'Duchesse de Brabant'

This old Tea is easily in my Top Favorite Roses list. I love the very complex, dry mingling of Tea and hardwood smoke and citrus peel into the evocative fragrance. The transparent colors 

remind me of the interior of a conch shell.

"York Street Yellow"

Years ago Denver rosarian Toni Tichy discovered this charming, vigorous and VERY cold hardy shrub rose in a yard on York Street some blocks south of Colfax Avenue, on the east side. Heavy hip setter of BIG hips; I got one so-so hybrid of it. I still suspect that it is a Brownell hybrid. It failed here in Tampa a few times but is now fairly happy in a Restricted Drainage tree pot, and once again it grows and buds and blooms best when cool. To my nose, the petals are Tea scented, but the stamens are fairly spicy, with a touch of the cinnamon-clove of Rosa moschata. I plan on crossing it with 'Duchesse de Brabant' just to see what results a few years down the road. Thank you Toni! In the late 1990s I mailed starter cuttings of it, and most of Toni's remarkable finds at Denver's Riverside Cemetery, to Heather Campbell at High Country Roses in Utah so her steadfast work  can appear in many gardens....I think she still carries it plus some of the Mystery Roses I discovered in Denver's Fairmount Cemetery plus my own hybrid 'Four Inch Heels'. John

A Honeybee Enjoying 'Old Blush'

"Barfield White Climber"

I love this VERY healthy vigorous thorn-less climbing rose for central Florida, in particular the rich, anise-fennel perfume of NEWLY opened blooms. Special thanks to Patty Barfield of 'Special Touch Roses' for years ago selling me my original plants of this very enigmatic Mystery Rose.

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.40593

Roses in winter in Tampa.....

One more reason I hated those LONG Denver winters....blooms of these and more grace my south Tampa yard today..."Barfield White Climber", 'Marechal Neil', 'Mme. Antoine Marie', 'Oklahoma', 'Louise Odier', "Pink Cracker Rose", 'Cramoisi Superieur', 'Teasing Georgia', 'Duchesse de Brabant', 'Rosa bracteata', two Mystery Red Chinas, a Mystery Polyantha from a local nursery, my own 'Sarasota Spice', "Maggie", 'Abraham Darby', "Jo An's Pink Perpetual" (from Denver's Fairmount Cemetery), 'Nastarana', 'Safrano', 'Reve d'Or', 'Graham Thomas'. Oh how I love Tampa!