Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Two Superstar Roses in the Front Garden

There are two roses in front of the house that are putting on a spectacular show right now. 

Schoener's Nutkana is a little-known rose that is absolutely drop-dead gorgeous every spring.  These beautiful magenta flowers are 3 inches across, and the bush is covered with them!



 I got this rose as a lucky accident.  When I placed my final order with Sequoia Nursery before they closed in 2008, I was supposed to receive a hybrid tea rose called 'Schultheis American Beauty'.  Whoever gathered the roses in my order must have made an alphabetical mistake, and accidently grabbed the rose right next to the one I ordered. I didn't realize the mistake until the following year when my rose flowered ... by that time the nursery was closed and everything there was gone.  I'm thrilled beyond words with the bold statement that Schoener's Nutkana makes in the garden.  After it's finished flowering, I MUST move it to a better spot so it can grow and arch without flopping all over its neighboring roses ... remember, it was supposed to have been a mannerly hybrid tea.



The real star of the front yard right now is a rose that was given to me as Applejack, but I am having doubts about this ID.



Applejack is a rose that was introduced by Dr. Griffith Buck, and the photos of it online show flowers that have a different form than my rose.  Is anyone here familiar enough with Buck roses to know whether this is Applejack?  Perhaps it's another Buck rose?



Whatever it is, every square inch of this rose bush is covered with flowers right now.

There are lots of other roses throughout the property that are in full bloom, with many others just beginning their show.  There is a lot for garden visitors to see during my Open House on Saturday.

If you are available on Saturday and want to visit, the details are:

Hartwood Roses' Spring Open House
Saturday, May 14
10:00am to 3:00pm
335 Hartwood Road
Fredericksburg, Virginia

14 comments:

  1. I wish we weren't 6 hours away! I'll have to plan a camping trip to *accidentally* coincide with your open house next year. ;)

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  2. The Schoener's is awesome! I would never have guessed that that is a rose, but I really like it. The color just jumps out at you.

    Di

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  3. Oh how I would love to visit your garden!! What a dream come true. I love that first rose especially. What pretty flowers. Does it bloom more than one time?

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  4. Schoener's Nutkana IS a traffic-stopper! It only blooms once in the spring, but WHAT A BLOOM IT IS!!! Trained properly, it can easily grow into a graceful, arching shrub 6-8 feet tall and 8-10 feet across. What a rose!! (Jeannie, I don't think I have your email ... I would have answered you personally.)

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  5. Both of these roses are gorgeous! Wish I lived close as I would visit for sure! hugs, Linda

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  6. Nutkana is beautiful! I'll have to check to see if it grows here as well. I don't think that's Applejack...which is usually more of a single-petaled large rose....and you can be sure it's not if there's no apple scent to the foliage when you rub it....it should be like R. eglanteria in the scent of the foliage if it's AppleJack. If it's another Buck rose, I probably can't guess; too many pinks, but I can say that it is not pink enough for Country Dancer or EarthSong, so those two are out. Do you have a Carefree Beauty to compare it to? It's possible based on how well it is blooming.

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  7. They're both so pretty!

    Good luck on the Open House! If I lived closer, I would pop over!

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  8. Love the magenta color! Wish I was close enough to "stop and smell the roses".

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  9. These roses are beautiful and it can be fun to grow plants that we get by "mistake".

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  10. I'm glad that only casual rose growers like myself aren't the only ones wondering about the ID of a rose. Getting a positive ID can be so frustrating!

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  11. How absolutely stunning! LOVE that Applejack :-)

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  12. I will definitely be stopping by your Open House. I've been looking forward to seeing your gardens for months!

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  13. I hope you have a very successful open house this weekend! Your roses are beautiful, including the ones I purchased from you last year that are getting ready to bloom!

    Kat :)

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  14. I'm a online-rose researcher, love your blog. I took care of Schoener's Nutkana at Rancho Santa Ana botanic gardens in Claremont, California...LOVE the plant. The Buck rose looks like Wanderin' Wind.
    Thanks for the pics,

    Nate

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