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Saturday, July 17, 2010

The Smallest of the Small

I have a totally out of control collection of miniature roses bred by Ralph Moore.  The collection is up to 130+ varieties, all of whom reside in pots in the driveway at the moment.  Despite the summer heat, some of these little babies are blooming like crazy.  Today, I'll show you a few of them.



Pink Poodle, 1991.
This flower has incredible detail, and it's only an inch and a half in diameter! 



Green Ice, 1971.
Green, pea-sized buds open into these perfect little white flowers.



Baby Cecile Brunner, 1982.
A perfect miniature replica of the famous Polyantha rose, Cecile Brunner.  This flower is only an inch across!



Gold Coin, 1967.
This lemon yellow flower is only the size of a nickel!



Fresh Pink, 1964.
This is one of the larger flowers I'm showing here ... a whopping 2 inches across.  At maturity, the bush may get to be two feet tall.
(edited, thanks to kstrong, to say that Fresh Pink is a CLIMBER that gets huge.  Cool!!!  You all know how much I LOVE climbers.  It hasn't done this for me yet, but I can't wait!)

 

Hoot Owl, 1990.
This tiny flower (1" in diameter) is the most brilliant shade of red!



Little Scotch, 1958.
This is a particularly early, very rare, and really lovely micro-miniature.



Sungold, 1983.
These sunny orange and yellow flowers are barely 3/4" across.



Sweet Chariot, 1984.
Because of its lax growth habit, this rose does really well in hanging containers.



Hope and Joy, 2006.
The yellow center, combined with the bright red petals with their white edges, makes this flower quite striking!



Honeycomb, 1974.
This perfect little flower is smaller than a quarter!



Simplex, 1961.
Isn't this the most perfect white flower?  It's only an inch across!

I have been busy with my tape measure and graph paper, designing a parterre garden on the south side of the barn to hold all of my miniature roses.  Once the weather cools a bit, so I don't get heat stroke working out there, I expect it to come together pretty quickly.  Stay tuned for more.

(written by Hartwood Roses.  Hartwood Roses blog.)