Friday Flowers: Open Garden on Sunday and Roses for Sale.

This whole week has been chilly and gray and rainy ... okay for helping the roses in the garden hold their remaining flowers (instead of frying in the heat, if we had heat) ... not so great for this gardener who had grand plans for sprucing up the place in preparation for visitors on Open Garden Day on Sunday.  Oh, well, the roses look better than they probably ever have even without any additional tidying.

One job that I couldn't put off was organizing my pot ghetto to separate the roses that I'm keeping from the roses that I plan to sell.  I wanted to do this well ahead of time, so I could compile an inventory list and gather photos for this post and for FB.  Most of these are extra plants from my propagation over the last year or two.  A few of them are roses that I was going to keep but have decided to part with instead.

Highlighted links below each photo take you to the rose's listing on Help Me Find, the best rose reference resource on the 'Net.

From Hollywood Cemetery:

"Hollywood Brandt Indica Major"

Once blooming, fragrant, and disease resistant.  Collected from a plant that grows on the Brandt lot in Hollywood Cemetery.

"Hollywood Alba Odorata"

Vigorous, repeat-blooming rose that thrives in hot weather.

Sold out.

"Hollywood Currie Multiflora"

Lanky, sprawling rose that grows on a cast iron fence on the Currie lot in Hollywood Cemetery.  May be a very nice example of 'Tausendschoen'.

"Hollywood Haxall Russeliana"

Large Hybrid China/Multiflora rose that grows on the Haxall lot in Hollywood Cemetery.  Recently identified as 'Russeliana'

Roses from other cemeteries:

'Banshee'

Very large, spring-blooming rose, that will spread moderately via suckers ... which is how I got mine.  Very cold hardy.  (this rose is too large to ship)

"Cemetery Musk Seedling"

Chance seedling found in the Sacramento City Cemetery rose garden.  Large shrub, repeat-blooming, and fragrant.

"Thornrose Pink Grootendorst"

Hybrid rugosa.  Repeat-blooming.  Collected at Thornrose Cemetery in Staunton, Virginia.

From the collection at Tufton Farm:

"Cross Manor Blush Noisette"

Identical to 'Blush Noisette' in commerce.  Collected from the garden at Cross Manor in Maryland.

"Mount Vernon Purple Noisette"

Same as "Mrs. Woods Lavender-Pink Noisette"  

"Ruth's Tiny Polyantha"

Tight clusters of 3/4" flowers, start pink and fade to white, on a plant that is less than three feet tall in the garden at Tufton Farm.

"Ruth's Wavy Leaf Noisette"

The foliage is glossy and healthy, and it has a slight wave to each leaflet.  Tall and fragrant.  Reblooms.

Other assorted roses:

'Edith Clark'

This rose is among the first to bloom in my garden.  The color is the same as 'Louis Philippe' and many of the other red China roses.  Needs fungicide for blackspot prevention.  (This rose is too large to ship.)

'Excelsa'

Hybrid multiflora rambler with large clusters of cherry red flowers, spring blooming.  Collected in Hanover County, Virginia.

'Lucetta'

David Austin English rose.  Large, repeat-flowering, and fragrant.

'Nozomi'

Climbing miniature rose that looks best when allowed to drape.  Spring blooming, with healthy foliage.  (this rose is too large to ship)

'Pookah'

Large, graceful Polyantha with large clusters of pink flowers that fade to white and very healthy foliage.

(In addition to the ones shown, I also have "Dr. Peck's 12th Avenue Smoothie", a found Hybrid China rose from California.)

Roses will be available for pick up during Open Garden on Sunday, and I am happy to ship to folks who can't be here in person.  Roses are all $20 each and quantities are VERY limited.  (Some of these have already sold in response to my post on the Hartwood Roses Facebook page last night.)  Send a PM to connie@hartwoodroses.com or leave a comment here with questions or to place an order.  Include your ZIP code, please.  I will confirm your order, calculate postage and handling (to cover materials and such) and send you a PayPal invoice.  (For those who don't use PayPal, a good old-fashioned check in the mail is just as good.)  I cannot ship to CA, AZ, OR, and a couple of other western states that I don't remember off the top of my head.

I'm excited to see what this year's Open Garden brings.  Lots of people have told  me that they're coming, and this place could be a madhouse... just the way I like it!

(I will do what I can between now and next week to take photos of the garden and put together a virtual Open Garden post for those of you who can't be here in person.  A photographer friend is coming by today to shoot, and I always have a camera on hand, so you will want to check back in later to see what we come up with.)

Staunton's Thornrose Cemetery Roses

With a name like Thornrose Cemetery, one would think that this place would be full of roses.  I have heard that it was like that years ago, but this is definitely not the case today.   Rose Rosette Disease made an appearance in 2002, and most of the roses that once grew here are now gone.

 

 

 

 

As I entered the cemetery's main gate, I saw three roses ... two tall white Noisettes and one pink, cluster-flowered shrub.

 

This is one of the Noisettes.  I didn't photograph the pink shrub.

 

 

I cruised slowly through the cemetery, and it took a while for me to find any more roses at all.  The first one I saw was probably a wild Multiflora ... perhaps planted by a seed dropped by a bird.  The next one (two, actually) were pink Rugosas.  One, pictured above and below, is probably 'Pink Grootendorst'.  It was about four feet high, and is very healthy and vigorous.

 

 

 

 

 

Beside 'Pink Grootendorst' was another pink rugosa.  The foliage is very similar to 'Pink Grootendorst', but the flowers were different ... much more delicate and not fringed like PG.

 

 

 

 

 

The final rose I found is one of my favorites ... one I can identify just about anywhere, even without flowers (which is a good thing, since it only blooms in the spring) ... Banshee.  Banshee's growth habit varies, depending on location, but her distinctive foliage gives her away every time.

 

 

 

 

 

This Banshee was growing in the shade of a large tree, and it appears that its leaves were beginning to shut down as fall arrives.  Banshee in my garden, planted as a sucker from a plant in growing in a cemetery in King William, Virginia, is growing in full sun and has happily reached eight feet high.  (Here's a photo of a flower from my Banshee, so you can see how lovely she is.)

 

 

 

I came away from Thornrose Cemetery feeling a bit lost.  I know that there were once many more roses growing there, but those are but a memory. 

 

Isn't that what a cemetery is, after all ... a place for memories.  In this case, we have memorials to memories of loved ones ... and memories of roses that once were.

 

 

Angels in Heaven, and in Stone

I have been racing through projects, being productive and getting things done around here for a couple of weeks now.  On Monday, I felt I deserved a day off ... so I loaded up the dogs and headed two hours west of here to Staunton, Virginia (pronounced STAN-ton, not STAWN-ton), to visit Thornrose Cemetery.  I had never been there before ... and ya'll already know how much I love exploring a good cemetery.

According to information on their web site, Thornrose Cemetery was designed in 1849, because the only other cemetery in town, at Augusta Parish Church, was full.  The first burial at Thornrose took place in 1853.  Old cemeteries like this contain a wealth of beautiful monuments with wonderful sculpture.  What I noticed most at Thornrose were the Angels.

 

 

Vickie Louise  /  daughter of

S. & E. P. Campbell

Aug. 12, 1943  /  Sept. 25, 1950

Budded on Earth  /  to bloom in Heaven

 

 

Each of the angels is unique.

 

Patricia Ann  /  daughter of

Jack & Beulah Peterson

Sept. 4, 1955  /  Mar. 26, 1970

 

 

(I didn't photograph the inscription on this one ... rats!)

 

 

Standing before these statues, and seeing the names and the dates, I can barely imagine the grief of the families who commissioned these angels in memory of their children.  It is strangely uplifting to see that these children are memorialized in such a beautiful way and that they will be thought of by all who see these angels.

Liggan H. Cox  /  Died Nov. 9, 1883  /  Aged 2 Mos.

Everett S. Cox  /  Died Aug. 15, 1887  /  Aged 2 Yrs. 6 Mos.

Mamie Corina Cox  /  Died Aug. 3, 1889  /  Aged 10 Mos.

 

 

Frederick  /  Feb. 8, 1907  /  July 15, 1907

Randolph  /  May 10, 1909  /  July 6, 1909

Virginia May Serrett  /  May 10, 1903  /  Oct. 21, 1918

 

 

Plot sales and burials continue at Thornrose Cemetery.  I found one relatively-modern grave with an angel statue.  The carving is just as fine as on the older angels, though the color of the marble is still white and new looking.  This lovely little angel will develop a beautiful patina with the passage of time and the effects of weather.

 

Brenda Lee Ayer

March 16, 1960  /  August 31, 1976

 

 

 

 

There are other statues at Thornrose besides angels.

 

It is common to see lambs on the memorials for children.  Never before have I seen a lamb like this one, sleeping with his head down.

 

 

 

 

 

The most unusual monument I saw was this one ... a statue of a dog, waiting patiently for his mistress.

 

 

 

 

 

I went to Thornrose Cemetery in search of the roses that I was told were once there.  Tomorrow, I will show you what I found.