Mills, who was he? Perhaps this is one more reason I love roses. They are a mystery. Roses have been part of my life even when I was not aware of them. My birthday, August 31 in Argentina always came with the famous Tormenta de Santa Rosa de Lima. This Peruvian saint was celebrated on the 30th and, it invariably on that day, or on the next (my birthday) came with a tremendous storm which made my mother postpone my garden birthday party.
And in English the name Rosemary is not as obvious as it is in Spanish Rosamaría. And of course it was Rosemary who urged, and dragged me to my first Vancouver Rose Society meeting at the Floral Hall sometime in the late 80s.
As for the scan of Rosa ‘Lousie Odier’ (and yes, I agree with Peter Beales that she has an unusually sweet scent) she has company. The gerbera daisy was right next to the flowering Louise Odier and the colours of both were so close I had to get them together.
Since we moved to our very small garden in Kitsilano, Rosemary and I have been in the search (it is fun) of companions for our potted roses.
