Rosa 'Maiden's Blush' and Hosta 'Wheee!' 6 June 2025

 

Rosa 'Maiden's Blush' also goes by several other names, including Alba rose 'Maiden's Blush', Rosa 'Incarnata', Rosa 'La Royale', Rosa x alba 'Maidens Blush', Rosa 'Great Maiden's Blush', and Rosa 'Regalis'. It's also sometimes referred to as Rosa 'Belladonna', Rosa 'Carnea', or Rosa 'Tertti'. Additionally, the French name for this rose is 'Cuisse de Nymphe' (Nymph's Thighs), which was translated to 'Maiden's Blush' in English.

This beautiful rose with a heavenly scent has many names but my favourite is its French name Rosa ‘Cuisse de Nymphe’. It emerges with that humanly pink colour but fades to white. Similarly my David Austin Rose, Rosa ‘Mary Magdalene does the same thing. I suspect that Austin knew his theology and his rose is pink in the beginning (Mary Magdalene the harlot) and then becomes white (Mary Magdalene the saint).

I have a friend of many years, Clarence Falstad, from the American Hosta Society who works in Zeeland, Michigan for Walters Gardens. One of his jobs is to register plants. He had a problem getting Canada to accept (they didn’t) Hosta ‘Wheee!’.  According to CH (he is not happy with his name of Clarence) they balked at the exclamation mark. CH says, that as far as he knows this is the only plant worldwide with that exclamation mark in its name.