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| Mr. Lincoln has outlasted the fancy rose of he year stars from a few years ago. This rose is robust, impressive, and fragrant. |
Mrs. Ichabod has had great results from visiting the chiropractor, not far from our house. We normally take roses to anyone we see, so this turned into extra fun. When appointments were twice a week, Chris said about cutting a new bunch, "We don't need to bring them roses on Wednesday. They just got a bunch Monday." When the receptionist, who adores roses, heard this, she gleefully joined me in claiming my wife was a rose miser.
All the clients loved seeing the roses, and I put some highly fragrant Mr. Lincolns in each time, since people enjoy choking on the fumes. OK, that is hyperbolic, but if someone cannot smell a Mr. Lincoln from 10 feet away, medical attention is advised.
One woman - a client at the chiro's - really talked about how much she loved roses. I had been speaking with her husband, who turned out to be a retired agriculture professor. When she said, "Have you talked enough during my appointment?" I said "No."
When I talked to the receptionist about sharing the roses with this rose fan, the hurt look on he receptionist's face told me that was a bad idea, so I doubled up and brought two vases using 10 cent large, plastic cups from Walmart. I keep telling people, "I have more roses than vases, but the vases slowly vanish."
We met the couple again by accident at Cracker Barrel and got invited to the Farmer's Market, where he volunteers. I brought a big bunch along on Thursday and more on Saturday, when we returned for the big day at the market.
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| Fragrant Cloud is...fragrant, but also prolific in blooming. The color is tough to define, much better than the photographs suggest. |
Yesterday a hand-addressed envelope came in the mail. Those envelopes are as rare as IRS refunds these days, so opened it up. The professor's wife wrote a thank-you for the roses we left for them at the Farmer's Market. They visited an ailing aunt with them and left the bouquet, so this delighted their aunt. The spreading of the roses was identical to our sainted neighbor, who took my roses to the dying patient she was helping. Mrs. Wright now has a rose, Fragrant Cloud, planted in her memory.
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| The original rose is five-petaled, so rugosas are a case of Back to the Future. |
Rugosa Roses - The Last Frontier Is the First
If you would like to be complimented on your really big hips. Rugosa roses are the ticket. These old roses are not for bouquets and do not have showy blooms.
They do have large hips (rose seed pods), which are the source of Rose Hip Tea and Vitamin C tablets. Roses are herbs, but the modern ones are tilted toward showy flowers and have various weaknesses - like Black Spot and mildew.
The rugosa name is for their textured leaves.
Besides their big hips, which birds adore, Rugosa roses:
- Make a great hedge, since they grow high and wide.
- Need a lot less sun than hybrid tea roses.
- Tolerate less water than the glamorous types.
- Suffer from none of the weaknesses of hybrid teas - Black Spot, mildwe, and so forth.
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| A rugosa hedge needs some room and is rather sloppy, but it needs little care, less sun and water. |
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| Rugosa leaves are textured, free of disease. |