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Edmunds' Roses - Fragrant Plum - The name says it all: this rose is one fruity beauty. Bountiful, plum-colored blooms with darker, smoky edges and heady fragrance reward growers of this beautiful grandiflora. The richly colored flowers, held high on long, clustered stems, are perfect for filling vases, and the lush, deep green squeaky-clean foliage provides a great backdrop for them. Hybridizer: Christensen, 1990 Bareroot Grafted Rose |
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Edmunds' Roses - This gloriously fragrant grandiflora honors the beauty and talent of this award-winning broadcast journalist and best-selling author. The Maria Shriver™ rose displays impeccable refinement with its large, fully double, pure white flowers held in neat clusters high atop long, elegant stems. Clean, polished, dark green foliage lends a formal touch. And the perfume! Maria Shriver ™ boasts the finest fragrance of any rose available on the market today. Hybridizer: Dorieux, 2004 Bareroot Grafted Rose |
Ranger Bob wanted me to plant JFK white roses but I did not find them, so I got the new rose closely related and also white - Maria Shriver. Our winter was very harsh for roses, everything fine until January, when we began to have alternating freezing and warm sunny weather.
I have had good experiences with purple roses, so I wanted to try out Fragrant Plum.
I soaked the bare root roses in a rain-barrel for days, waiting for a good day to plant them. Bareroot roses tolerate - and even welcome - a long soak: legends are told - for weeks. Soak a mint overnight and it is dead.
I trimmed the roots and the stems a bit before planting. Then I put two gallons of rainwater on each one, thanks to my far-sighted placement of rain-barrels. The rain will fall on plump new roses, which will give the plants more usable nitrogen and lots of incentives for soil creatures and fungus to grow. Veterans Honor red rose is already leafed out.
My final human effort is getting Uncle Jim's Earthworm compost to pour at each new rose.
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| Veterans Honor - red and fragrant, long-lasting in the garden and in a vase. |
