Dorothy's Rose

Like everything else this year, Dorothy's rose by the garden gate is late blooming. It has had a particularly hard time with this Spring's cold, wet weather. I don't know what old variety it is, but a rosarian looked at a bloom of it last year for me and said with its very round shaped leaves, she could be sure it came from the strain of the old yellow rose. Everything from this lineage is VERY prone to black-spot. In a wet year, this poor rose just about drops every leaf it puts out. As you can tell in the above photo, it had dropped 4/5 of its leaves. It looks like it is just canes and blooms right now; not exactly the best look. The good news is now that the warm weather seems to have arrived, the rose will put out a second set of leaves and look pretty good again by Fall. It is also growing a lot of new lateral canes off its main canes, which is also good. I do think the hot pink/fuchsia color of the blooms looks terrific against the blue/purple of the gate.A happy accident, but I will take it!

After this first big  flush , it will continue to have a few new blooms for the next six weeks or so.When the temperature is warm outside, this rose releases a very soft, floral, "girlie" scent into the air. A sweet, feminine rose just like the lady who originally planted it here.