Yesterday evening, making my nightly rounds through the garden, I came upon a full-blown mystery. Several days ago, I had noticed that the bi-colored Meilland rose 'Eden Rose '88', also known as 'Pierre de Ronsard' or by its patent name, MEIviolin, had begun to open up its blooms for me.
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| 'Eden Rose '88', 2 days ago, rain damaged, |
You should be made aware that, although I've grown this rose for a number of years and although I've given it a prime south-west facing spot, I've just never been strongly impressed by this rose. It may have been named "The World's Favorite Rose" byWorld Federation Of Rose Societies, but it just doesn't perform that well here in Kansas. Oh, no doubt, I love the fully double bloom form with its creamy-white petals delicately ringed in pink. But the bush itself has had no vigor or hardiness for me, dying back to the ground each winter despite my efforts to protect it. And the canes of this rose seem weaker than most to the Kansas wind. It was, in fact, the first rose to teach me to pinch off new basal canes before they reached a three foot height, less they be split at the base by a strong gust. It is supposed to be a short climber, reaching eight or nine feet tall, but I've never seen it top three feet before the wind or winter prune it back. And finally, it is quite susceptible to blackspot late in the season, losing most of the dark leaves overnight if I don't keep my eye on it. It often forces me to break my non-spraying ethics.
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| 'Eden Rose '88' today, nipped in the bud |
But, back to the current puzzlement, I noticed last evening that every single half-open bud of this rose had been clipped off overnight. Not clipped off as if it had been properly deadheaded to the next outside-facing bud, but just the buds themselves had all been removed; at least all the buds that had been in the process of opening. Even more perplexing, right next to 'Eden Rose '88', the plump buds of 'Prairie Star', 'Cuthbert Grant', 'Ballerina', and 'Louise Odier' were completely untouched, as was, upon further inspection the rest of the roses in my garden. And worse yet, the next day the entire rose was trimmed down to about 6 inches, except for the 3 foot tall single cane at the right.
Why, pray tell me, did some wicked creature of the night single out 'Eden Rose '88' for its palate? I cannot believe, as She Who I Have to Humor (Mrs. ProfessorRoush) hypothesized, that this rose was that much sweeter to the tastebuds than any of the others. I think that's about as likely as someone or something taking offense that 'Eden Rose '88' was actually introduced in 1987, a modern cross of 'Danse des Sylphes' and the pink and white climber 'Handel' with 'Pink Wonder Climbing'. Or something taking offense that the same rose-breeding family introduced another rose named 'Eden Rose' in 1950, a pink rose not to be confused with the modern climber. There were no tracks in the area to help identify the fiendish culprit, so unless we are to blame a freakishly large hovering hummingbird, I am at a loss to even guess at a possible motive or suspect. I did take the precaution of applying my standard deer repellant in the area (
see this post). I should take the destruction as a sign and spade prune this rose once and for all. But there's just something about this rose......something that only an insane, crazed, night-pruning monster could love.
