Vineyard Song - Near Perfect
Thursday, July 18, 2019
Rosa 'Vineyard Song' 18 July 2019 |
"My favorite rose is the one I haven't made yet because it's perfect."
- Ralph Moore, 2008
Ralph S. Moore an American rose hybridizer of small roses (sometimes called patio roses by the English) in this Wikipedia essay on him:
Ralph S. Moore
(January 14, 1907 – September 14, 2009) was a rose breeder and discoverer born
to Orlando Moore in Visalia, California.
In 1937 he opened the
rose nursery Sequoia Nursery, Moore Miniature Roses in California. He played an
important role in the popularisation and diversification of Miniature roses,
introducing over five hundred new miniature rose hybrids, including the award-winning
"Ann Moore", after his wife, Ann. Other cultivars introduced by Moore
were the single-petalled Miniature 'Simplex' (1961), the first yellow-flowered
modern Moss Rose, 'Goldmoss' (1972) or the orange-red Floribunda 'Playtime'
(1989).
On May 29, 2003, in
downtown Visalia, the Ralph Moore Rose Garden was dedicated to Ralph to honor
his achievements as a rose breeder.
On January 14, 2007,
Moore celebrated his 100th birthday at the Visalia Convention Center. There he
received an award from the Royal National Rose Society of Great Britain and the
American Rose Society. He also received a flag that was flown over the United
States Capitol on January 8, 2007 in his honor.
Moore wrote poetry for
over 25 years including the poetry book Thoughts of Roses.
On April 30, 2008, his
retail rose business, Sequoia Nursery, closed. Moore gave all his plants and
breeding stock, 80 rose patents, and a cash donation to Texas A&M
University's horticultural sciences department. The University already had an
existing rose breeding program, and it maintains the Robert E. Basye Endowed
Chair in Rose Breeding. Moore's donation enlarged the rose breeding program to
include miniature roses. He died at the age of 102 of natural causes at the
Kaweah Delta Medical Center, Visalia, California.
does not mention my favourite rose of his which was a
miniature moss rose with the nice name of Dresden Doll. I briefly had this
little rose in a nice tin pot hanging from our Kerrisdale garden gazebo.
Somebody came into our garden and stole. I never did get to scan the rose
because it was gone before I started this operation on all my garden roses.
Thus it was a pleasure (more so if I had found Dresden Doll)
when I spotted a cute little rose called Rosa ‘Vineyard Song’ called that by
Moore as the little cluster of mauve roses resemble grapes. The rose was at the
Fraser Valley Rose Farm and it was the owner Jason who informed that the same hybridiser
of Dresden Doll had introduced it in 1999.
This rose with a name that does not really excite me as I
like roses named after obscure personalities in spite of that name is a perfect
plant for a little garden with diminishing space. I will grow it in a little
pot knowing that she (she is a she isn’t she?) will re-bloom (remontant is the
technical nomenclature) and that indeed she is fragrant.