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| Rosa 'Sweet Juliet' 21 June 2024 |
Working in my garden without the presence of my Rosemary is not a happy occasion in spite of the distraction of watering, deadheading, removing yellowing leaves and pruning my once only blooming roses.
Most of the plants seem to have in some way the face of Rosemary. An example is the lovely blooming (today) English Rose, Rosa ‘Sweet Juliet’. I have had it for many years. We might have purchased it around 1992/93. It was a vigorous rose even then and it seemed to do just fine in part shade. Here it gets lots of sun so it is blooming like the Dickens.
The rose reminded me of seeing the 1936 film Romeo and Juliet with Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer. My mother loved all films with Leslie Howard so she took me to see them.
Around 1966 I was much in love with an Argentine girl when I was in Buenos Aires doing my military service in the Argentine Navy. I thought I would impress her and inspire her by taking to see Romeo and Juliet. After the film she said, “Alex, those two are much too old to be Romeo and Juliet.” I was shocked.
Now looking at my Sweet Juliet I could tell the Argentine
girl (she died in 1987) that I fell in love and married my Rosemary when we
were under 26. She was my Juliet.