Rosa 'Olivier Roellinger' & Rosa 'Mrs. Oakley Fisher' 30 July 2023

Because in my “Dear Diary” blog I can write about anything I want, it also means that I can repeat whatever appears in my mind even if it happens often. Of Rosa ‘Mrs. Oakley Fisher’ I have written and repeatedly scanned it obsessively.

Today I notice that there are two special roses in bloom. One of them, the single tea rose, Rosa ‘Mrs. Oakley Fisher’, I have written a lot about since it became Rosemary’s favourite as well as mine for its connection with a photograph I took of our granddaughter Rebecca. 

Rebeca & Rosa 'Mrs. Oakley Fisher'

 

We were never able to figure out why it was so hard to grow. When we moved from Kerrisdale to Kitsilano 6 years ago Mrs. Oakley Fisher died. Our repeated purchases went the same route.

About a month before Rosemary died on December 9, 2020 she told me, “Alex we are going to need 3 large terracotta pots and some dirt.” There was not further explanation.

On the first of February 2021 the doorbell rang. When I opened the door there was a large package containing three roses. One was our delightful yellow rose and the other two I had never heard of. One was Rosa ‘Escimo’ and the other Rosa ‘Olivier Roellinger’. I looked them up and they were also single roses resembling Mrs. Oakley Fisher. Rosemary had ordered these when she told me about the terracotta pots and the dirt.

The yellow rose, almost predictably died. So did Escimo last year. Last year I found a nursery in Oregon (Rogue Nursery) that had Mrs. Oakley Fisher and I ordered three. Two died but the third one is doing just fine. 

Rosa 'Escimo' 9 July 2021

 

When I saw the two roses today, which I call Rosemary’s posthumous gift to me, I smiled but was saddened at the same time. It is almost like the missing rose is my missing Rosemary.