It is not hard to smile when you have a garden full of roses, even though the foliage may be damaged and falling at this time of year. The intoxicating fragrance is also an attraction and markedly present at the moment. Each bloom is a surprise that en masse are striking and beautiful and I feel that any roses out this late in the season are a reward over and above what is expected from the garden.
“What a lovely thing a rose is!”
Arthur Conan Doyle
The roses in the Painters Collection have been particularly gorgeous lately as we approach the first month of winter today. Like nature’s paintbrush these uniquely beautiful roses display the artist’s touch on new buds each week. Some are still maturing and the foliage is far from perfect, but wow, the flowers are impressive and show no sign of giving up.
Always a favourite with a unique and beautiful flower is The Claude Monet Rose that appears in breathtaking hues every time it blooms. The colours range from pastel pinks, yellows, and creams, but in our climate, is more vibrant, with richer deep colouring. Despite blooming non-stop since October, The Claude Monet Rose has yet to go dormant.
Whether one likes stripped and hand-painted roses they are popular.and there is no denying how unique they are in the garden landscape. The hand-painted roses bred by Delbards are so subtly composed and not as gaudy as true stripped roses, although they, too, have a place in any garden for a feature with a difference. The colour contrasts astound me when they open and, in the shaded days of late, stand out like beacons in the garden.
I don’t know if nice people tend to grow roses or growing roses makes people nice.
Roland A Browne
Pink Intuition has taken time to establish and open to her perfect full bloom in recent months but is stunning this week. It is a unique coloured rose in a hand-painted pink palette. Pink Intuition is a stable classic Hybrid Tea rose with large blooms that last a long time on the bush, and when cut for a vase have exceptional life. It is a sport of the Red Intuition rose discovered by Arnaud Delbard in France in 2003. I adore the colours and the subtle shading of pinks and purples, plus it grows upright to around 150 cm.
Another simply stunning Painters Series Rose is the subtle feminine La Vie en rose one of the best roses in the garden. It flowers prolifically in all seasons and is a standout pink rose that, when viewed more closely, reveals the artful play of delicate pink with deeper pink brushstrokes
One rose says more than a dozen
Wendy Craig
La Vie en Rose is tall now and rarely not in flower with a strong, pleasant fragrance. The roses are a beautiful shape from deeper pink buds, and although the rose nurseries state it will grow to 90 cm x 50 cm wide, mine is far taller and broader even though I often cut it back. I attempted to take some photos yesterday from above this rose, but she is far too tall -I would need a drone.
“Voir La Vie en Rose”
La Vie en rose, translates from French as ‘Life in pink’ or seeing life through rose coloured glasses. In my view this is a great code to live by; a positive happy outlook where one views the world as a source of beauty and joy in the everyday. This is not hard to do with roses like this at ones door.
Today, I planted a true stripped rose rather than a hand-painted Delbard rose called Scentimental rose from Silkies Rose Farm in Clonbinane, Victoria. It is always a pleasure to receive their roses, and they are a fantastic company where I have bought many beautiful roses. Rosa Scentimental will be grown in a pot by the front door and is said to be vigorous but compact, with wavy ruffled foliage to 120 cm. Available at Silkies Rose Farm, also known as rose sales online.
Scentimental was bred by Tom Carruth in 1996 in the US and is a Floribunda of red/burgundy, or magenta and creamy white stripes that open from pointed buds with a strong damask scent in a clustered form. Scentimental Rose is a cross of Play Boy and the striped rose Peppermint Twist. According to the nursery some blooms will have more burgundy-splashed white petals and others creamed-swirled red petals on the same plant.
“I want to be like the lavender in a field of wheat: quiet and unassuming, yet impossible to ignore.”
Mary Oliver
As I walk the garden, Simplicity Lavender Rose is out in bloom again too, with its citrus fragrance and high-centred bloom form in the softest mauve colouring. It was bred by Dr Keith W. Zary in 2003 in the USA. Simplicity Lavender grows to 150 cm tall and is extremely disease resistant with smallish rounded rose blooms that range from soft lavender through to a deeper mauve with glossy dark green foliage.
“Lavender is the color of beauty and grace, a sight to behold in any garden.”
I may have this one growing in too much shade as it is a bit spindly but is pretty, nonetheless. Simplicity Lavender roses are around the garden in various spots, and the plan is to put them together as a cluster to make them appear as one shrub- more for the to do list.
“One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.”
Dale Carnegie
Continuing with the lavender theme is Chartreuse de Parme a Hybrid Tea, Shrub from the Grand Parfums Collection of Delbards France. An extremely fragrant rose with rich purple old-world shaped roses that are regal and rich in colour and sit perfectly amongst velvet spires of Salvia Leucantha. When combining the colouring, with the features of heady fragrance, dark green foliage, upright growth to 120 cm, repeat blooming, and disease resistance, you have the perfect rose.
James Joyce
I’d love to have the whole place swimming in roses.
The garden is full of roses, yet I am often asked why bother growing your own roses and flowers when with the same effort, the space could be used to grow vegetables. Flowers in the garden are so incredibly uplifting; they feed the soul and heighten the senses, attune the heart and mind to the seasons and make us feel good that we are providing pollen for insects and bees and positively impacting the eco-system.
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Also, maintaining a garden full of roses is terrific exercise, and being outdoors improves one’s sense of well-being as there is nothing better than fresh air, hard work, and being in nature.
There is no end to the rewards of your cut flowers or roses. Enhancing and creating a peaceful and relaxing environment to look upon and live in provides stimulus for creative expression. Whether the garden is simple or grand, the emphasis on colour, texture, or creating a well-balanced and unified outdoor space, having an abundance of florals in the garden feeds inspiration helping to manifest new ideas and can also be cued to appreciate the natural world and practise gratitude.
Stop and smell the flower- roses
Walter Hagen
Roses build biodiversity and supply insects in the garden with food, shelter and places to nest. The rose hips are a welcome food source for so many birds from Autumn to winter.
According to the ancient Indian practice of Ayurveda, roses will balance the doshas of the body that govern emotions which will impact the heart and soothe healing. The rose has been used for thousands of years in Ayurveda for teas, oils, and skincare in many forms; fresh, dried, preserved, juiced, distilled or powdered.
“Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.”
Luther Burbank
On the other hand, if one still needs to be convinced about the merits of cut flower gardens, one can always go halfway and grow a Potager garden known also as an ornamental kitchen garden; where roses, flowers, herbs and vegetables all grow together in the same garden.
“That which God said to the rose, and caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty, He said to my heart, and made it a hundred times more beautiful.”
Rumi
Title quote is by Stephanie Skeem
All content Di Baker
Images Di Baker in the garden May 2023 or as cited
Header Image The Peace Rose
Well said; roses do indeed feed the soul and make our hearts sing. Your photos and literary sprinklings are delightful and also soul-nourishing!
I came across your website while searching for tips on training a Nahema rose over an arch. I read in one of your posts that you moved your Nahema. Is she still growing over an arch? Do you have any advice on training her over an archway? Mine is still in a pot and has strong vigorous canes already. Kind regards from West Gippsland.
Hello Martine, My Nahema is still here but in a pot with an obelisk frame over it. I removed it from the archway due to spider mites. I cut it back and then relocated it and it as survived. It is a beautiful rose so worth keeping. My advice is to attach the canes horizontally to the arch or fixture by tying them on or weaving them in. Once attached horizontally then new shoots will form the canes. Hope this helps Cheers Di
Thanks, Di. I will be planting Nahema in the ground. I had wondered if she was too vigorous for an arch, but if you are growing her up an obelisk, it should be ok, hopefully! Happy gardening. Martine.