Tag Archives: Antique Roses

Our Zephirine Drouhin are in bloom

Posted on October 15, 2010 | Comments Off on Our Zephirine Drouhin are in bloom

It only took seven years for these Bourbon beauties to finally arrive in the fall. I’m not sure it was quite worth the wait for them to become sufficiently established to do so, but they sure are pretty in October. About half the diameter of these blossoms photographed back in May, and not near as abundant. But still radiant. Ah, antique roses.

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Posted in Antique Roses, Rancho Roly Poly

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Souvenir de la Malmaison

Posted on September 8, 2009 | Comments Off on Souvenir de la Malmaison

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This was one of the first antique roses I planted at the rancho. To commemorate my Mississippi great great grandmother who had one in her dooryard. But I never took a decent shot of ours, and a neighbor’s use of too much herbicide, apparently, wiped it out last summer. Having to use this Australian site’s photo of a bloom because the replacement plant, which I finally got around to planting was run over the other day and chewed up by the landscaper’s lawnmower. It’s reliable and it will come back from the roots, and I’ll get my own photo, but it may not be until next spring.

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Belinda’s Dream

Posted on April 26, 2008 | Comments Off on Belinda’s Dream

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A reliable repeat bloomer at Rancho Roly Poly, a hybrid developed for disease-resistence and drought-tolerance at Texas A&M University. It is relatively immune to black spot, fungus and mildew. The colors obviously vary.

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Spring has sprung

Posted on April 7, 2008 | Comments Off on Spring has sprung

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The wildflowers were up and blowing a month or more ago, but this Bourbon, Zephirine Drouhin, has just figured out the season. It’s been in the ground almost five years. So the display should be better than ever. I thought, last year at this time, that it was established enough to produce some summer and fall blooms. But it didn’t. Maybe this year.

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Pruning roses

Posted on August 28, 2007 | Comments Off on Pruning roses

It’s supposed to be an arcane and scary subject, pruning roses, but I find it rather easy. You prune around Valentine’s and again around Labor Day and reap the benefits of a flush of blossoms a month or two later. This year I decided to start a few days before Labor Day weekend since it’s been so wet and not all that hot a summer. Rose Magazine’s pruning guide was a help, giving me the courage to whack the hybrid tea Mr. Lincoln back by almost half. The electric meter reader will thank me, even if Mr. L. decides to pout and refuse to bloom. The antique roses were easier. I always cut them back by a third. Both types bloom on new growth. The only time you really don’t want to prune is close to winter or summer’s dog days, when the new growth would either freeze or get burned. Something tells me it’s going to be a glorious fall, rose wise.

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Louis Philippe

Posted on May 18, 2007 | Comments Off on Louis Philippe

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First flush of the old China antique rose Louis Philippe, shortly after planting at the rancho. A month later, it’s working on getting established, with no new growth or new buds at all. But it’s holding its own, so far, against the bugs and black spot that run riot in late spring. Chinas are the hardiest. This one has been in Texas since the 1830s, collected by Lorenzo de Zavala, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and the Republic’s first vice president, during his time as Minister to France. He planted it at his home in Lynchburg, near Houston.

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Name this rose

Posted on April 20, 2007 | Comments Off on Name this rose

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Got any idea what this rose is? Planted by a previous owner of the rancho, it blossomed yesterday, presenting a mystery. It might be a Polyantha called Mme. Norbert LeVasseur, or it might be a China called Martha Gonzales. But I’m not sure because it doesn’t wholly resemble either one. So what is it?

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