Roses Are Red and Yellow

After months of cold weather with excessive rain, our roses around the place are coming into their own. I’d almost forgotten how unusual some of them are, but they’re reminding me again with their intensely unique petals that are so striking. At this time in most years they would have already strutted their stuff. But I’m not complaining because this year the number of buds is astounding. They do better with frequent hydration and low temperatures.

So without skipping a beat I will present some of these lovelies and show you a sampling of what’s here. The yellow one with red splotches is one that cost me next to nothing 15 years ago and was called a patio rose. It was small and came in a little plastic pot. A few years after planting it I knew it was special since it had vigorous growth with plenty of flowers and was so very healthy. Somehow when we moved here it ended up next to or in the same planter as a sapling we planted. But without skipping a beat it adapted and flourished. Since then the garden around it has filled out dramatically so it is hard to see where the rose starts and other plants end. Everything seems covered in some sort of leafy greenery. But the rose doesn’t seem daunted. It just grows out of a couple of spots in the ground cover, and from the original pot as well. With its startling colors it’s a real standout wherever it appears.

I might add another rose on this post too as we do have several that are quite magnificent also, but for different reasons. But the main star of today’s blog has to be this unnamed specimen of red and yellow coloration.

As I write this, it is dusk. I just glanced outside for a brief moment and saw that another rose bush I photographed earlier today, that was studded with buds and had one open flower, now has eight open flowers. By tomorrow there might be fifteen or more. This has happened before in wet years. The bushes resemble wall-to-wall marshmallows, with delicate, fluffy, almost blousy petals that have an accelerated lifespan and are lined up near each other with hardly a leaf in sight. It’s sure easy living here in paradise amongst these beauties. Oddly enough I think that they sense my delight, since I talk to them in passing with utmost sincerity. Not sure if they raise my vibrations or I raise theirs but something seems to be working rather well.