Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Rosa 'Westerland' 16 July 2019

Back so many years ago I wrote about Rosa 'Westerland' It was one of the first roses I had scanned with my Epson a year or two before. I had sent some of my rose scans to Canadian Gardener. The art director wrote back suggesting I send the scans to a calendar. But a few months later she contacted me and my scan became a cover. As far as I know this may have been a Canadian first in magazines. The cover was not an illustration or a photograph. It was something that I came to call a scanograph. Which would make me a scanographer!


Roses  & Apricot Jam
April 30 2006

 The naming of a rose can be the key to its success. I don't particularly like the ones that are named after contemporary and famous women. I would rather have the ones that are the namesakes of now obscure women. Who would Mme Pierre Oger be? I don't know, and I have a fondness for this sport of the more famous Bourbon rose, Reine Victoria. The only famous woman rose I own is Rosa 'Jaqueline du Pré'. It is as popular in my garden as 'Dainty Bess' and 'Fair Bianca'. Some rose names don't inspire. In the beginning I never cared much for a modern shrub rose, Rosa 'Westerland', which is a German rose hybridized by Kordes. I couldn't have it in my garden as it is orange in colour and my wife Rosemary does not like orange in the garden. But consider that this rose is extremely fragrant and its scent resembles (for me) that of apricot jam. So I bought it and planted it on our lane garden (not technically the garden). Rosemary has been won over and she, too, would not part with our Rosa 'Westerland'.