A Rose By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet - Shakespear

How lovely a rose is...the appearance, the texture of the petals, gloss of the leaves and oh yes the fragrance...They are a delight to see in a garden and in a bouquet they add another level of elegance like no other flower.

I find it a fussy flower to tend to but my father has taken to raising them and his bushes are magnificent. He takes the time to water, feed, spray and prune and his hard work pays off. His climbers are admired far and wide. I asked him if he would plant of couple of roses for me if I bought them. Not knowing anything about roses I chose tea roses and ordered two from White Flower Farm. Tea roses are a breed to themselves, yet my father has tended to these two finicky plants and the results are a gorgeous plant.

Today we had the privilege of attending a rose lecture at Deer Brook Estates in Exeter, RI given by Michael Chute, a master rosarian. Mike & his wife Angie are expert gardeners & rose-growersas well as authors of “Roses for New England: A Guide to Sustainable Rose Growing” and founders of Rose Solutions landscape consulting service.

I learned so much in this lecture. While I will still not grow roses, I learned so much about them. It is always fun to learn new things and today I got a head full of new knowledge. Mike was informative and entertaining. He held our attention and gave a wonderful talk. He and his wife brought wonderful examples of roses which were delightful to see and smell.

The photos above are the pink tea rose my father is raising for me...simply a classic beautiful rose.

For now I stick to my peonies, lilies, iris, camassia, hosta and what have you...but I will admire and maybe even envy a little the rose experts the Chutes and especially my Dad...hard work does pay off.

Elizabeth

Dad's Roses

My father knows how to grow roses! He has the patience to tend to them and the knowledge as to what they need to produce stems overladen with gorgeous flowers. We have attended roses society shows and competitions and Dad's roses are competition quality for sure. This is Dad this past spring looking over two new tea roses he just planted. I can not grow roses so he is growing them for me (nice deal!). They were purchased from White Flower Farm in Connecticut. One pink and one red.
These are more of his roses planted by a fence...they are spectacular when in full bloom.
Look at how rich the soil is. The foliage is lush and healthy.
These are the two bare root tea roses just planted...the soil is amended with loads of compost, manure and peat moss.

This is the final results of well tended roses...the leaves are deep green and shiny and the roses are perfect. This bouquet is catalog quality! It takes a very special touch to grow roses and my father certainly has the Midas touch.

Take time to smell the roses...

Elizabeth