The thrill of walking in the garden and sniffing a fresh, fragrant rose is impossible to describe. In the garden you are surrounded by the fresh beauty of nature - the light, the shadow, the crisp coolness of the green grass and shrubs. You thrill to the simple beauties of the out of doors. Suddenly you sense a powerful and alluring fragrance. You track it down and find a new rose blossom ready to open.
On Saturday mornings long ago I used to go down to the local nursery, hoping for just such an experience. From time to time I'd discover a plant that just looked right. Or one that smelled delicious. In one case the sweet, jasmine scent of trachelospermum jasminoides had me hunting for ten or fifteen minutes. In another the smell of Juicy Fruit gum turned out to be a popular tropical climber mandevilla Alice du Pont. When I found such treasures I would bring them home, and put them into the ground.
Roses, it turned out were among the few plants to survive my early gardening experiments. This experience, and a copy of Stirling Macoboy's Ultimate Rose Book ignited and stoked my interest in roses. Today my garden holds fifty or sixty some cultivars. And from time to time it produces a smell that sets me on a minor exploratory mission. Once it was for rose Sombreuil. More recently for daylily Hudson Valley.
For two or three weeks in June the yard is brimming with the color and fragrance of Roses. Alba roses, Rugosa roses, Hybrid Tea roses, and English roses. It is paradise on earth. I can never be sure I will smell something interesting. But when I do, the satisfaction is overwhelming. It is for this rare and serendipitous joy that I garden.
It is my sincerest hope that my own love of rose gardening will prove infectious. I hope that roses become part of your gardens, that you find them to be easy-care plants. Finally, I wish for you that some of your roses might occasionally thrill you with delicious fragrances.
Thrill to the fragrance, the color, the shape of the rose. And share it with someone you love.
mail me: steve at rosefile.com
