Along the fence that separates the side yard from the street, I have two plantings of Red Ribbons, a shrub rose that does a nice job of spreading along and through a picket fence. At one time, the Tropicana standard grew here but it passed on. When it did, I took out most of the standard but, since Red Ribbons had pretty much taken over the area, didn’t bother to dig out the rest of the standard or the roots since I wasn’t planning to plant anything there again. Last year, I noticed that some suckers were coming up from the roots of the Tropicana standard but thought nothing of it. For the last few weeks, I’ve noticed that mixed in with Red Ribbons at that spot, I clearly have another rose growing as the growth habit and leaves are different enough from Red Ribbons that it really stands out. Today, it opened its first blooms. Though I suspected it was the rootstock of the old standard, a quick look at photos online confirmed it. It’s Dr. Huey, very commonly used as a rose rootstock. Though it seems more purple than the photos I’ve seen, there’s no mistaking it. Since it compliments Red Ribbons quite nicely, though it’s not a rose that I would have planted, it can stay in the garden. 🙂 I’ve got a few photos of this new rose posted on the new Dr. Huey page on the main web site.
The other roses that have bloomed thus far (Gertrude Jekyll, Louise Odier, Pat Austin, Winchester Cathedral, Zephirine Drouhin) have opened more blossoms and their photos have been added to the appropriate pages, as have new photos of the Mock Orange and the Peony. Judging from the buds, several of the other roses are getting ready to flower.
