Winchester Cathedral

Winchester Cathedral, finally I have this rose again. It's a little tender here, and won't survive a harsh winter like this last one, but with care I've had one survive and thrive for a few years. The fragrance is divine and is already gracing our front walk with a rose scented welcome. I've planted it (er, Rohan planted it - he's done all the hard work with me either to nauseated or tired to be useful..,)  in Finn's garden, near the front door to have a little love from my mother - both my parents, in fact, there with him.

When I first planted this rose years ago in my first garden, my mother let out a little squeal at the name and proceeded to tell me about the real Winchester Cathedral, and the romantic time she spent there with my father. All architectural and historical, of course, and her knowledge was vast. I wish I could remember better what she said.

26 July 2014

27 July 2014

I tweeted the photo of Sunday's bloom, which was favourited by the Cathedral - which made my morning. My mother would think that's pretty neat. 

Little Magical One ~ Finn's Garden

I hadn't thought about the garden bed in front of the house, I don't even remember looking at it much until now..., didn't even notice how pitiful it was.
It came to me in an instant as I walked up the path to the front door the other morning on my way home from yoga feeling good and clear for the first time in days. It's going to be Finn's garden ~ below his bedroom window overlooking the Lake.

As it is now a nearly dead, over sheared cedar stands nearest to the front door, anchoring that corner of the house. It just has to go, ...sorry, to the compost. Two leggy, confused mugo pines are also headed for the compost, with whatever mystery spindles are left. There's some sort of lime-leafed spirea in the middle that I'm not sure what to do with - let it stay? Find a new garden for it? I'm not sure yet.
The rest is just empty, full of rocks... .

Finn's garden will be filled with soothing scents, healing plants, blues, whites, yellows, and crimsons, with meaningful names, and messages in flowers. The plants I'm sure will change over time, but as our grief grows so will this garden.

I've kept the one mugo pine that seems to be in good health in the plan, but I've replaced the cedar with a Picea glauca 'Pendula'..which Cathy is kindly sourcing for me. Heather has a beautiful one growing in her front yard, which I've swooned over for years. Though they originate in France, I think they look like neat versions of trees in Group of Seven paintings. 'Droopy Spruce' is what I've called them for fun..., but seeing as a giant black spruce or white pine are a bit too big for the space (a lot too big), the 'Pendula' is a good substitute. 

Baby Millar's Lady's Mantle is going to be taken from Pearl soon, divided and planted all over our new gardens. It will grow and spread, be divided again, given to friends, growing on and on. It was given to us from Chops and Patti, who wanted to buy us a plant to remember our first loss, after that devastating miscarriage ~ which was such a sweet gesture. Chops couldn't believe what I chose, as I carried the unassuming three leafed perennial around the nursery (Bill Martin's ~ before I worked there)... Perennials often don't look like much in their nursery containers, and at the time I think Chops worried it was an insignificant gift. 

I'll never forget the look on his face two years later when they were over for a barbecue, when he saw how the little plant had grown.

Alchemilla mollis has been a favourite garden plant for as long as I can remember. I love how the dew pools on the leaves, and the lemon-lime flower sprays are perfect for cut flower bouquets - like baby's breath... gorgeous.  

Little Magical One (from 2 March 2008) Alchemilla has long been associated with healing and alchemists. From an Arabic word, alchemelych, meaning alchemy; the plant is named so for its "magical healing powers," with folklore suggesting that even dew collected from alchemilla leaves has healing properties.

Also for tea, chamomile (I like the little pointy daisy-like heads of the German chamomile Matricaria recutita), and two of the David Austin roses Winchester Cathedral (to have a little of my mother and father in Finn's garden) and Heathcliff, lemon balm, echinacea, feverfew, and lemon thyme.

For blue, I'll plant a cranesbill geranium ('Johnson's Blue' is the usual go-to around here, but newer varieties have come along that just as blue, longer flowering, and less floppy...like, 'Rozanne' and another I can't remember by name right now..) and the purple leafed Geranium pratense 'Midnight Blue'..., also bluebells and forget-me-nots seeded beneath everything. 

The back border of the bed, with the chamomile and echinacea I'd like to plant so asters - so long as they don't get too crazy back there. Blue wood asters (A. cordifolius) and Heath Asters (A. ericoides) which will all bloom late in the summer, through Finn's birthday, my special September baby. 

For earlier in the season I've ordered some irises: 'White Wings' and 'Little Sighs', and I'm sure I'll find a few more. I haven't even started planning the tulip and daffodils that will begin each new year, but what I have in mind will be something special - from under the oak tree, across the yard and into Finn's garden I imagine a wave of early, mid, and late tulips surrounded by smiling daffodils.  

I'd like to include a lemony-buttery daylily - this may be the perfect spot for Double River Wye.., and some primrose (Miller's Crimson maybe). We'll see what sort of nursery finds follow me home this year.

photographs and found treasures

The last few boxes surrounding my desk in the basement are in the process of being unpacked. Finally.
Most of what's left are boxes of photos that need to be dealt with properly, organized, and put in albums - I've slowly been compiling everything for that project..., which I'm actually really looking forward to doing.
Family suddenly has a whole new context, and our photographed story from my father as a child in Holland, my mother as a kindergarten teacher, my sister and I growing up, our weddings, our children... is something worth telling properly.

This morning was spent sulking, feeling sorry for myself, emotional, unable to even look at Finn's photos. I miss him so much. Some times(days, hours, minutes, moments) I'm able to hold it together, others ..not so much. I think I'm learning when to take a step back... let the grief do what it has to do.

There are times I can't read other grief stories, I can't bear how much I relate to them.., other times I can't tear myself away. Today I found my way to Mitchell's Journey, unable to look away from his father's story.
He speaks and writes beautifully of his son, but most important to me is the photographic story - and what he says about the importance of being a "paparazzi" in your children's lives.

I felt terribly guilty for dangling my iPhone over Finn from the moment we were reunited after his birth. The convenience of being able to take decent photos with a gadget that fits in the palm of my hand was too easy, and even more easy to share instantly with family and friends. I kept telling myself to live in the moment and put the camera down, but I didn't.
How grateful am I now that I have dozens of photos of him - photos in every outfit, at every time of day - and night, in the sunshine, with the dogs, by the fire, outdoors, indoors..., I captured every minute I could. Without those photos now - where would I be? From his growth inside me, to his precious ten+ days, I have it all on digital files, saved forever.

(Due to the mother-daughter code photos shared of Hannah must be approved by her - and for the most part they haven't been since "teen" was added to her age. ...but that doesn't mean I don't take them, save them, and have them all at hand.)

Chris Jones' story is important for another reason - as a father's journey through grief. His words are poignant, thoughtful and not held back by any tough exterior. I think it's often hard for father's to express themselves; Rohan has said a number of times how difficult it is to 'be the man' in this situation, hold it all together.. (...in those early days I don't know how he did it, while I lay motionless). So much of child loss and parental grief is focussed on mothers and how mothers cope. A father's perspective isn't something we've come across much, and certainly not one this beautiful.

Among the photographs and boxes of important things I don't know what to do with, I found some odds and ends of my mother's, some she intentionally left for me with messages scribbled on the envelopes, others just random things I ended up with - notes, drafts, notebooks she kept records in (she kept records of everything).
In a faded grey folder I came across a photocopy of pages from Dinah Shields & Edwina von Baeyer's book A Beginner's Guide to Gardening in Canada.

(von Baeyer's Rhetoric and Roses and Garden Voices being among my favourite garden reads..)

My mother's handwriting (in red pen - she must have been grading papers at the time) dates it 1992 ...
I know in the early 2000's she took a course or two in personal landscaping, hoping to do something pretty with her new construction home & garden - the work for which was put in me as hard labourer. She still didn't have a clue, but her determination was expressed clearly through likes and dislikes over my work. I am still being punished for planting purple (her least favourite colour) delphiniums in her front garden. (I thought they were blue..)
Though her enthusiasm for outdoor gardening may have been underwhelming, her indoor garden was always something spectacular. Also in the faded grey folder, a little pencil written note pulled from one of her many notebooks - on sprouting and growing avocados. My childhood memories of windowsills are not without a small glass of water with an avocado seed balanced on toothpicks half way in water, half exposed. I can't possibly imagine how many avocado plants she grew. I don't think any of them ever grew an avocado, but her plants were gorgeous.

Isn't it something that my mother the reluctant gardener was the first inspiration in my plans for our new garden.

Her Hansa rose will be among the first additions, but I've also just ordered some David Austin roses, a little tender here, but worth it even if for only one season. In my first garden I planted Winchester Cathedral - simply because I loved the fragrance of the blooms, even in the pot at the nursery. It wasn't until it was planted and I introduced it to my mother that she told me of how her and my father watched the changing of the bells at the real Winchester Cathedral while on a belated honeymoon (I think my dad was at a conference and my mother tagged along, but they called it a honeymoon... *academics*).
Ordered today is a new Winchester Cathedral, Golden Celebration, Graham Thomas, Jude the Obscure, and Lady of Shalott.
They're all of the hardier Davis Austin roses (famous for old world style and fragrance), but still considered somewhat tender here. I'm willing to take my chances. I'm eyeing up the sunny beds nearest the house for these, but that would involve the removal of boring shrubs..., which is a lot of work.

I see a lot of shuffling in our garden's future. The Reluctant Gardener pages my mother focused on were shrubs: flowering almonds, ninebark, burning bush... all of which are interesting, and worth considering for spots in this garden as well.

Rhetoric and Roses: A History of Canadian Gardening, 1900-1930
Edwinna Von Baeyer 1984
ISBN-10: 0-88902-983-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-88902-983-5

Garden Voices: Two Centuries of Canadian Garden Writing
Edwina Von Gal, Edwinna Von Baeyer, Pleasance Crawford 1995
ISBN-10: 0-394-22428-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-394-22428-2

Reluctant Gardener: A Beginner's Guide To Gardening In Canada 
Hoel Cooper, Edwinna Von Baeyer, Dinah Shields 1992
ISBN-10: 0-394-22233-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-394-22233-2

back at it...

It didn't take long for me, once I smelled the soil and spotted the plug trays, to want to get to planting..., and the day it was set up us die-hards were there at the planting table. It's the only part of the greenhouse season I can't miss out on - the first in years being last year at this time, when my mother was in hospice. I feel disjointed if I don't plant.
I don't mind the cold temperatures of January and February because they usually come with bright sunny days, and crystal clear starry nights. March and April are often dreary, dirty, damp, cold, and generally miserable. To spend those two months surrounded by warm soil under a blue sky roof - who could complain?

The last thing I expected to do this year was be back at work. I knew I would plant, and "hang around".... but, commitment wasn't something I was entertaining. It turns out I just don't know how to sit still, no matter what is holding me down.

Euphorbia graminea ~ Diamond Frost

Grief - of this kind especially, is defeating. There isn't a day, a moment, a conversation, a thought, that passes without Finn heavily on my mind. As much as it weighs on me I've come to conclude it also gives me strength. In a strange sense, I've never felt more empowered. I'm all too aware that worse could happen, the tension in my gut won't let that go - but, there aren't too many lower lows than what I've experienced in the past year.

I'm still standing.

The clarity that comes with the energy of being in the greenhouse again has helped in so many ways. My focus on our new garden is pretty clear; I even know how we're going to solve the new-garden-no-vegetable-bed problem so that once outdoor planting weather finally arrives I'll have some place to get my seeds dirty. (stay tuned)

I've already decided to focus on the trees, learning about our new trees, pruning and disease concerns of our new trees, adding birdhouse and feeders to the yard, dividing/moving/transplanting favourite perennials from Pearl, moving/transplanting favourites from around the new garden beds, and the addition of rose bushes.

The rose bushes I add this year will fill our yard with my mother's favourite childhood scent thanks to the wind sweeping across the Port Arthur Ridge to and from Lake Superior. By autumn I hope the yard will display some sort of transformation from bland to beautiful, useful, prosperous, and fruitful.

My father's scientific mind, my mother's artful eye, and my precious son's energy are a part of everything I do now. They'll grow in ways their bodies couldn't, and my only hope is that what comes of it makes a positive impact on the small parts of this earth I can help.

Gardening?

Gardening. I do think about it, and what I might do with this new yard of ours. I think that in about twenty-five years we'll have established, somewhat, a garden carefully planted and sort of sustainable. These things always change, as we know.

I'd like to know more about the history of the yard. I know that Dr. Ballantyne kept a rose garden in the NE corner... that is something worth researching.

The current arrangement is ...weird. No, not weird... it's as if someone used some kind of landscape software that mechanically plunked perfectly shaped perfectly boring shrubs in a perfectly boring pattern. Yeah, it looks nice, neat... too neat. Definitely not the jungle style of amygardenerd's blazed trail of past gardens around town.

The only thing that is good about it, in my mind...is very good - the trees. I'm in love with every tree on this property. Again, somebody carefully planned the planting of these trees, but this time I approve. A few maples, a very busy Mountain Ash, and that oak tree out front that has been the focus of my meditation when I'm trying to remind myself to breathe. In spring I'll start documenting them, start doodling some more maps of our outdoor space. I've never had so many trees - so many beautiful trees - to be responsible for, which makes me feel a little bit excited.

The trees are all nicely placed - with the exception of a little scraggly (ash?) out front. See, I really don't know my trees well enough. I have to get better at that. In autumn their colours put on a flawless performance, everyone in tune and complimenting the seat next to them. Spring should be just as good. Understandable how Vivaldi was inspired.

I'm going to call on Urban Greenscapes and the local plantcycle to help find new homes for any shrubs that are removed. Because I'm not entirely sure what the plan is yet - or even a semi plan, or a clue.. I'm not going to do any massive transformation of any bed. There are enough open spaces in the existing beds - large spaces that were filled (dotted perfectly) with yellow marigolds and random wispy cosmos unable to stand up in the wind up here on the hill.
I have photos somewhere of the perfect grids of marigolds, but I really don't want to face my photos folder right now - I'll did those up someday for a laugh.

I've been meaning to call Laura (hi..) .. I'm hoping she can help me with some division and relocation. There are some plants (okay, a lot of plants) at Pearl that I want to have, but I also want to preserve what's there. There are a lot of friends who could use a good division or quartering (that sounds horrible) - and if I could face the house maybe we could organize a plant sale.. *shrug*...
I really don't think I'll be able to go back there until I can see the house full with another family. That awful swirling dizzy feeling swooshes over me and through my body when I think of the air that morning, the last time I was there....the trees, Heather wishing congratulations through Rohan's driver side window as we raced off to the hospital in labour with Finn. The last time I was there, Finn was still safe inside me.
I don't want to see the house empty. Everything about it confuses my memory-reality-mixup in my head - was I really pregnant? Did all that really happen?
I can't go back to the house. Not now...I don't know when..

I'm going to bring my John Davis rose, of course, ...though I don't know where to put him yet. This new space isn't going to be as kind to him as his current space. The problem is, his current space is almost a little too kind, and he can get a little carried away. A garden person/family may not mind, but I suspect most people don't want long reach thorny branches poking into their back door.
It's a lot cooler up here, and the damn wind is effing ...windy.. I'm going to swear a lot about the wind I suspect.
I'm hoping to use roses around the yard as an extra barrier to keep critters both in and out. I'll take Marie Bugnet from Pearl too - I know nobody wants all those teeny thorns. I don't mind the thorns - they can be useful. There's that Morden Sunrise rose (still in his pot, I believe) and Morden Blush, neither very useful but definitely pretty. Front garden beds? They'll have to be tucked in somewhere warm against the house to survive up here.

New rose bushes with replace some of the boring shrubs, big ones, fragrant ones - the ones that remind me of my mother because they reminded her of the beaches of Massachusetts where she played as a young girl. Hansa for one, but I know there are others..., I'll find them.

Bigger space, bigger beds... means bigger plants. Dwarf varieties have filled my other gardens, this one is going to get some big guns. Solomon's Seal, Goat's Beard, hostas of ridiculous size, they'll all be joining us.

The backyard will be dog run territory - literally - enough space for them to truly run. That was another of the many reasons we wanted this house. How do you reconcile a love for dogs, gardens, family space, and still live downtown in walking distance to all the good stuff and the lake? Space was a big issue for us.
Before we moved in we worried we would alienate all our new neighbours. We'd be those crazy dog people with a poopy yard. Little did we know our new neighbours were worrying the same in reverse. Dog rescues to one side, dogs to the other, dogs behind, dogs down the lane - and as it turn out we have the yard to host them all. It's doggyville up here.
Our dogs are happier than they've ever been. It's like a little Tree Farm out there, complete with wide open spaces, and bushes to hide in to leap out on to your basset brother. They're having fun.
Most of the back yard will always be reserved for dog space (and skating rinks).

I'll keep my gardens closer to home.
You would think with all this space I'd have thought of a good place for some vegetables. I thought I had, but the wind blew that one away. The peanut shaped bed near the sunroom boasts nothing more than a cotone aster and a large rock (we like the rock)..., and not that I have anything against the reliable contone aster..., boring. This guy might keep his spot for the mere reason he's about the only one who can stand up to the wind tunnel that frequently, sometimes violently, blows through there. The marigolds and cosmos certainly didn't like it.
Low growing succulents might like the space - maybe some more rocks.., the pretty amethyst rocks Rohan put in at Pearl.

There's a bed at the back... there's a caragana in the corner, and I recall a bunch of hostas. Not much else.. I didn't look to closely before, so we'll have to see what comes up in spring. That bed would be (possibly) the warmest and most protected for a vegetable bed - but it's so close to dog territory it would be at risk for both the sneaky pea and tomato eating basset hound, but also the icky thought of pee seepage in the soil around it.
Let's keep the food away from that, okay.

I'm probably just going to pillage that bed and turn it over to the dogs.

If anything actually gets done I'll be surprised. I can't seem to get anything done these days. Small steps they all say. Don't get defeated. My body aches, it's sick from the grief, I still can't digest anything, and I'm in knots from being so tense and hunched over crying, I'm all twisted up. Sarah did some pretty wild acupressure yesterday to try to untangle some of the knots, but I think some new, bigger ones developed overnight.

Planting would probably do me some good, and I'm sure I'll find myself back in the back of the greenhouse digging in the dirt at some point. Maybe I'll just go for the ladies, ..at wine-o'clock. Maybe a bit of both. Maybe not at all. I dunno....

I'm just not really sure where to direct my garden thoughts. I've thought often about what Heather said when she was here last week - about her birthday tree planting fundraising. It would be nice to do something similar but in memory of Finn. Heather just wanted to plant a tree, but her friends helped her plant ten - boulevard and public trees, carefully placed near people who will care for them all over Thunder Bay. How nice is that?
I'd like to plant some trees for Finn.

I think this year will be mostly about the trees. Trees and roses. Sounds like a good place to start.

Morden Sunrise

27 June 2013

John Davis, first day of summer

John Davis blooms
21 June 2012
summer solstice

even Claire is in awe
of the height of our John Davis blooms

John Davis

John Davis

1986 Explorer Series Rose

R. kordesii x Red Dawn & Suzanne cross

Taller than me today

19 June 2012

in our kitchen garden.

trellised

the only of four new clematis to return
I assume this is 'Niobe'
but we'll have to wait until she blooms to know

new rose
'Rugelda' in the rain

John Davis 19 May 2012

John Davis Explorer Rose
19 May 2012
long, large & lush

John Davis Explorer Rose

John Davis Explorer Rose
7 July 2011

John Davis the first
my garden 2005

A John Davis Explorer Rose is the first rose I added to my first garden, where he lived happily for seven years (or more?). With me through it all... even tolerating three homes in three years, he survived to live in our garden here for one year...
until last spring, when we decided it was time to say good-bye. "Replaced" just doesn't sound like a nice word here, but that's exactly what happened: John Davis the first was replaced with John Davis the second.

With his clusters of pretty pink he was a favourite of Hannah's when she was younger (when everything had to be pink). I love how the blooms start out a deep shade of pink (in some years John Davis the first appeared almost red) then open up to such a soft pink, showing the yellow stamen inside. It's a delicate flower, and reminds me of a cross between an old fashioned rose and wild dog roses (Rosa canina).

 John Davis the second, in our garden July 2011:

A rambler, being known to reach seven or eight feet, John Davis can be taught to climb. Our John Davis, here in his second year, is doing well nearly reaching the top of the five foot trellis. I'm allowing him to spread out a little along the way, while assisting some stems to wrap themselves around the trellis.
He lives in the corner of our kitchen garden, nearest to the back door, attracting bees, and caring for the garlic below.

John Davis the second
in his second year
6 July 2011

John Davis Explorer Rose from Vesey's

Morden Roses

Morden Blush ~ Parkland Rose

The Parkland series roses were developed to survive harsh Canadian winters by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) at Morden Research Station in Manitoba. Exceptional for their hardiness (to -35C), they require minimal care and pruning, and are reliably disease resistant. Profuse and repeat bloomers, I haven't met one I haven't loved.

A Rose By Any Other Name

A walk through the Morden Research Station (PDF)

In the news recently....

"The decision to discontinue the program under the auspices of Agriculture Canada came in 2008 as part of a departmental review of federal research priorities.

It placed work such as the development of the Parkland series of roses long associated with Morden near the bottom of the list compared to other agri-food research. As a result, the decision was made to phase out the ornamentals program and turn over the remaining materials to private industry or other groups."
excerpt from:
Famed rose program leaving Morden
Local bid not awarded program in privatization by federal government
By Lorne Stelmach
The Morden Times

The story continues:

"Following a departmental review two years ago, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada decided to discontinue its involvement in the rose breeding and research program. The program was opened up to applications and has now been awarded to the Canadian Nursery Landscape Association.
CNLA Rose Program Research Coordinator Rick Durand says the program will continue in southern Manitoba. He explains all the roses that were growing in containers at the AAFC Morden Research Station have been brought to Morden Nurseries, Aubin Nurseries at Carman and Jeffries Nurseries at Portage."
Nurseries Take Over Rose Program
by Kelvin Heppner    

steinbachonline.com/agriculture_news
18 August 2010

"....rose expert and author Bob Osborne of Corn Hill Nurseries, N.B, "The past several decades have been a tremendously exciting time for the northern rose grower. No longer do we need to look with envy at pictures of English gardens draped with colourful and climbing roses. Thanks to Agriculture and AgriFood Canada breeding programs, we now have at our disposal a veritable cornucopia of roses that are hardy, easy to grow, beautifully formed and disease resistant to boot."
Canadian genetics live on!
From setback to opportunity: Canada's grower industry embarks on a new era with the takeover of AAFC's ornamental breeding program

By Rita Weerdenburg

LandscapeTrades.com

May 2011 

Morden Blush ~ Parkland Rose

Morden Arboretum Research Station

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Research Station

Blushing

'Morden Blush' Parkland rose
29 June 2011

a bee visits Marie Bugnet

Bumble Bee on Marie Bugnet
20 June 2011

Roses I have Known

Morden Sunrise

Parkland series, hardy shrub rose

Introduced in 1999

Blooms appear in a combination of yellow, orange, and pink, against dark green, shiny foliage.

Morden Blush 

Parkland series, hardy shrub rose

Introduced in 1988

Pale pink blooms in cooler temperatures, turn creamy white in warmer weather.

John Davis

Explorer shrub / climber

Introduced in 1986

Medium pink double flowers in clusters. 

J.P. Connell 

Ottawa Breeding Program

Introduced in 1987

Lemon yellow blooms look a lot like a hybrid tea rose open to look more like a floribunda in creamy white.

• I still have my John Davis rose, who has faithfully bloomed year after year since 2001, moved three times, and has lived in a bucket for months at a time.

four reasons why I love Hazeldean

Hazeldean Rose

I've had my heart set on a yellow rose (a rambler) to climb along the backyard fence (somewhere). My hope is to have both Compassion (apricot pink) and a yellow climber back there. I have no doubt about Compassion - it's just a matter of ordering one now, however deciding on, and locating, a yellow rose has been difficult.

Yellow roses in our zone 3 range are few. Most tend to be on the pale yellow side, like J.P. Connell - and from what I've seen of Golden Showers, the blooms vary in shade from a pale yellow to a deep buttery color. I thought my heart was set until I learned an important lesson in rose hunting:

Along the road to finding a hardy yellow climbing rose, one should never forget to stop to smell the roses, especially on campus - because sometimes you find what you've been looking for right under your nose!

I hadn't even thought about the yellow rose I had taken pictures of last year, but returning to the blooming sight outside the university's greenhouse this year, I have fallen head over feet for Hazeldean, an old fashioned hybrid rose, with multiples of gorgeous yellow blooms. This campus shrub is currently covered in large buds and bloom after bloom which fill the air with their sweet spicey fragrance.

Hazeldean

Lakehead University campus greenhouse

June 21 (summer solstice) 2007

Bred by Canadian Percy Wright (1898 -1990) in 1948 (R. spinosissima altaica X Persian Yellow), this very hardy rose produces quantities of double yellow roses in June. The
bush is upright and will grow to 180 cm. It is absolutely striking in bloom!!

'Hazeldean Yellow' is a spinosissima hybrid which produces semi-double, fragrant yellow flowers. It is extremely thorny, suckers freely, but is also extremely hardy. Leaves are typically medium to dark green, glossy and ovate, with finely toothed edges.

Cultivar: Hazeldean Yellow
Family: Rosaceae
Size: Height: 1.5 ft. to 5 ft. / Width: 1.5 ft. to 4 ft.
Plant Characteristics: edible flowers,
Foliage Characteristics: deciduous / color: green
Flower Characteristics: double, erect, fragrant, long lasting, showy
Flower Color: yellows
Tolerances: deer

Bloomtime Range: Early Summer
USDA Hardiness Zone: 2 to 9
AHS Heat Zone: 3 to 9
Light Range: Sun to Full Sun
pH Range: 4.5 to 8
Soil Range: Sandy Loam to Clay Loam
Water Range: Normal to Moist

Here comes the sun...

Morden Sunrise

8:30 am Wednesday, May 30th, 2007

online rose gardening

• 
  
  Two old-fashioned, but still very effective, weapons for
  combating rose pests are companion plantings (Lavender, Catmint, Clematis) and nontoxic sprays (dormant oil).
  
  
  
• 
  
  Most insects despise the scent of members of the onion
  family, and of some other pungent herbs .
  
  
  
• 
  
  Successfully head off trouble by scatter garlic, chives,
  oregano, and tansy plants throughout the garden.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Marigolds (the Tagetes minuta or Calendula officinalis
  species) can provide attractive borders while keeping the destructive nematode (a microscopic rootattacking worm) at bay.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Tomatoes, petunias, lavender, and chrysanthemums can also
  serve as effective pest repellents in the rose garden.
  
  
  
• 
  
  You can concoct a homegrown insect discourager by mixing
  ground onions, garlic, and hot peppers—in just about any proportion you have on hand—in a gallon of water. Let the smelly solution steep overnight, strain the liquid, and spray the brew over your rosebushes.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Forceful streams of just plain water will help to break up
  invasions of spider mites.
  
  
  
• 
  
  For serious insect infestations, however, you may need to apply a product whose sole active ingredient is natural pyrethrum (an insecticide made from the dried flowers of Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium).
  
  
  
• 
  
  Sink banana peels in the rose bed, they'll love the potassium!
  
  
  

Rose links from CanadianRoseSociety.org

and from HelpMeFind.com/roses:
I'm looking for Compassion, born the same year I was, an apricot-pink climber. *swoon*

Another I'm increasingly interested in is Golden Showers.

(This site also boasts a great rose glossary, very handy!)

Care and Maintenance tips from OldRoseNursery.com