Elko County Rose Garden

This is an unusual plant. I have never observed any other rose with its blooming characteristics. I really don't know if it is typical of this variety or this plant has sported in a bizarre way, or has just been tagged with the wrong name. The rose was ordered from Roses Unlimited on 6/5/00. It arrived and was planted on 6/8/00. I cannot say enough good about this nursery. They are friendly, organized, helpful and have excellent service all at a reasonable cost. There are other excellent nurseries besides this one, of course, but this one is certainly among the best. This is an 'own-root' rose. The first blooms were pretty and there was nothing out of the ordinary about them.

Then it was noticed that the flowers didn't match the photos in the Dr. Buck Rose Site by Julie Gustafson. So it isn't known if this rose bush is Princess Verona, a sport, or a rose in which the tags were mixed up (not the first time from more than one supplier - or me for that matter. Will the perfect gardener please stand up!). But it was still an attractive rose.

In the beginnning

...

First Bloom

Princess Verona (?),

Buck, 1984, Roses Unlimited (71), medium pink shrub, double

Then a sort of 'alchemy' set in. The centers of the rose began to form a rather large green eye.

Then as the petals began to fade the 'green eye' continued to grow. The petals hold rather fast so they were removed by hand. What was left was this rather odd ... 'ballish-growth' (pardon the complex botanical jargon).

This 'green eye' continued to grow larger and larger as time passed. As it grew it began to develop individual buds with no stems. Then the individual buds began to open.

What you end up with is a spherical mass of tiny roses that have no stems. They are absolutely beautiful on the plant. When they are cut and put in a vase they loose a lot of their glamour and fade from a 'Thai-ruby' color to a rather dull faded pink.

One of the 'flower-balls' was entered into the Elko County Fair on September 1, 2000. It was entered as 'Princess Vernona (?) as it wasn't known if it was typical to the variety. It must have been too strange for the judges. It did not place. Admittedly, it did it loose its glamour out of the garden.

8/05/01 Up-date: Reordered rose 'Princess Verona' from Roses Unlimited and planted it on 5/03/01. It showed the same flowering trait as the first rose. The original rose demonstrated the same trait as last year, but to a lesser extent. These roses were watered less this year. I do not know if less watering is the reason or it is the nature of the beast. Whatever, it is a fun rose to own and enjoy, especially if you don't deadhead it.

New Rose:

The top two photographs were taken on 6/27/00 and 8/22/00, respectively, by Dan Turner, with a Kodak DC280 Zoom camera.

All of remaining photographs were taken during the Summer, 2000, by Rose Anderson, with a Canon Elan IIe camera.