Orangeish is the New Red

'Maria Stern'

I suppose that those who come here for the roses have been bored to tears over the last few weeks at all the daylily posts.  To some degree, ProfessorRoush agrees with you.  Daylilies are okay, I don't want to make their aficionados mad at me, but daylilies themselves get tired of hanging around for more than a day, and they come at the wrong time of the year, in the hot summer when I don't want to get out among them.  If they bloomed at a more civil time of year, say early Spring or in the cool of Autumn, I'd appreciate them even more than I already do.

But, the truth is, that the roses haven't done well enough for me to introduce new rose after new rose on the blog this year.  My new little ones have stayed little and struggled in swampy clay with all the early rain, and older roses have generally also not elicited any excitement from me.  I've lost several to Rose Rosette again, and I'm tired of watching healthy roses get too many thorns and witches broom and then start to fade.  As a consequence, I've taken a bit of a break in rose enthusiasm lately, letting the petals, as it were, fall as they may.

'Gentle Persuasion'

I'll try to keep your sap flowing, however, by showing you a few wonders that are managing to bring me fleeting joy even in the midst of my angst.  I lost one bush of 'Maria Stern' (above right) this year, but the older bush keeps struggling on, sending up a cane and bud here or there to keep me hopeful.  'Maria Stern' is just not a vigorous rose for me here on the prairie, but at least it hasn't choked on the dust of summer.  I love the color of the blooms and can't give up on it, however

Above, left, is my second start of 'Gentle Persuasion', and at least this one seems to be holding its own.  'Gentle Persuasion' is a yellow blend shrub rose introduced by Dr. Buck in 1984.  It glows both yellow and pink in my garden, and reblooms reliably, and it does seem to have gotten some disease resistance from its 'Carefree Beauty' parent.  I'm thankful for that because the other parent, 'Oregold' never did well in my garden and I gave up on it.  Right now, that's about the extent of anything I can say about 'Gentle Persuasion', however, except to add that those gorgeous blossoms have plenty of charm.

'Sunbonnet Sue'

I'm most hopeful this year for 'Sunbonnet Sue', another addition this year to my garden from the legacy of Griffith Buck.  I'm actually quite thrilled, so far, with this rose, for form, for strong fragrance, and for the gentle shading of deeper color at the center to lighter pinks and yellows at the edges.  It seems to have a little more staying power of blossom form than many Buck roses, holding that shape over several days before finally looking frazzled.  Also introduced in 1984, 'Sunbonnet Sue' is an entirely different cross than 'Gentle Persuasion', the former a cross of 'Gold Dot' and 'Malaguena', and I'm not certain yet of its disease resistance or vigor.  Time will tell.

As far as the blog title today goes, of course, it's a takeoff from the current hit show Orange is the New Black, about which I'm just as happy to attest that I've never watched.  ProfessorRoush is pretty good about keeping away from most time-killing television series, although on the other hand I'm a sucker for good movies.  Since there are no black roses, however, just really dark red and purple roses, I had to really stretch to get the "orange" in, didn't I?  Similarly is a stretch to lump the pink and yellow blend of 'Sunbonnet Sue' into the rare realm of orange roses, but I view the scope of my literary license as a broad one. So 'Sue' me.