photo Britta
My beautiful lovely scented rose, "Gertrude Jekyll" is blooming on my balcony - I am so happy!
My young student friend Gvantsa said dreamily: "That way our roses in Georgia (Europe) smell."
This rose needs no explanation. For her it is true what Getrude Stein wrote.
"Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose."
photo Britta PS:
Did you know that in the genome of a rose exists a gen that decides how many petals the bloom will have?
It is called LG3. If you deactivate this gen the bloom becomes as thick as the bloom of a peony - the absolute record in rose-petals, I read in the German newspaper WamS, reached a rose with deactivated LG3 with 517 petals!
In the EU it is forbidden to use GM technology - even in ornamental-plant-selective breeding.
Good so - Gertrude Jekyll, the stern Victorian gardener, might have said.
Your rose looks so fragile and soft. I wanted to simply and gently reach out and caress it.
ReplyDeleteYes, Emma: the soft cool petals feel so good - when the rose flourished in my garden (not as now on my balcony) of course she had more flowers, and I sometimes used to make potpourri out of the petals.
DeleteIt is a beautiful colour rose. It seems to be out very early Britta. Is this normal for it?
ReplyDeleteI wonder too, Rachel: the roses here are in full bloom - I think (but that since a few years) that they come very, very early.
DeleteHow pretty against the white! And I didn't know about the rose petal gene. I do love roses to be bursting with petals.
ReplyDeleteMe too, Pipistrello - and that lovely smell, that is so enchanting, really, never to forget (but hard to describe).
DeleteIt's a beautiful rose. Shame to mess with it
ReplyDeleteI agree, Joanne - though Mr. Austin must have "meddled" a lot - as other rose breeders - from the (assumed) first rose which came from the Chinese province Hubei (yes, they also have good things :-) - and is supposed to be the wild ancestor of many garden roses today. (Only 5 petals - but also charming).
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ReplyDeleteI love the color of your rose, and I like reading about rose names. My yellow rose is Julia Child, a nice name.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Terra! The names of roses are so interesting - your rose is, as you of course know, the name of the woman who wrote that impressing cookbook about French cuisine, Gertrude Jekyll is my favourite Victorian gardener (stern and full of willpower - first she was an artist, but when she became almost blind, she took on gardening and "painted" with plants and flowers). I have her thick books on gardening - very interesting.
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