Flowers on Friday

The thermometer outside the back door says it's 21 degrees this morning!  We got 3" of snow last Saturday, and 3" of rain on Tuesday ... so things here are cold and squishy. 

Let's warm things up a bit with some sunny yellow roses for our Friday Flowers.

Zeus, a Hybrid Setigera climber from 1959, produces sunny yellow flowers all summer long.  It's been a bit slow to start its climb up the East fence in the Rose Field, however.  Many climbers, especially those who are growing on their own roots, can take a couple of years to get well-established.

Crepuscule is a beautiful Tea Noisette introduced in 1904.  (The name means 'Twilight'.)  This rose also grows on the Rose Field's East fence.  I love Crepuscule's apricot/gold/yellow color (which doesn't fade as much as I thought it would), and its shiny dark green leaves.

Buff Beauty, a Hybrid Musk from 1939, is fairly well-known.  It's recommended by a number of TV garden shows as a low-maintenance, fragrant rose.  Mine grows on an arch in the Rose Field ... I can't pass by it without taking a big sniff whenever it's in bloom.

"Lundy's Lane" is a Pernetiana/Hybrid Tea discovered by Gregg Lowery in San Francisco in 1979.  It never fails to attract attention from garden visitors.

Old Gold, another Pernetiana/Hybrid Tea, introduced in 1913.  Around the turn of the 20th Century, rose breeders were racing to be the first to introduce a healthy, floriforous, true yellow rose.

Happy Child, an English rose bred by David Austin in 1994, is really as yellow as this photo shows it to be.  It's a smaller Austin rose, good for the front of a border.  I love the name!

Molineux is another yellow Austin rose, introduced in 1995.  It's a lovely compact shrub, in a softer shade of yellow than Happy Child.

Limelight, a Hybrid Tea from 1985, is a rose that is difficult to photograph.  The flowers have a greenish tint to them (as the name suggests).  If I try to photograph Limelight in bright sunlight, I can never capture the subtle shades of yellow of the flowers.  It's much better if I wait for a lightly overcast sky.

Yellow Magic is a miniature rose bred by Ralph Moore in 1970.  Gold buds open to loose, light yellow flowers, that change to coral pink as they age.  I love the way the petals fold back to show those gold stamens.

I'll finish this Friday with Thanks to Sue, a miniflora rose introduced by Ralph Moore in 2004.  You know by now how much I love Ralph Moore's roses ... this one is a lovely, sunny addition to my collection.

(written by Hartwood Roses. Hartwood Roses blog)