Yes, it’s party time, and like the best celebrations, there is a quiet moment before a party is in full swing when everything is ready: the venue is decorated, music on, food prepared, and the drinks are chilled, but not everyone has arrived yet. Well, the garden is much the same at the moment. Spring has arrived but the party hasn’t quite gotten underway. Especially after the set back from a recent week of cold weather and frost every morning. Cooler temperatures are easing off at last, the days are glorious; sunny warm, and perfect for more spring growth. It has been one of those weeks where it can be Spring in the sun and winter in the shade at times.

It is a joy to see the blossoms on the fruit trees and my new Silver Birch Trees starting to show their leaves. Several climbing roses that were not pruned because climbers are best cut back after flowering, not in winter, are about to bloom. These are Graham Thomas, Iceberg, Pierre de Ronsard and Mme Isaac Pereire Climbing Roses. I’m thrilled these roses have done so well since they were moved into the sunny courtyard because before, they struggled in the more intense heat of the farm..

If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.

Buddha

Mme Issac Pereire is an old fashioned Bourbon climbing rose bred by Armand Garçon in France, in 1876 and introduced in France by Margottin père & Fils in 1880 as ‘Madame Isaac Pereire’. In 1894 it was introduced into Australia by C. F. Newman and Sons in Adelaide as ‘Madame Isaac Pereire’. Armand Garçon named this rose ‘Le Bienheureux de la Salle’- The Blessed De La Salle’. In 1881 it was renamed by Margottin Fils to Madame Isaac Pereire Rose in homage to the wife of a the French Banker who had passed away a year earlier.

Mme Isaac Pereire rose is beautiful with matt green foliage and an incredible fragrance described by Rosarians as smelling like spiced raspberries. The rose blooms will be large, fully cupped, and heavily petaled in a quartered bloom form of reddish cerise pink. On the other hand, the Pierre de Ronsard rose foliage is wickedly glossy and vibrant, and the Paul Cezanne rose foliage will stay semi-glossy and a lighter, more lime green.

Although only foliage is present at this stage, the buds are forming, and they are healthy and thriving plants. Mme Issac Pereire is growing prolifically in a large terracotta pot. I can already see that it will need to be dug into the garden next season because it has developed long arching canes. By my next post, the rose blooms will have opened from all the plentiful buds that sit amongst the matt green.
Mme Isaac Pereire and Graham Thomas roses are growing in two different corners of our courtyard. Graham Thomas endorsed the later rose in his book, The Old Shrub Roses, saying

“When it is well grown, on a good deep soil, it has no peer”,

The Graham Thomas Rose – AUSmas, grows upright and is bushy, elegant and vigorous, and can be planted as a climber. The roses are rich pure yellow on long arching branches. Graham Thomas rose was bred by David Austin UK in 1983 as part of the English Rose Collection, and inducted into the Rose Hall Of Fame by the World Federation of Rose Societies in 2009. The blooms are cupped with a distinct ruffled edge and they repeat bloom quickly with a spicy tea rose scent. The yellow of the blooms is a deep golden shade -showy but not overly garish making this rose a great specimen or feature in the garden.

“Real beauty is in the fragility of your petals. A rose that never wilts isn’t a rose at all.”

Crystal Woods

Graham Stuart Thomas OBE  (3 April 1909 – 17 April 2003) was an English horticulturist, best remembered for his extensive work with roses, and his restoration and stewardship of National Trust gardens in the UK. He was also a prolific writer of many books on roses and gardening that are classics to this day. Among them are The Graham Stuart Thomas Rose Book, The Art of Gardening With Roses, Old Shrub Roses, Thoughts from a Garden Seat, An English rose garden: Gardening with roses at Mottisfont Abbey, The Rose a Colourful Inheritance and Colour in the Winter Garden.

Pierre de Ronsard rose is a popular rose bred by Marie-Marie Louisette Meilland in France in 1976. It was introduced in France by Meilland in 1985 as Pierre de Ronsard a large flowering climber. The blooms on Pierre De Ronsard are often described as cream with carmine pink edges. The colour hue carmine is a red pink. Carmine dye originated from the Cochineal insect where is was extracted and valued for its deep rich red hue that has been used for centuries in textiles, art and design.

The vibrant pink and cream blooms on the Pierre de Ronsard Rose are spectacular and the way the blooms are cupped creates an old-world style double rose. The shrub will grow to 300 m x 200 m so is ideal for covering an arch or wall.

“Where, you tend a rose, my lad, a thistle cannot grow.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Also close to opening is The Paul Cézanne Rose JACdel- an absolute favourite rose bred by George Delbard in France in 1992 and introduced into the USA by Jackson & Perkins in 1992 as Paul Cézanne. The fragrance of Paul Cézanne is a cinnamon, citrus scent, but it’s the blooms that are truly gorgeous, a blend of pink and yellow stripes that change in depth by the season. Sometimes, appearing soft and subtle or in harsher sunlight can be vivid and bright but always with the backdrop of lovely light green foliage.

Last Sunday we headed to a local cafe Anything Grows for breakfast and were pleasantly surprised by this huge climbing white rose in full bloom. The rose appears to be Winchester Cathedral Rose AUScat, although its only a guess. If the heavy duty stake is anything to go by it is very old and the trunk is huge. No matter the name, it is a spectacular rose plant that is growing in a protected green house style courtyard hence the number of early blooms.

“One rose is enough for the dawn.”

Edmond Jabes

Winchester Cathedral Rose is a David Austin White, repeat flowering Old Shrub Rose bred in 1988. I have not grown this rose, but I have read that it is considered to be a marriage between beauty and low- maintenance with perfume and the gorgeous large white blooms with dark green foliage.

“The sharp thorn often produces delicate roses.“

Ovid

Perhaps risky but yesterday I took the chance and dug out several roses from the rural garden and planted them in the new garden. I know its late and they have already begun to bud up but heh, they might just make it given proper care and coaching. These were the roses Fragrant Plum, Peter Frankenfeld, Pink Knockout, Blackberry Nip, Soul Sister, Madame Delbard and Iceberg roses.

“It was September (June), and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.“

Maud Hart Lovelace

One Iceberg white rose, is the only rose to have opened this far. The garden sits silently, waiting for more growth and the full impact of Spring. Our irrigation is now in place, so mulching the garden to protect the soil and cover the drip lines is next. Our second round of flowering fruit trees are in bloom, surprise tulips are opening in exotic colours, and Azaleas are about to burst open. The most important guests are usually fashionably late and so too are the roses!

“I’d love to have the whole place swimming in roses.”

James Joyce

A new garden is emerging after the months of work and it is thrilling to watch everything unfold. What magic landscapes and surprises will all the plants create once the colours open in the months ahead? Will the plans of a White Garden come to fruition with the diversity of silver foliage and a restricted palette of flowers and roses. I hope so. In the meantime lets watch the party get started!

Content Di Baker September 2024

Images Di Baker unless otherwise cited.

Title Image White Iceberg Rose

Title Quote by Robin Williams

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