It was five o’clock and I’d still not organised my Monday vase – once again the cottage garden had failed me and it was a choice of a bowl of strawberries or a bunch of buttercups. A third of the way through June and the garden was still not producing anything to inspire me or plonk in a vase! Then as I was putting out the wheelie bins I noticed that a small clump of Rosa rugosa was in flower.
Roses will not grow in my very alkaline soil and even thuggish rugosa can only manage a few whimpish briars with buttercup-yellow leaves. However, there is one clump which obviously has found a patch of interesting soil or has the right genetic make-up to remain green and produce a few blossoms. I love roses and I have enjoyed seeing the wonderful roses that adorn so many other gardens. It is a case of “devil get behind me” but when Rambling Cathy went off to David Austin’s rose emporium the worm of envy began to gnaw!
However, these three small incipient roses are enough. The pale pink crinkled tissue of the petals is so delicate and as the flower unfolds they will turn white with just the faintest blush. As the cup opens it will reveal a halo of golden anthers. Just three roses in a marmalade jar will fill the air with a delicate perfume. Then all too soon the petals will fall.
I am quite intrigued by the twisted sepals with the spoon-shaped ends.
I’m not sure I’m so delighted with the aphids which seem to have survived a good dunking in the sink!
As for the bowl of strawberries, in the end they were so good I couldn’t leave them for another day!
Glad you found something at the last minute… my rugosa rose is also covered in aphids, but I shall now have to follow your example and cut a few to enjoy the perfume too. Never thought to bring them indoors before, so thank you! (You’ve got me thinking about strawberries and cream as well now! 😉
I was determined to contribute this week, but it was getting desperate. I’m so pleased I found the roses.
The strawberries are very good this year the Head Gardener is very pleased with his efforts, and so he should be!
Sorry for inadvertantly turning you green 😉 but at least it has prompted you to cut rugosa for a vase and thus show us those intriguing twisted sepals with the spoon-shaped ends. Fascinating! But why? I would not have guessed that they would be fragrant, so that will be something for you to look forward to – and I am wondering now whether dog roses are also fragrant…? Thanks for contributing your vase, Christine – is it a glass inkwell? Oh, and great crop of strawberries there!
Nothing wrong with a little garden envy, keeps my feet on the ground!
No idea about the twisted sepals, I’ll go and search for a bud at an earlier stage and look for a clue, but they may have no function at all. Dog roses, some are perfumed and some not, but they have horribly complex genetics and are technically not a single species. I won’t bore you with a tedious explanation you might lose the will to live!
The vase – a marmalade jar inherited from my late mother-in-law.
I sniffed our dog roses this afternoon and they definitely don’t smell, complex genetics or not 😉 ps it’s a very pretty marmalade jar
Those strawberries look sooo delicious. Hope you will be posting a photo or two of your rose when it opens. It sounds beautiful. I am sorry you can’t grow roses – I never realised they were fussy about the soil.
The strawberries are as good as they look!
Most roses suffer from iron deficiency when grown on alkaline soil (yellow leaves) and they don’t particularly like well drained sandy soil either. One day I might get round to preparing a special bed and giving it a try, but I’m not sure how well they would tolerate our coastal climate. My pockets aren’t deep enough to keep experimenting and there is nothing worse than a sickly roses. So I’ll just have to enjoys the ones grown so successfully by others.
I agree, no point forcing things to grow that won’t do well. Thanks so much for following my blog.
Trouble is that those are always the things that we want to grow. I’ve enjoyed visiting your garden from time so time so I thought I’d have a closer look.