Midnight Blue Shrub Rose

Shrub Rose
Rosa 'Midnight Blue'
Synonyms: WEKfabpur

This rose was one of the many of thousands blooming at the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. ‘Midnight Blue’ really had a dark purple color and it had many sprays of flowers on the bush. The garden has all of the purple and ‘blue’ roses planted in one area.

My trip was important to me for a couple of reasons. I have not been as mobile as usual since my medical event in February and can’t seem to pinpoint the reason for that. This weekend I was determined to change things around and made it to the NYBG and Manhattan. Funny thing was nothing happened to me and it all worked out okay. I did get some good news from the doctor last week when the results of my nine hour brain damage test came back negative. There was average to superior brain function at every level. This was a big relief. So after getting the results back I made myself get off the couch and hit the road. This rose reminded me of the old Melissa Manchester song, which seemed a little fitting under the circumstances:
“Even though simple things become rough, haven't we had enough?
And I think we can make it. One more time, if we try.
One more time for all the old times midnight blue”


I am glad that I decided to go as the rose garden was just amazing. I have probably been there 50 to 60 times and this visit was the best by a factor of ten. As I crested the hill and looked at all the colors from far away it really floored me. How can it be described? I am not sure but think of all the roses you can imagine and place them in neat patches in a little valley and that is sort of it. The rose scent was apparent from several hundred yards away from the garden and grew stronger on the approach.

The Midnight Blue was photographed on the lower left hand corner of this photo.

Tomorrow I will try and make a review of the Emily Dickinson show at the NYBG. It was quite good and exceeded my expectations.

ABC Wednesday

Dahlia 'Melody Allegro'

Happy ABC Wednesday, as usual I will be looking to see what everyone came up with. It has been a busy week that will come to a head on Thursday night when I play my first professional gig since last Christmas. Actually it is a benefit for the family of a friend that died unexpectedly a couple of months ago. We have had a couple of rehearsals and luckily I knew most of the songs already. I did have to learn a few of the old riffs like ‘Lyin Eyes’ and ‘Rebel, Rebel’.


This first flower is a Dahlia from the Melody series. They were introduced in 2000 and seem to be sticking around. This variety ‘Melody Allegro’ was blooming at White Flower Farm. I had forgotten what allegro meant (I’m playing everything by ear these days) and looked it up. It means at a brisk tempo.

'Memorial Day' a fragrant Hybrid Tea rose and 2004 All-American Rose Selection (AARS).

I have a lot of rose pictures left over from the Rose Festival; I probably could have gone on for a couple more weeks. Here are two more pink ‘M’ roses. ‘Memorial Day’ is a Hybrid Tea rose that has a strong fragrance. This is kind of the smaller version of the flower as I had some that were really huge. This rose combines two parents that I like very much 'Blueberry Hill' and 'New Zealand'; both are great roses in my opinion. It could use a better name, as Memorial Day is always too busy a time for me!

This second rose is ‘Music Maker’ is a Buck rose (Modern Shrub) introduced in 1973. It also is a ‘stinker’; just kidding it has a strong fragrance. It blooms like a Hybrid tea with one bloom per stem. This was photographed at the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden in the Bronx.

I was going to post another ‘M’ photo but couldn’t bring myself to do it. It actually was a double m. Meager and Maple foliage. The foliage in this area is some of the worse color I can remember seeing. Sure there are a few pockets of good color and some individual trees that look good but on the whole it looks washed out and thin to me. I generally judge the foliage season by the collection of Maples at the Estate. There are 20+ species of Acer and numerous cultivars. Most are showing really crummy color compared to years past.


Edited to add:

Oops, shows how tired I am. I forgot the ABC Blogroll:

Here are some of the other blogs that are participating in ABC Wednesday. If you want to join let me know and I will add your link.

mrs nesbitts place
hin's photoblog
tech the man
a bit of this a dash of that
Little Rock Daily Photo
photoxication
Kissing the Dogwood
strolling through Georgia
Ruth's Garden Blog
dwq online
kate isis
photography by kml
AVCR8TEUR'S Blog
Salty Dogs
The Modern Goddess
Simply Sage
HeART of the Nest
author blog
kai
Mollitudes
ten forty
Neva
Ackworth born, gone West
Secluded Habitat
bidadlah.com
Gemmas House

2007 Festival of Roses ~ Grand Opening

2008 All-American Rose Selection Grandiflora rose 'Dream Come True'

2007 Festival of Roses ~ Grand Opening
Digital Flower Pictures.com

To officially kick off our Festival of Roses I have decided to feature the two All-American Rose Selections for 2008. I am sure it appears I am fascinated with the AARS winners and with my project to photograph all the winners since 1938 maybe I am. These two winners of the Class of 2008 represent a trend in rose growing to the almost over the top color blends. In the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden there is an area where they plant the AARS winners for the following year and I was looking for the 2008 winners and found ‘Dream Come True’ and 'Mardi Gras’. I kept my eyes open for more winners but later found out only two roses were selected. So I got both of them.

‘Dream Come True’ is a nice blend of yellow and red. It was hybridized by Dr. John Pottschmidt of Cinncinati, Ohio and introduced by Weeks Roses. Dr. Pottschmidt is only the third amateur rose breeder to win the AARS award. It is an eye-catching rose and I like the layers that the flower has. It seemed to grow on a fairly compact bush and the group had a lot of flowers.

Photo showing the complex color blending on 'Dream Come True'

Some specifics on ‘Dream Come True’:
Type: Grandiflora
Petal Count: 26-40
Parentage: Touch of Class x Unknown Seedling
Fragrance: Mild
Synonyms: Wekdocpot

The other AARS winner I photographed on Saturday was ‘Mardi Gras’. Again the plot of this rose was thriving and producing a lot of flowers. They seem a bit more variable than than ‘Dream Come True’. It has a beautiful blend of colors and also grows on compact plants.

Floribunda rose 'Mardi Gras'

Type: Floribunda
Petal Count: 17-35
Parentage: Arofres × Singin' in the Rain
Fragrance: Mild
Synonyms: Jacfrain
Breeder: Dr. Keith Zary, United States
Introduction: Jackson and Perkins

'Mardi Gras' reaches 3 feet in height making it good for planting in mixed perennial borders.

The following information is from the AARS website, www.rose.org

“AARS operates the world’s most rigorous plant trial program via a network of more than 20 official test gardens throughout the country and representing all climate zones. This sophisticated evaluation process results in a new crop of AARS winning roses each year, guaranteeing that only the best make it into your garden. AARS strives to identify roses that are easy to grow, and evaluates plants on more than 15 qualities, including disease resistance, vigor and fragrance.”

The 15 qualities of evaluation are:

1. Vigor
2. Fragrance
3. Disease resistance
4. Foliage
5. Flower production
6. Growth habit
7. Bud and flower form
8. Opening and finishing color
9. Stem
10. Overall value

The roses receive the care that they would normally get in a home garden.

“AARS is a nonprofit association of rose growers and introducers dedicated to bringing exceptional, easy-to-grow roses to gardeners across the county. AARS operates the world’s most rigorous plant trial program via a network of more than 20 official test gardens throughout the country and representing all climate zones.”

Festival of Roses

Hybrid Tea Rose 'Folklore'

Digital Flower Pictures.com's 2007 Festival of Roses

Today I went to the Bronx and visited the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden. The garden was so loaded with flowers as I walked down the stairs I thought it looked like a Rose Festival. That is when the idea came to me to have a Rose Festival on this blog. For the next seven days each post will feature one to several roses.

Since my friend Ki at plants and rocks.blog is pretty much posting all the flowers that bloom now in the North Temperate Zone from his great garden I figured it was a good time to just concentrate on roses. I got a lot of good pictures in New York even though I was battling bright sun and a 20 mile per hour gusty wind and I still have some pictures from the Rose Gardens I am tending and the FDR and Vanderbilt gardens, so that should be enough pictures to cover it. Some of the flowers may have already been covered by this blog, however, these will be all new photos taken within the last two weeks.

So without further fanfare or fanfaronade here is a sneak peak at the Official Digital Flower Pictures.com 2007 Festival of Roses.

This is this rose that I went to photograph. The last time I was at the NYBG this rose really captivated me. Unfortunately the pictures I took of ‘Folklore’ didn’t come out very well. That made it the first on my list this time. My heart sank a little when I first looked at the patch of ‘Folklore’ and then I saw this flower kind of inside the taller growth and spent blooms. I wish I had used a tiny bit more Depth of Field but this is what I came up with. I am a sucker for roses of this color.



I did manage to find this single flower of ‘Folklore’ on the edge of all the plants. I like the compact shape of the flower even after it opens. It really is a classic rose in all respects, shape, smell, color and size. This rose seems to get very tall, up to 8 feet, so plant it in the rear of the garden.

Here are some quick facts on Folklore:

Type: Hybrid Tea
Petal Count: 50Fragrance: Yes, Strong
Parentage: Fragrant Cloud x Seedling
Origin: Germany/W. Kordes & Sons
Color: Orange/Orange Blend
Synonyms: KORlore, Selbar 01105
ARS Rating; 8.5

More info on the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden here:
click here

Floribunda Rose ‘Chesapeake Sunset’

Floribunda Rose ‘Chesapeake Sunset’

Get ready for some Rose photos. I got some good pictures at the Peggy Rockefeller Rose garden in the Bronx. I tried mainly to shoot roses that I don’t already have pictures of. The garden itself was in fine form with thousands of rose bushes producing, I guessing here, tens of thousands flowers. I actually ran out of memory having only brought a 1 GB card with me and I went to the rose garden last. I had to manage my memory a bit which I am not used to doing as I have several cards but only brought one with me.

Here is a blurb about the garden from:
Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden

“Surround yourself with fragrance, color, and beauty each spring (beginning in late May) and fall (beginning in early September) in the award-winning Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden. Originally designed in 1916, completed in 1988, and beautifully renovated in 2006–2007, this stunning garden now displays more than 3,000 rose plants, from exquisite antique roses to modern hybrid teas, floribundas, and shrub roses.”

This is actually from a pop-up on the nybg.org site. I couldn’t figure out to get the address so I have reprinted it here in part.



I couldn’t find many references to this rose on the Internet. It is a beauty but I am a sucker for orange blends. The best I could find is that is a Floribunda Rose that was introduced in 1998. It is repeater bloomer that is hardy to USDA Zone 5. The famous American hybridizer, J. Benjamin Williams, bred this rose. Here is an article on him:
Tribute to Jesse Benjamin Williams

Floribunda Rose ‘Chihuly’

Floribunda Rose ‘Chihuly’

While visiting the Chihuly exhibit, Gardens and Glass, at the New York Botanical garden, I photographed some roses. I have been looking through some old files and doing some housekeeping and remembered what a nice rose I thought this was. It was really fragrant and of course it is a blend of some of my favorite rose colors. The bush itself was short and stout with nice coverage of flowers. I think this was good choice to name after Mr. Chihuly because like his work this rose is a complex representation of color.

The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden is one of my favorite places at the garden. Often times I have it all to myself or only have share it with a couple of other people. One thing I like is the plantings are large enough of each rose that you can often see several stages of the roses color. Now more than ever roses seem to have multi-stages of color to their blooms. ‘Chihuly’ is a rose like that. It starts off almost all orange and then gets the yellow middle parts and the delicate shading that makes it so nice. The old-fashioned double style flowers have a petal count of about 35. This rose was introduced in 2006 and seems to go by several names, which I have listed below. I often like to look up the parentage of the roses I photograph and this one is a bit convoluted. Here it is:

[(Sweet Chariot x Blue Nile) x Stephen's Big Purple] x [(International Herald Tribune x R. soulieanna derivative) x (Sweet Chariot x Blue Nile)

I am not sure how to read that one but I am going to find out. That is probably going to take some digging. Some of the names this rose goes by are:

cv. WEKsmopur
Ebb Tide™
Chihuly®

I am loading the Ipod I got for Christmas. Since I have about 3,000 songs on my computer it is going to be awhile. The amazing thing is the Ipod didn’t even come with any instructions; you have to get them from the Internet. I guess that is a sign of the future. Since I use Mac computers I have Itunes already so it was easy to get going. Later this afternoon I have to help Karen get set up with downloading the pictures from her new Nikon D80. Since she has a Dell I am going to have to find a totally different workflow than what I am used to.

Grandiflora Rose
‘Glowing Peace’

This is one from the archives again. It has been really lousy weather the last couple of days so I couldn’t really go out and snap any pictures. ‘Glowing Peace’ is a Grandiflora rose originally hybridized by Meilland Roses and introduced by Conrad-Pyle in the United States. It was produced from Sun King and Roxane and has the esteemed ‘Peace’ rose as a grandparent. I shot this picture at the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. It is a great place to shoot roses. I usually go first thing Sunday morning and briskly walk out to the Rose Garden, which is far from the Conservatory and entrance. It takes a long time before the other visitors make it out to that part of the garden so you have sometime to yourself. It is a wonderful garden filled with many types of roses.

A couple people have emailed me wanting to see some the gardens I work on. Here is kind of a crummy picture of the largest of ‘my’ gardens. Since it is private, and I mean private, we are lucky if we have 50 visitors a year, I won’t say too much about it. I have been working on it for about 20 years now. It has some very interesting plants including a forest of Lacebark Pine (Pinus bungeana), over 80 varieties of Rhododendron and a couple of species too, a large Dogwood and Holly collection and at least 15 to 20 Japanese Maple cultivars. That bluish pyramidal tree to left of the center is a Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum ‘Hazel Smith’). Boy they sure do grow fast. There are about 1,500 species, varieties and cultivars of plants that are cataloged in a big computer database.

Floribunda Rose
‘Moondance’

Photographed at the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden in Bronx, New York. I went to the New York Botanical Garden yesterday. There is a Chihuly exhibit there this summer. I hope to post something on that later this week. The rose garden was in fine shape. I have been trying to photograph all the All-American Rose Selections for a couple of years now. I have a lot of AARS images on my other website. I keep falling behind a little each year as several new varieties are picked. The older ones are the really hard ones to find. There is a garden in Los Angeles that has all the cultivars that I am thinking of trying to visit next spring. I didn’t get to go to California at all this year. I love taking pictures out there.

Anyway I got a few of the 2006 winners that I am missing and of course it was my first real look at the class of 2007. ‘Moondance’, featured here, is a double award winner. It won Floribunda of the Year and the AARS awards. It has a nice fragrance and a petal count of about 30. One of the parents is ‘Iceberg’ a white rose that I have had pretty good luck with.