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| Clematis montana & mystery rose 11 May 2023 |
These last months it seems that I begin my blog (this is one is 5809) with, “at my age of 80”. It would seem that I am going to repeat that obsessive mantra.
Today I noticed that in my large pot containing the English Rose Rosa ‘Leander’, there was an open rose (the second of the season after this one). Because it had five petals I knew it was some sort of wild species rose. How did it get there? When a friend of ours knowing how much Rosemary loved R. ‘Leander’ saw one in an abandoned garden she brought it over. Rosemary was able to see it bloom before she died on December 9 2020.
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| Rosa 'Leander' 7 June 2016 |
The little wild rose was part of the root stock as Leander was grafted to it.
At my age of 80 (you see?) I find that I am less likely to kill stuff. Today I decided that Leander and the wild rose will keep sharing the pot.
Because the little rose was almost the same colour of the now flowering Clematis montana I scanned them together.
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| Rosa 'Leander' 18 May 2020 that Rosemary was able to see |
We had a large Clematis montana in our Athlone garden and I photographed a healthy looking Art Bergmann under it.
Art Bergmann and Clematis montana
All the plants in this Kits garden bring memories of many wonderful moments shared in Athlone and here with my Rosemary. Her plants have her face on them. It is because of this obsession that I have to keep her garden as intact as possible that on the Wednesday of last week I went hunting for some of her plants that had died and that I wanted to replace. And as I wrote here, when I returned my whole house was flooded from top to garden. Restoration will take time. What keeps me sane is trying to calm down Niña while Niño looks at us both with that incredible equanimity and placidity of his gaze.
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| Rosa 'Leander' 6 August 2022 |
Rosemary and I particularly liked Rosa 'Leander' as in our shady Athlone garden we discovered that it was a healthy shade-tolerant rose.
