Saturday, April 28, 2012

...like a red, red rose - but which one?


Okay.  Here is a close-up of a rose in Diana Mendes' Atlanta garden.  I am hoping someone will be able to identify it.  Here's the description:  These big, bright red velvety flowers occur on a short (maybe two and a half feet tall, at most) plant.  The habit is compact; the leaves are dark green and glossy and exceedingly trouble-free.

The rose blooms heavily in May and sporadically during the summer.  In fall, when the weather cools, the shrub puts on another flush of blooms.  Diana doesn't spray, so this particular rose is pretty much immune to blackspot and also to pests, as the foliage stays healthy all season long.

Diana visits a lot of nurseries and buys what she likes.  Although she knows many of her roses by name, she doesn't remember what this one is.  This is understandable when you see the sheer number of plants in her garden at any given time.  When one flower fades, another comes into bloom.  How she packs so much into a small space (her deep borders surround a patch of lawn), I don't know.  She does say she deadheads and cuts back plants after bloom, and that certainly helps with the next season's show.

1 comment:

  1. Don't know it's name but it sure looks and sounds like the perfect red rose.

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