Rosa 'Baron Girod de l'Ain' scanned June17 2018

As a rule I avoid buying and growing plants that have the name of famous people. I prefer plants with name of famous people from the past I know nothing about. Such is the case of my Rosa ‘Baron Girod de l’Ain’.

In my Classic Roses by Peter Beales I find the following information:

Reverchon – France 1897

‘Eugene Fürst’sport

A popular novelty since its introduction, this unusual rose is well worth garden space. Its very double flowers are bright crimson, and they open cup-shaped, with the petal edges rather ragged-looking, an illusion enhanced by the fringe of white edging the margins. As a shrub it is rather straggly but quite dense with firm, stout thorns and leathery dark green leaves.

I must add that this rose is a Hybrid Perpetual. What this means in 19^th century fake advertising is that it blooms once in May/June and then it will have sporadic flowers until the fall.

The baron was a French politician of note. I liked this comic illustration of him.

Should this plant die it would be practically impossible to replace it. We are now plagued with pope roses, president roses and soon a Rosa 'President Donald Trump' which will be in a lurid orange.