Dreaming of Spring

There is a good chance we will get some snow tonight, but we are dreaming of the roses that we will have in the spring.  We received seven roses that we ordered from Chamblee’s Rose Nursery in Texas.  Their service was fast and efficient and the plants were very healthy, some even had some green leaves on them.  Most of the varieties we ordered were varieties bred by Griffith Buck for growing in Iowa.  They are very cold hardy and fragrant.  As soon as the ground is warm enough we hope to get these in the ground, right now though the ground is frozen so all we can do is plan where to put them and dream about the flowers we will have in the spring.  The varieties we chose were:

Summer Wind, a repeat bloomer with a spicy fragrance.  It doesn’t have many petals, but the great fragrance will make up for that and it gets nice hips in the winter.  Roses with great hips are great for making rose jelly!

Prairie Breeze, only gets about 3 feet high by 3 feet wide, but with flowers like these it will be noticed.  Most of the Buck roses seem to be dark pink like these, that is my favorite color in a rose.  Buck roses also have very nice leathery foliage that is pretty disease resistant. 

I  fell in love with Buck roses years ago when I had a Country Dancer rose so, of course I had to get another for this house.  On a warm summer day the fragrance would travel clear across the yard and it was a pretty big yard so it made a real impression on passers by.

If Country Dancer is nice well, Country Song should be just as nice, right?  Well, the bush gets a little bigger going to about 4 feet.  The color is a little lighter much like it’s parents -   Carefree Beauty'  x 'The Yeoman'.  Another plus in my book is that it is a repeat bloomer, blooming clear up till frost.

Winter Sunset will have a little competition with the sunsets we have here, but I think it will keep up.  It is a hardy blooming shrub of 3 feet high and wide.  Blooming in clusters of 3-7 flowers per stem much like a floribunda.  This is one of Buck’s roses that is not pink.

Maytime is a cross between ‘Elegance' x 'Prairie Princess'.  It is a short bush about 2 1/2 feet with apricot pink blooms and a spicy fragrance.  We will probably put this one in the front of a bed or maybe in our front yard where we have a space for one short one.  We are still evaluating just how much sun that area gets.

Prairie Princess is one of the parents of Maytime (above).   Unlike its offspring it gets tall and is considered to be a climber.  It is a repeat bloomer with 1-7 blooms per stem.  The flower is a pale peachy pink with a wild rose fragrance and very disease resistant.  I have a feeling that will be a blessing because we will be too busy with the vegetable garden to have time for spraying and pampering the roses.

Last, but not least is Perle D’Or.  This is not a Buck rose, but just as hardy.  It is almost thornless and grows from 3-6 feet high.  The color is described as apricot yellow, but the only pictures I have seen are looking pink.  It has 30-40 petals and is very fragrant. 

Writing all these descriptions has made me even more anxious to smell the beautiful of fragrance of roses in the yard and then in the house in some beautiful bouquets. 

Just dreaming of the new things to come in the new year! 

May your garden be full of sweet smelling flowers and may you always remember to take time to stop and smell them!

Ferne