Monday, July 14, 2014

"very satisfying"

My next rotation is another treat: I'm now in the rose garden with Sarah. Reading Amy Merrick's blog entries about (what feels like) my very own BBG rose garden, and in particular her swift dispatching of snarky rose-bashing by so many these days, was the perfect primer, and heartening; it reminded me how beautiful and whimsical roses can be, despite their prickles and the formality of the long rows of beds they're often planted in.

The Cranford Rose Garden is lush - planted almost to bursting with both once-flowering roses and repeat bloomers, and many, many perennials to help combat the diseases to which monocultures are so susceptible.



On our way to morning break, driving the little green Electruck, we discussed cottage gardens & their defining features. Sarah described them as airy, naturalistic, and usually excluding "hot" colors (oranges, yellows, reds). Watching her deftly adjusting the climbing roses, squinting a bit in the sun and never wearing gloves, reminds me of the grandmother in Swann's Way, walking her garden and loosening roses here and there with her clever, intuitive hands. 

Sarah is a baker and sometimes uses rose hips in tarts. She recommended Sahadi's for the best rose hip jam. She described the flavor as "very satisfying."

























The once-flowering roses bloomed spectacularly in June, and most are now producing hips like these. How gorgeous? They look like little persimmons; very exotic.

The roses that will continue to bloom are producing hips too, but deadheading them will encourage another round of blooms, which will in turn produce more hips to last into early fall. Today we cut back the enthusiastic Catmint that's planted there, which grow healthy swaths, and deadheaded a repeat bloomer. Its hips were a velvety smooth texture, veinless and poreless.









































During the afternoon I made my way up the rows of the repeat bloomers, which make up Sarah's "middle fifteen" beds. I thought about my own rose prejudice, and how trendy it is to talk smack about them - as outmoded, prim, high-maintenance, fussy; ecologically so apart from the washes of grasses and wildflowers that make up the very-in-vogue native flora palette that visionaries like Piet Oudolf have popularized. There is so much legitimate merit to native plantings, but a curtain of roses really is ecstasy. 











































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