Honorine de Brabant

In the near future, I should post a list of roses that survived our harsh -10ºF winter and snows in unscathed fashion, but right now, I'd like to spotlight a rose that surprised me in that regard.  'Honorine de Brabant' is beginning her second full season in my garden and her 2.5 foot tall canes had absolutely no tip dieback or damage this winter.

I previously grew 'Honorine de Brabant' near my back patio, in poorer and more clay-ish soil, and she struggled and died there even though I pampered her as much as possible.  I repurchased and replanted her as a rooted band into a mixed border, in fact into a hole dug in the middle of a large clump of Miscanthus sp. grass that was too big to move and had been previously killed with Roundup.  Here, with 'Charlotte Brownell' and 'Country Dancer' to gossip with, HDB has come into her own.

'Honorine de Brabant' is reported to be a "discovered" Bourbon, by Tanne of France in 1916.  The fat buds seem to promise a rose full of petals but her dainty blooms are merely double and not so full of petals as many Old Garden Roses.  She is, however moderately fragrant, and she remains cupped and displays ample golden stamens around her pistil, a lady of some refinement.  The petals seem fragile and curl at the tips, but they stand up well to heat and wind.  I saw a few blooms from her last year when she was still small, but her rebloom is slow and stingy in my experience here and others report the same thing on GardenWeb.com.  She does have a good last Fall flush, however.  She is a healthy bush, without a trace of blackspot, and I always welcome the unique blooms of a striped rose.  I expect Honorine to top five feet tall and I hope she will retain that vase-like shape seen below on to maturity.  Did I mention that she is one of the minority of roses in my garden this year that had no winter damage?

 

I love striped roses so much, in fact, that last night I committed a rose faux pas at the "two-for-ten-dollar" sale at Home Depot.  On that particular sale rack, there were a number of wretched potted roses labeled as "Love", but the only two that were blooming had striped blooms, one identical to 'Honorine de Brabant', the other darker magenta stripes and more fully double like 'Variegata di Bologna'.  Both were strongly fragrant and I suspect some commercial grower in Oklahoma was getting rid of excess stock by labeling it with a name more recognized by the general public. I bought and planted both, although they are grafted roses, so I can compare them to my own-root specimens of those varieties.   Not very exciting as activities go, but it keeps me off the streets.

Rainy Day Scanning

During the periodic brief rains yesterday (which didn't amount to anything except running me out of the garden), I collected a few flowers to play with a scanner photograph or two.  I had forgotten over the past couple of years, during times of peak bloom, to try this method, and I had forgotten the lovely effects one can create.   This scan of 'Madame Hardy', taken against the backdrop of one of Mrs. ProfessorRoush's blouses (sssshhh, don't tell her!), is a simple and lovely composition, despite my lack of proper photo editing skills and the rudimentary software I have for doing it.  If you've ever wondered, most of the photographs on this blog are not edited beyond cropping and compressing to be posted.



I was just playing yesterday, and in a bit of a hurry, as you can see from the photo at the left.  Haste makes waste on these scanner photographs and you've got to have everything arranged just so.  Folded petals don't help the image, nor do insects or wet flowers or pollen falling from the stamens.  Still, in this picture, you should be able to find 'Honorine de Brabant', 'Alchymist', 'Variegata di Bologna', 'Allegra', 'Gallicandy', 'Survivor', 'Mountain Music', 'Duchesse de Montibello', 'Alfred de Dalmas', 'Prairie Clogger', and a couple of unknown reds.  I tried to choose the best flowers, but even the flowers I thought were perfect, like the 'Madame Hardy' above, have some rain-browned edges on closeup.  Rats.




Of course, to get rid of the imperfections, one can always move to the more abstract, as in this paint.net modification (using the "dents" setting) of another 'Madame Hardy' scan set against a black background.  This one would make a fine stained-glass window, don't you agree?

Or, one could go with an ethereal look.  This almost all white image of 'Madame Hardy' would have been better if I could have figured out a way to get the white background while also pressing down on the flowers to improve focus. Maybe next time.  Oh, and happy Memorial Day, everyone!

The Garden Approves

Cope's Gray Treefrog

ProfessorRoush was adding a few "branches" to his bottle tree yesterday and had drilled three new holes, when he noticed some of the drilling shavings were piling up in the crook of a branch atop what appeared to be a weathered wood chip.  I reached over to brush the shavings and wood chip away and at that point the wood chip opened its eyes and glared at me.  Say what you will about the quality of iPhone photographs, it's always nearby and available, which allowed me to immediately snap these pictures of my new four-fingered friend.

Six species of frogs live in the Flint Hills region, and I believe this one to be a Cope's Gray Treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis) or perhaps the Cope Eastern Gray Treefrog (Hyla versicolor), based on the characteristic enlarged toe pads.   The two species cannot be separated based on external characteristics, but only by analysis of their calls, chromosomal material, or size of their red blood cells.  This frog was already irritated beyond the point of making a sound and it was unlikely to appreciate any attempts to draw blood from it.  My references, such as Joseph Collins' Amphibians & Reptiles in Kansas,  suggest that H. chrysoscelis is the only one reported in Riley County.  These frogs are tolerant of high temperatures and climb to the treetops on warm, humid summer nights.

I don't know what this little guy is trying to say to me.  Frogs were tied with creation myths by early civilizations and worshiped as rainmakers.  There was even an Egyptian frog goddess, Heqet, who represented fertility and was depicted as either woman with a frog's head (yuck!) or a frog on the end of a phallus.  She was present at the birth of Horus and breathed new life into him.  In the Middle Ages, frogs became associated with evil and devil worship, likely from association with the three frogs of Revelations 16:13, "And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet."  I'm going to believe that my frog is beneficial and is waiting to eat any evil spirits attracted by the bottle tree (or mosquitoes, which are the same as evil spirits in my garden).

Oh yes, and, as you can see, I've already changed out the crappy green and clear bottles on my earlier bottle tree rendition.  I ordered two dozen cobalt blue bottles last Monday and then added one of our own and the two bright pink bottles to make 27 bottles.  Looks better, doesn't it?  The mauve roses blooming  in the foreground are Purple Pavement.  The pink bottles?  Well, you can call it further whimsy, but I have a theory that the pink bottles will lure the evil spirits near and the blue bottles will capture them.  Silly, but just as good a reason as any.  It seems to have attracted the frog, anyway.  The Smithsonian, the frog, and I now collectively approve of my bottle tree.

Barden's Crested Damask

The rose season has started here and I should show you the first new rose that I'm excited about.  'Crested Damask' was a 2012 addition that I obtained as a rooted cutting, or band, from Rogue Valley Roses. She isn't much of a bush yet, but the raspberry-bubblegum-pink color you see here is just shouting to be noticed above the foliage around it.   If she were a bigger bush she would stand out clear across my garden. 

'Crested Damask', or ARDmarcrest, is a 2005 introduction from the breeding program of Paul Barden.  This is a once-blooming, very double rose of  about 3.5 inches in diameter that opens in almost-quartered fashion complete with button eye, and blooms in small clusters of 3-5 flowers.  She is a cross of 'Marbree' and 'Crested Jewel'.  I was interested to see 'Marbree' in her pedigree because the first time I saw 'Crested Jewel' in bloom I thought she had a resemblance to 'Rose de Rescht' and  'Rose de Rescht' is a parent of 'Marbree'.  The fragrance is very strong and very old rose.  The bright pink color speaks favorably of itself and pops out from the green foliage around it.  And best of all, the 10 or 12 blossoms that I've seen so far have all been perfectly formed, unmarred by late freezes, winds, or sun.  I've begun to take note of roses of dark color that get baked in my summer heat, and 'Crested Damask' is not among them. 

I haven't needed to spray her nor did I see her get any blackspot last year, but she is still small-statured for me, currently about two feet tall and wide.   Planting her into fall during our third year of drought and placing her under the shade of an adjacent five foot rose probably hasn't helped the growth of 'Crested Damask', but she survived last year's harsh winter without dieback and I can attest to her hardiness in zone 5/6 (whatever last winter was).   I have seen conflicting information on the ultimate height of this rose; helpmefind lists her as a 5'-7' shrub, while Rogue Valley Roses lists her as 2'-3'.  Paul Barden himself says she is likely to be a 5 foot shrub or more.

If you come by this time of year, look across the garden for a raspberry-pink splash, and then, as you draw closer, don your sunglasses to spare your eyes from her brilliance.  As long as she stays healthy, 'Crested Damask' has a bright [sic] future in my garden.