Honestly, who could want, or even dream, of a sunnier or more vibrant yellow rose, bright in the shadows and brilliant, nearly eye-searing, in full sunlight? The blossoms are nearly perfect, never fading until the petals fall to the ground, unblemished by rain earlier this week, and each with fragrance to rival the finest efforts of professional perfumers. In case you're wondering, "perfumer" is the correct English term for such experts in fragrances, and it is so much more appealing than the French term, "Nez" (nose).
If 'Harison's Yellow' has a flaw, a snag in its character, it is its quest for garden, or perhaps even world domination. Although I found it difficult to transplant in my first few attempts, it suckers and spreads just fine if left to its own merits, crowding out less vigorous plants to form a vast impenetrable hedge if you allow it. In this bed, it has, over time, smothered a 'Souvenir de Philémon Cochet' and, more recently, an 'Adelaide Hoodless', and currently it has a young 'Roseraie de l'Haÿ' surrounded and threatened.This, a view from the other side of the berm, better shows its unchecked spread, the mass of the previous photo extending out of the picture to the right. Four feet high, thorny and straggly and sparsely-leafed this early in the summer, at times it seems that only a true rose-aficionado could really love it. The bush is crude and its manners are rude, but then it blooms and all is forgiven.But, I ask, why not (love it)? It's extremely winter hardy, drought-resistant, and the hailstorm, just 6 days ago, pictured at left, didn't seem to damage it at all. 'Harison's Yellow' was first blooming on April 23rd this year and now, over 10 days later, it is the eye-catching focal point of my garden. Really, who cares if it takes over the world and drapes the hills with yellow? Not me, not at this moment. There's no room in my world for any other rose than 'Harison's Yellow', at least for now, and it can grow anywhere it chooses. I can move the 'Roseraie de l'Hay' if it isn't up to the fight!Though an old gardener, I am but a young blogger. The humor and added alliteration are free.
Showing posts with label Harison's Yellow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Harison's Yellow. Show all posts
Sunday, May 4, 2025
Yellow World Domination
This week is the peak bloom of Hybrid Rosa spinosissima 'Harison's Yellow' on my "rose berm", the latter a slightly-raised (domed to about 2 feet high) area of transplanted soil that was a birthday gift from my mother in the early days of my garden. According to my notes, it was planted there in 2003 from a sucker of another earlier transplant from my first garden in town. 'Harison's Yellow' is easy to root from suckers, at least if you treat it right, although my early attempts to gain "wild" suckers of this rose were failures. I'm trying not to wonder if those previous failures reflect on my talents as a gardener.
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Ugly Ducklings Shine
In the midst of an otherwise disappointing Spring flowering season, there is a gem or two popping up in my gloomy garden. 'Harison's Yellow' has won the "first blooming rose" race in my garden this year with a spectacular show that I almost missed. I saw the first bloom over a week ago, on April 24th to be exact, and then I went out of town for 6 days: Six long gardenless days where we had several storms and several inches of rain on my gardener-less garden.
I fretted away the away time, wondering repeatedly if I'd missed my yellow rose beginnings, but came back to a fully blooming bush as pictured here. Something finally is going well in the garden.
Any...way....the garden seems to be moving in fits and starts, but at least something is blooming. And getting green. And we've had several inches of rain now so perhaps, just perhaps the worst is past. The main peonies are to start soon and, warm weather permitting, I'll get the dead wood pruned out of the roses and get the repeat bloomers in a better mood to fight it out with the Japanese Beetles that will come in mid-June!
Sunday, May 15, 2022
Turnabout Transgression
Turnabout IS fair play, isn't it folks? "Any eye for an eye?" Or is it "all is fair in love and war?" Whichever the case may be, my post today is a sweet and long-awaited revenge on Mrs. ProfessorRoush, who regularly steals my photos from this blog for her Facebook page and whom, I might add, seldom gives credit for the artful photography she pilfers. I'm, as you might say, "returning the favor" with my photo-heavy blog today. Today's words are mine, but the pictures are all from HER Facebook. Ha!
Mrs. PR has even evoked emotion with her photos! Can't you just feel here the loneliness of the single native Baptisia australis (Blue Wild Indigo) among the new prairie grasses, my garden shade house far in the background? Hear it calling "here I am, here I stand, fragile yet defiant." What a nice composition and what a vivid message.
Gaze for a moment on the perfect pinkness of this 'Scarlett O'Hara' peony in silhouette, all life and color among the healthy green foliage. Since 'Scarlett O'Hara blooms early and brazenly, I refer to her as Scarlett the Harlot and so I might title this "Silhouette of the Harlot". Titles are fleeting, but beauty eternal.
Look at the beautifully photographed white Columbine above. Mrs. PR got it perfectly right, with the most focused bloom precisely placed in the upper left third. But then, as in the second photo, she incorporated depth of field with the same subject, placing the columbine in perspective against the house and cloudy sky behind it.
A few steps back, a shift of a few degrees, and yet another view echoing the first, but a different subject, this time the 'Batik' irises filling the foreground, framed between the evergreen to the right and the distant River Birch to the left. She resisted posting the 'Batik' head-on, but instead showed off its abundance, its proliferative nature at bloom time. I was impressed as well by the framing between the evergreen to the right and the distant River Birch to the leftHere, another example of photographic value of thirds, this nice double-flowered purple columbine, it's unblemished foliage in the lower left third balanced by the out-of-focused green foliage in the upper right and contrasted against the bright flowers on the left of center. The grounding weight of the columbine foliage at the base of the photo is almost palpable.
Gaze for a moment on the perfect pinkness of this 'Scarlett O'Hara' peony in silhouette, all life and color among the healthy green foliage. Since 'Scarlett O'Hara blooms early and brazenly, I refer to her as Scarlett the Harlot and so I might title this "Silhouette of the Harlot". Titles are fleeting, but beauty eternal.
We might have had to admonish Mrs. ProfessorRoush this lapse into the "Oh, Wow" centered composition of my massive and spreading 'Harison's Yellow.' In her defense it is difficult to ignore the sheer floriferousness and vivid yellow of this Hybrid Spinosissima when she's in full bloom. But even here, as you can see in the photo below, Mrs. ProfessorRoush suddenly redeemed her artwork, stepping back to use the 'Harison's Yellow' as a mere color spot in the line of the bed connecting with the Cottonwood of the background, framed within the confines of the nearer Purple Smoke Tree to the left and the American Elm to the right. Bravo! Belisima! Magnifica! Mrs. ProfessorRoush!
Sunday, May 13, 2018
Garden of Eden; Complete w/ Snake


The entire garden seems to have exploded over these 5 past days, and I think I'll catch up on my blogging and introduce you to the current bloomers at about two day intervals this week. Tonight, however, I'll leave you with this tantalizing photo of 'Harison's Yellow'. Before I left, only 5 days ago, not a single bloom was open. Now, all of them are. And to think I almost missed it!
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
The First Rose

Bright and shining 'neath a cloudy sky?
Stolen sunrays captured live,
Emerald green brushed deep inside.
Golden stamen columns round,
Over saffron pistils mound.
How and why did the first rose bloom?
Was it raindrop's sweet caress?
Sunshine, laughter coalesced,
Warmth and loam joined in success.
Graceful petals slow unfold,
Scent released from newspun gold.
Who was it saw the first rose bloom?
Felt the joy of world renewed?
First Man chose a rose to woo,
First Woman, love and home ensued.
Rose be blest, God's will be done,
Endowed to man by blazing sun.
Harison's Yellow, my first rose of 2016, opened two days ago beneath a rainy sky, the end of our lack of moisture and my drought of roses after a long winter. I did not yet expect to find gold in this confused garden, this garden askew from whipsaw fluctuations of temperature and frost, but there it was, right where I knew it should be. The coming of this captured sunshine was foretold by tulip and iris and forsythia, trumpets heralding the triumphant return of a favorite child. I'm pleased for once, at rest again, patient now for the return of life, anticipating the joy of friendships renewed.
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
It's a Yellow Kind of Day
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Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Yellow and more Yellow
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How long will my yellow phase go on? Not much longer, I think. The irises are taking center stage and a whole bunch of pink roses are about to steal the show here.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
The Rose Year Begins
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'Harison's Yellow' |
Since protocol demands that there must be a winner for "First Rose of the Year," the question was submitted to the garden judge (me), who ruled that since the garden contains two specimens of each of these roses and since 'Harison's Yellow' was the only variety to bloom on both bushes, it is the 2013 champion. "Therese Bugnet' and 'Austrian Copper' both immediately lodged protests regarding the arbitrary nature of the decision, but the judge's ruling stands.
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'Therese Bugnet' |
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'Austrian Copper' |
Today was also my birthday, and by happenstance, five new roses arrived by UPS, just in time to join in the celebration. This was the first time I've ordered from Roses Unlimited in South Carolina, and I have been pleased with their communication and the nice one gallon size of these roses, three of which are already in bud or blooming. Left to right, in the picture below, they are 'Brook Song', 'Kronprincessin Victoria', 'Prairie Valor', 'Night Song', and 'Madame Ernest Calvat'. I can already see that 'Madame Ernest Calvat', like her sister 'Mme. Isaac Pereire', wants to sprawl seductively all over her neighbors in the garden, and so immediately after planting her, I tied her up to a nice strong stake. Lord knows, a firm hand is necessary to keep these two siblings from their wanton natures.
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'Brook Song' |
Thank God, the roses have finally arrived.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Roses? April Fools, Not!
'Harison's Yellow' |
'Marie Bugnet' |
And this:
'Robusta' |
And this:
Three different roses blooming on April 1st? I understand that two of them have Rugosa blood and the third is normally an early rose; but April 1st? 'Marie Bugnet' is normally the first rose to bloom for me, starting, on average in the 1st week of May. The earliest bloom I ever saw on that bush was April 21st, in 2009. The next earliest was April 23rd, in 2005. April 1st?: preposterous! 'Harison's Yellow' has only bloomed once in April in 10 years; on April 30th, 2005. This cosmic scheduling is ridiculous. The lilacs are in peak bloom here. My earliest peony (Paeonia tenuifolia) and my earliest iris ('First Edition') have just started blooming. Tulips are starting to open. Clematis montana has just started to bloom. Daffodils have just slacked off. And my roses are blooming? A closer look reveals that rosebuds are developing on most all of my rosebushes, but perhaps in less than normal number. I'm all for being able to enjoy the scent of roses early for the season, but at this rate, we'll be done with roses blooming by May and their normal abundance may be lessened.
Looking at the odd bloom sequence, I believe what it tells me is that the bulbs and other flowers dependent on ground temperature for growth initiation are blooming closer to their "normal" time, while the plants dependent on air temperature to develop buds are being pushed by the (today) 90F degree temperatures. That's my theory anyway, and I'm sticking to it.
I know it's April 1st, folks, but this is no April Fool's. I took these pictures today, April 1, 2012. God Save the Planet.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Miss-Timing
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Rosa 'J P Connell' |
Yes, to my frequent readers, I know it's been several days since I blogged. I could offer a number of reasons; I've been sick (true), tired (true), and my gardening chores are behind (true).
But, in truth, I've been waiting for 'Harison's Yellow' to bloom. As I noted almost a week ago, 'Marie Bugnet' had begun to bloom and 'Harison's Yellow' has always been next. But it didn't bloom. And didn't bloom. Perhaps because of the (almost) frost last Monday night? The cold high 40's and 50's of the past two weeks? Canadian 'J. P. Connell' became the next of my roses to bloom a few days ago, not altogether unusual since it is another early one and planted near some stone on a south slope, but a little odd. And then came 'Morden Centennial', although the pictured bloom is not its best effort, and 'Hope for Humanity', a little blurry in the picture because of the 20 mph wind. Both are decidedly odd because they normally bloom with the main flush of roses.
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Rosa 'Morden Centennial' |
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Rosa 'Hope for Humanity' |
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Hemerocallis 'Chicago Flapper' |
And then, came this thing; what the heck is a daylily doing blooming in Kansas before most of the roses? And if I were to predict one to bloom early, it would have been 'Black-eyed Stella' or intrepid 'Stella de Oro', not 'Chicago Flapper' as pictured here. If this is a microclimate thing it is still a one-time occurrence; this daylily is at least a month early for Kansas, I think. Has the world gone mad?
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Rosa 'Harison's Yellow'....at last |
Well, at least today, on a 91F day, after highs in the mid-80's yesterday and 2 hailstorms on Friday night, 'Harison's Yellow' finally opened a bloom and brightened Mother's Day with a cheery yellow face. And I'm feeling better and two days of weekend warm weather have allowed me to catch up a little in the garden.
I just wish I didn't feel like this stinky little bloom was laughing at me for predicting the Apocalypse had arrived based on its reticence to bloom.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Harison's Yellow

This has long been one of my favorite roses but I'm convinced that my fondness for it is entirely due to the cheery bright yellow color in the early Spring. Ever the optimist, I tend to gravitate towards interaction with, and enjoyment of, plants and people that will keep my day on a cheerful note, whether it is watching the perky Robin Meade on the Morning Express of Headline News ("Good Morning, Sunshine!") or picking the next perennial to go into my garden. As a consequence, I shy away from the trendy "black" and chocolate flowers that the designers rave about and instead I choose bright colors. My garden tends to be on the flamboyant side at times, at least among the roses. Harison's Yellow is just such a cheery yellow that I can't help but feel lighter at the sight of it.

All great beauties have their drawbacks though and Harison's Yellow is no exception. This is an exceptionally thorny rose; not with great gouging thorns like 'Chrysler Imperial', but with more delicate, sharper and more numerous thorns that pierce you every which way from Sunday. It has tall gangly canes that have a delightful brown tone, but tend to sprawl in a mass. It also suckers and spreads like there is no tomorrow on the prairie. This is a rose to use as a barrier for human marauders or livestock, reportedly one of its original uses on the prairie. A final regret, however, is the musky scent carried in the blossom. Harison's Yellow has a history clouded by various myths of origin, but undoubtedly this rose is a cross from Rosa foetida 'Persian Yellow', because it carries the bright color and rotten scent of the latter parent in every bloom. From several feet away, I tend to like the aroma surrounding Harison's Yellow, but not when my nose is buried in an individual bloom.
Part of the allure of Old Garden Roses as a group is the history surrounding the roses, and there are many stories surrounding Harison's Yellow. Its introduction ranges anywhere from 1824 through 1842 in various sources, but all seem to relate its origin point as being in New York during that period. The most common story, unverified and under debate, is that it first bloomed in the garden of attorney George F. Harison on 32nd Street and 8th Avenue and was introduced by nurseryman William Price in 1830. It is also known as the Oregon Trail Rose and the Yellow Rose of Texas and seems to have followed the pioneers across the United States, leaving pieces of itself at every homestead. I always hold a picture in my mind of a heart-worn pioneer woman bringing Harison's Yellow along in the wagon as a reminder of home. Rosarians should keep in mind though, that the famous song "The Yellow Rose of Texas" refers to Emily D. West (aka Emily Morgan), a woman who reportedly aided the Texans during the Battle of San Jacinta with her ability to keep Santa Anna preoccupied in her boudoir. Lovely flowers, it seems, come in all forms and were helpful to the struggling American pioneers in many different ways.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Early Roses for the Prairie
I always treasure those first blooms of each season in the garden, as I'm sure most gardeners do. There are three shrub roses in my garden that trumpet the oncoming arrival of the main rose season that I would recommend to all my readers for their very early bloom and their other unique properties.
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'Marie Bugnet' |
The earliest rose to bloom in my garden is a somewhat rare Rugosa rose named 'Marie Bugnet'. Bred by Canadian George Bugnet in 1973, 'Marie Bugnet' is a bone-hardy cross of the Canadian roses 'Therese Bugnet' and 'F. J. Grootendorst'. The child of these respectively pink and red parents, 'Marie Bugnet' is a very well-behaved pure white rose that blooms consistently before any other rose in my garden. Continuous-flowering, double, and very fragrant, she stays about four foot tall and three feet wide and like a proper lady, she stays home and never suckers herself around the garden like other Rugosas. As an added bonus, the crinkled foliage is completely resistent to blackspot and mildew.
Two other quite different roses are not nearly as well-behaved since they tend to run around the garden throwing up clumps here or there, but they have, along with their early bloom, enough positive attributes to offset that wanton proliferation. 'Harison's Yellow' is a bright yellow cross of R. spinosissima (from which it gets the unique small leaves), and R. foetida (from which the yellow and the slightly pungent odor were inherited). An exceedingly thorny shrub, it can double as a protective security barrier beneath a window or exist simply as a bright spot in the early spring garden, but you need to enjoy its bloom when you can, for it does not repeat during the season. 'Therese Bugnet', a parent of the aforementioned Marie Bugnet, is a bright fuchsia-pink, continuous blooming Rugosa cross which blooms alongside 'Harison's Yellow' for a seasonal display and then keeps on blooming sporadically throughout the summer. I once saw an article which included the tall (six foot) 'Therese Bugnet' in a group of roses whose long canes provide extra interest by dancing in the wind, but the canes of 'Therese Bugnet' also turn a dusky red in the winter, giving some late winter color to the garden similar to that of a red-twig dogwood.
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'Therese Bugnet' (left) and 'Harison's Yellow' (right) |
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