Monday, November 17, 2014

My own root, organically grown rose 'Eugene de Beaharnais' rose arrived months ago as a TINY plant, but in a decorative Water Wise Container Garden it shares with a test leek it is growing quite well. The fragrance is jaw dropping. I harvested this bloom after taking the pic and plan to use the pollen on 'Champney's Pink Cluster' tomorrow morning. Since Denver winters hammered mine there to the ground each year I thought that trying it here was reasonable. We'll see how it is three years from now. One intent of mine is to use the pollen often on 'Old Blush' to make the resulting seedlings have more China Rose blood, which could/should make them Florida Friendly. In Denver I ALMOST took fragrances like this for granted, even in alley way roses, but here in Florida this QUALITY of scent is extremely rare. In my earliest days of poring through books about Old Roses at the Denver Botanic Gardens circa1990 I went mental over this rose conceptually since it was one of the very first repeat blooming roses to evolve in Europe due to 'Old Blush' having been planted amongst the once blooming Damasks, Albas and Gallicas grown there for centuries. Due to the rich saturated color and orgasmic scent my hunch has always been that 'Eugene' is a second generation seedling of a bee/wind caused cross of 'Old Blush' and a Gallica. Back then they did not know about controlled breeding, just letting bees etc. do the work. I am starting to be hopeful about this rose for Florida.






http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.2663&tab=1