Every year I tell myself not to buy any more own-root roses. Every year I succumb to fancy descriptions and pretty pictures on websites. Every year I'm disappointed when the scraggly little twigs arrive.
Not this year! I am beyond delighted with A Reverence for Roses. First of all, there was the extraordinarily speedy delivery. The package was mailed from Florida on Monday and arrived here on Wednesday. The plants had no time to suffer in the box, and they were packed so well that not one twig or leaf was damaged. Plus, they are big! Bigger than most of the 1-gallon plants I've bought from Roses Unlimited and Chamblee.
Here are my four:
Meredith Bohls, the one on the far left, is the tallest -- 24 inches from the bottom of the band to the top of the plant. This means it's already 2 inches taller than the Meredith Bohls I bought from Chamblee and have been growing in my garden for 9 years now. The foliage of the one on the far right, Sally Holmes, is not discolored. That's a patch of sunlight I couldn't avoid
In fact, here's a closeup of the Sally Holmes foliage. Every leaf is perfect!
Actually, I noticed something funny today about another Chamblee's rose. I bought Rosarium Uetersen from them 11 years ago. It's supposed to be a climber, but mine never climbed, and other rose gardeners reported the same thing about theirs from Chamblee. It has always formed a nice shrub, about 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide. I naturally assumed they were selling some other rose under that name. This afternoon I was surprised to see that Rosarium Uetersen is finally climbing. So maybe the Meredith Bohls from Chamblee will get taller in a year or two. Patience can be surprisingly valuable in gardens.
