The First Rose of the Year

It's always fun every year to see which will be the first rose in the greenhouse to bloom.  This year, I am particularly excited to see the first flower on a rose that is new to me, that I have never seen flower in person.

I am pleased to introduce to you, 'Rosa acicularis'

I wish you could smell this ... it's Heavenly!

 

 

This flower was a bud two days ago, while I was releasing the ladybugs that I harvested from the inside the house.

 

 

 

My plant is tiny right now ... only about 6" tall.  I brought it home with me as a sucker, pinched from a flowerbed at the B&B where we stayed in Denali, Alaska, last summer.  At that time, I didn't know what rose it was ... I just knew that it was interesting and healthy and would make the perfect souvenir for my garden.

 

Photo of the rose at the B&B in Denali.

 

 

Thorny stems and lovely leaves.

 

 

I remember being amazed that this little rose could withstand the subzero temperatures of an Alaskan winter.  It's a fairly short grower, not quite two feet tall, and it had suckered quite profusely.

 

Thorny, thorny, thorny.

 

 

Beautiful red hips.

 

 

Using my foot for perspective.

 

 

It will be interesting to see if this plant behaves the same way here in Virginia.  I will have to be careful where I put it when I plant it in the garden ... placing it in a spot where it can sucker and spread without getting out of bounds.

Changes

Earlier this morning, I sent this message to the folks on my Hartwood Roses mailing list, and I posted it to both my personal and nursery pages on Facebook.  I am publishing it here on the blog, too, to reach as many people as possible.

'Lac la Nonne' at the Fairbanks Botanical Garden

Dear Friends and Customers of Hartwood Roses,

I have written and rewritten this message many times in my head over the past few weeks … it’s probably best that I just come right out and say it … effective immediately, I will no longer be propagating roses for sale.

"Lac Majeau'

'Jens Munk'

Hartwood Roses has always been a one-woman operation.  I plant and care for the gardens, and propagate and grow all the roses in the catalog, mostly by myself.  I also present rose programs several times a year for groups and garden clubs, consult on historic roses and gardens across the country, search out and preserve roses found at abandoned home sites and in cemeteries, and work plant sales and other events throughout the year.  This has become too much for me to do, and I must make some changes.  

Unknown rose at our hotel in Talkeetna, Alaska

I have been spending a disproportionate amount of my rose gardening time and energy producing and caring for each year’s crop of new roses, while my own roses are all but ignored.  My gardens are overgrown and neglected, and this is putting much of my collection of rare roses at risk.  I cannot, in good conscience, continue to propagate and sell the same popular roses over and over when the rarest and most unusual of my roses need to be preserved and distributed to reduce the chance of their extinction.

Unknown rose in Ketchikan, Alaska.

I have already removed the online catalog from the Hartwood Roses web site.  There were not very many roses left there, because this has been a good year for sales.  I am also disconnecting the Hartwood Roses phone line … email has always been the best way to reach me anyway.

Unknown Alba rose in Ketchikan, Alaska

Everything else around here will remain the same.  I will continue to welcome visitors to the garden, especially while the roses are blooming each spring.  I hope to expand the number of rose programs I present … to continue to teach gardeners that roses are not rocket science, to show that anyone really CAN have the rose garden of their dreams.

Unknown rose in Ketchikan, Alaska.

This has been a very difficult decision, one that I have made after months of consideration.  I got into the rose business to educate people about rare roses from the past … and this is what I will be concentrating on in the future.  Hartwood Roses has been a success because of your support and encouragement ... for this, I will always be sincerely grateful.  

Thank you very, VERY much.

Sincerely,
Connie Hilker

A Day at the (very chilly) Beach

We got home from our two-week trip to Alaska late Saturday afternoon.  (It's been two days, and I'm just now to a point where I can sit here at the computer and get caught up on things I've missed while we were away.)  I downloaded my Alaska photos last night, all 1600+ of them, and it's going to take me a while to sort through them and get them into a form that I can share them with anyone.

In the meantime, let me take a few minutes to show you how my husband and I spent our anniversary last Thursday ... in Barrow, Alaska ... the northernmost point in the United States.

Yes, Folks, those are chunks of ice!  (I was told that the water temperature was about 34 degrees.  It was cloudy, and windy, and the air temperature was about 50.)

While we were planning this trip, one of our goals was to find a way to get across the Arctic Circle.  As it developed, this plan evolved from a step across the line at the Arctic Circle into a day trip to Barrow ... dipping our feet into the frigid water of the Arctic OCEAN.

It's a coincidence that our adventure in Barrow fell on the day of our anniversary.  To mark the occasion, we HAD to take pictures as we waded in the frigid water.

Thirty-two years together ... and I love this man more every day! 

Happy Anniversary, Sweetheart!!