Rosa 'Leander' 25 June 2026

 I am placing scans of my roses back to holes in my blog posts.

Leander falls in love with Hero and swims every night across the Hellespont to spend time with her. Hero lights a lamp at the top of her tower to guide his way. Leander's soft words and charms—and his argument that Aphrodite, as the goddess of love and sex, would scorn the worship of a virgin—convince Hero, and they make love. Their secret love affair lasts through a warm summer, but when winter and its rougher weather looms, they agree to part for the season and resume in the spring. One stormy winter night, however, Leander sees the torch at the top of Hero's tower. He attempts to go to her, but halfway through his swim, a strong winter wind blows out Hero's light, and Leander loses his way and drowns. When Hero sees his dead body, she throws herself off the tower to join him in death. Their bodies wash up on shore together, locked in embrace, and are then subsequently buried in a lovers’ tomb. Wikipedia

Few plants in botany, roses might be a pleasant exception, have names associated to the arts, Greek Myths and music like Rosa ‘Benjamin Britten’.

To be a rosarian, a person like me, who became that, thanks to gentle pushing by my Rosemary, by osmosis I gained a cultural background without much effort.

This pink rose, a very favourite of Rosemary’s, had us discussing the tragic Greek myth behind the name.

But we never did talk about the clitoria.

The German Botanist Johann Philipp Breyne discovered and named the plant while on expeditions to Ternate Island in Indonesia in the 1800s.  He was a contemporary of Charles Darwin and both were working on the ideas of natural selection and evolution of the species.  The Portuguese name for the plant is Fula Criqua meaning flower of creation.  Filipino’s call it Pukingan and the small green pods are cooked and prepared into a traditional dish.   Malaysian’s call it Bunga Telang.   Other names are Asian Pigeonwings, Blue bell Vine, and Darwin Pea.