Sunday, August 26, 2007

Hybrid Tea Rose 'Peace' and Middle Name Meme


Hybrid Tea Rose 'Peace'
Synonyms: Béke, Fredsrosen, Gioia, Gloria Dei, Madame Antoine Meilland, 3-35-40
Introduced in the U.S.: 1945 by Conard-Pyle (Star Roses)
Size and Petal Count: 6 inch flowers with 43 petals
Fragrant? : Yes, strong

I took this picture to please myself. I wanted to take a group portrait of ‘Peace’ for awhile and the opportunity presented itself at the NYBG. I used my Sigma 17-70mm lens and after I had gone through the garden with my macro lens I decided to slap the wide angle on and try a few shots. I am glad I did. With photography I am always trying to challenge myself into doing something a little different (like a group rose shot). However I often find myself retreating into what has worked for me in the past (close ups).

The Peace rose has an
interesting history
and to me it was one of the most important rose of the 20th century.

I got tagged to do a meme about “for each letter of your middle name, list a fact or statement relevant to yourself or your life. So the longer your middle name, the more facts we'll have about you. If you don't have a middle name, pick one” by
avcr8teur's blog
so I thought I would play along and try it. The only problem is I don’t have a middle name (either official or unofficial). In some ways I feel ripped off about that but I guess it I have learned to live with it. Maybe I should have joined a support group to help me deal with it. Actually I am just kidding I don’t think not having a middle name has affected my life either way. Since I don’t have a middle name I decided to use the middle part of my Internet persona Digital Flower Pictures. When I started my photography website a few years ago, which was really just for family and friends, I spent a few hours looking for an available domain name. Finally I typed in Digital Flower Pictures and decided to settle on that, mainly because it was available. It has served me well and I have shortened it to Digital Flower in many cases.

So here is my list:

F is of course for Flowers. In some ways I can’t believe I actually get paid to grow them. Their beauty is fleeting and ephemeral but I still can get a special feeling from seeing the right flower at the right time.

L is for low-key. I am actually a very quiet and low-key person. Some people take this as snobbism but that is far from the truth. I spend a lot of my life observing and usually don’t say much unless I think it deserves saying.

O is for On-line. I spend a lot of time on the Internet. It is my window to the world. It is so amazing to me that I can’t even sum it up with words.

W is for Weather. I know everybody is interested in the weather. I am way serious about the forecast though. Everything at work is weather dependent in some way and I am not just talking the daily or weekly forecast. More like the seasonal trends and long range forecasts. Somebody may say, “Oh, suppose to rain today.” I will be thinking well there is a front across the Midwest but with the split jet stream the upper level winds will probably shear the front off. I will just say, “Yes, it may rain.”

E would have to be for England. I have visited many times and even lived there two different times. The first time I lived there I was a small child. It is hard to explain but I had a lot of memories that just didn’t make sense to me, as I couldn’t relate them to anything that was familiar. However when I returned as a 20 something year old I finally figured out the memories were from England. I would be walking around various places in London and I would have a strong sense of déjà vu and I finally put it all together. I hope to go back soon as I find English life a nice counterpoint to American life. I hope the Pound drops soon so I can afford to visit my friends and tour some more of the country.

R is for Roses. I don’t know if anybody noticed I have posted about a hundred different roses on my blog. For some reason I seem inexorably tied to roses. I have been actually considered stopping taking pictures of other plants and just concentrate on roses (so I could get better at it). I don’t consider myself an elitist, far from it, but I do kind of consider roses to be an elitist type of flower, especially the modern ones. In my career I have managed several small rose gardens and I was thinking this year it would be nice to someday manage a much larger patch of roses. Funny thing is I now have a rose garden with 120+ roses to take care of. In some ways it is a total nightmare and in others I have been longing for such a challenge and I certainly got what I was hoping for.

Here is a photo that is more of my signature style:



Hybrid Tea ‘Chicago Peace’
Synonym: JOHnago
Bred: United States, 1962. Graeme Johnston.
Introduced in the U.S.: by Conard-Pyle (Star Roses)
Size and Petal Count: 6 inch flowers with 45 to 60 petals
Fragrant? : Yes, mild

No one else at Blog Catalog wanted to get tagged so I guess I am on my own. I will add links if anyone else wants to get tagged.

5 comments:

Entangled said...

Aha, another gardener/weather-watcher. I'm curious whether you read any weather blogs?

Digital Flower Pictures said...

Hi entangled, I hadn't thought about weather blogs but will look into it. The Weather Channel is the most popular channel at my house.

Anonymous said...

Hi DFP - that was such a good post. It's lovely to come across someone so passionate. I buy roses from the supermarket weekly. Most times they are fine, sometimes they just fail to open which is disappointing. Some colours are more robust than others, I never have a lot of success with white for some reason.

I bought a bouquet recently and in it was a beautiful old fashioned rose. It was a 'paper' rose I believe in a lovely pinky, lilac colour with an understated fragrance. It lasted for weeks and even when it was passed, it looked artificial. It was glorious.

I hope you get to return to England again, it sounds as if a little bit of your heart is still there.

AVCr8teur said...

Congrats for being the first to finish the Middle Name meme. As promised, I have some small San Diego souvenir prizes for you. Send me an email with your address if you're interested in receiving them.

Digital Flower Pictures said...

WFW, Thanks. You never know about the cut roses. We keep buying them on a hope though, don't we? Funny about the white ones they are usually pretty sturdy.

av, that email is on the way!