While I'm certainly a maple fanatic, I have to admit I seem to be married to a rose fanatic, and I can see the attraction (of the enthusiast as well as her roses)!
Every year the 'new rose' market is swamped with 'new varieties', but these offers have to be taken with care. Why? Because 'new' doesn't necessarily mean 'good' - problems bubble up with new varieties, and some that look great in a display garden do badly in other situations. There are 'sharp practices' around. One famous nursery is rather notorious for marketing a variety for a few years, withdrawing it for a few years, then relaunching it as 'new' when only the name is new! A couple of other nurseries who should know better find on 'old' variety that has been around for decades/centuries, then register a new name for it and claim rights over it as 'their own work'. That doesn't strike me as honest.
I like my rose flowers simple - so do the insects! So many lovely old roses only flower once in the season, but a few, above all the Chinese varieties, repeat flower through the season - they need a bit of shelter, but work hard for their place in the garden. If you want to try a Chinese rose (which has as much in common with a so-called 'China Tea rose' as a cow has with a beefburger!), the easiest to find is one called Rosa x odora 'Mutabilis' - I've even seen it in Bricomarche! It's a healthy slender bush which produces scented flowers which open honey yellow, then age through orange to pink-red, offering a very pretty delicate multi-coloured effect through its long flowering season. I've just planted a yellow version called Rosa x odora 'Yellow Mutabilis' in a newly created bed and it has already produced the first flower of the season.
If you find them addictive, most good growers will offer you a selection of Chinese rose varieties - we are SO blessed with the range of rose nurseries in France and the EU, FAR wider than the poor old UK can offer.
Here's one you won't find - I grabbed it from a nursery a few years ago just as it closed down. It rejoices in the extraordinary name of Rosa '5 Yuan'! The 'story' is that a plant enthusiast saw the parent plant growing in the garden of a Tea House in a remote corner of China, recognised it had special qualities, and bought it (the plant? cuttings?) from the Tea House owner - for the sum of 5 Yuan!
I've struggled a bit to establish this rose, but it seems to be growing away at last. It is proving very floriferous - 30 flowers at one moment on a bush less than 3ft high during the summer. Propagation may be tricky - I failed with one set of accidental cuttings last summer (that's 'gardenerese' for 'oops, I hit it with the mower'!), but will try again in due course. It has come through a horrid wet winter intact, and is covered with buds: the first flowers will open in a day or two.
Hopefully in due course I can multiply it - I know some people who would like one!
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