Rosa 'Charles de Mills' 16 May 2026

 

When people come to visit me and go out into the garden, at about now when my roses are beginning to Bloom, they ask me, “Alex which is your favourite Rose?”

My answer is the usual one, “It depends on the day.”

These people when they ask me about how I scan my roses I tell them that the most important part of it is to walk through the garden and the roses talk to me, “Alex scan me today.” They cannot comprehend how I sometimes acknowledge them and answer, “Will do.”

Every rose in my garden has the face of my Rosemary or a story on how and why she liked it. Every rose in my garden, when I look at her (some roses like Rosa ‘Benjamin Britten’ are “him”), brings their ancient lore to my mind. For one there is the fact that no fossils of roses have ever been found south of the equator. Or that my species rose, Rosa omeiensis sericea var. pteracntha (in my garden) is the only one with four petals instead of five.

Today I saw my first bloom of Rosa ‘Charles de Mills’. It is a Gallica rose introduced around 1786 that uniquely blooms more than once (in rose lore it is said to be remontant). Gallicas, originally grown in France, are hardy to zone 3. This means that my daughter Alexandra can grow it in her frigid and hot Lillooet.

There is another reason I adore Charles de Mills. Its appearance is described as blooms that have a unique flattened, quartered form. In my language it means that from the side, the blooms look like they have been sharply cut with a razor blade.

And so today, 16 May, 2025 Rosa ‘Charles de Mills’ is my favourite. On the other hand I also scanned Rosa ‘Olivier Roellinger’today. I predict it will be my fave tomorrow and will write about it.