So.....Today at work I was in the "white fenced area". This is the area we keep most of our roses. I was there to collect some Knockout roses to restock an area where we also have them closer to the entrance of the nursery as a convenience to our customers.
While I was there I noticed a rose that was growing very vigorously about two feet taller than the other climbing roses in that area. I also noticed that this rose was almost fully green to the bottom, which is a bit unusual here in the south where older growth usually starts showing signs of black spot even for the most diligent gardener. Hummm, I thought...It has a name I can't pronounce and I don't know very much about this rose. So I picked out the Knockouts that I needed and made a beeline into our office to "google" this Zephirine Drouhin. I clicked on the first link that was listed and saw that I NEEDED to grow this rose.
Zephirine Drouhin is considered an heirloom rose. It is vigorous, floriferous, highly scented and blooms spring through fall with the strongest flushes of bloom being of course in the spring and in the fall. OH OH OH did I say it was completely thornless? Well I guess I just did.
I promptly walked back out to the "white fenced area" and claimed one for my own. My only problem being now where do I put it. I have an archway at the entrance of the walkway leading to my house and thought I would put it there but then after much rethinking, I was sure it would be to vigorous a rose to use in that area since the archway is very lovely and decorative and I was worried it would be completely hidden by this vigorous grower.
In the meantime I pulled Cinda (one of our greenhouse managers) into the "white fenced area" to show her this vigorous rose that SHE needed to grow too and also showed her the link that made me fall in love with it. I expressed to her my concern about it taking over my lovely, metalwork archway. She said to me "well...don't you have a deck". EUREKA..."Yes...YES" I said (well I might have screamed that part). "I do...I do have a deck, and...and..and I have a nicely dug and amended spot right in the corner where I recently lost a shrub." To which I added "You are a GENIUS" (I might have screamed that last part also).
Tonight after I got home from work I planted my lovely Zephirine Drouhin in that already amended spot on the corner of my deck right next to the stairway that my husband and I love to sit in the early morning and look out into the back fields and woodland. I imagine that in the coming years when we sit there with our morning coffee we will have the added pleasure of enjoying the fragrance of this strongly scented and lovely rose and for this reason Zephirine Drouhin is my Plant of the Moment.
1 comment:
Oh...I look forward to next may junish when we are visiting ...might I smell the roses???
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