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Walk Through The Garden, 2008A
Walk Through The Garden, 2008previous rose ------- next rose
"Andromeda"Damask x, 2005, F. Shimbo
This is an open-pollinated seedling of "Fa's Marbled Moss." It got its name from the fact that, like another of the seedlings, the leaves are full of "stars," little raised dots of paler color the size of a pencil-point. I was hoping that this would be a portent of spotty roses to come.
"Andromeda" is unique among all the FMM open-pollinated seedlings in the way it unfolds its leaves; the leaves are borne folded in half, and instead of opening like butterfly wings or from the tips back, as the others do, these seem to peel apart from the edges down as if falling away from a zipper. Curiously enough. later in the year, I realized that its leaf-opening was very similar to that of Rosa multiflora, which grows wild all over the place around here.
On 12 May, she finally showed her first bud. Though the bud was so tiny it could only really be seen with a magnifying glass, it clearly wasn't a true moss rose like some of her sisters' buds. She seems to be something I call a "demi-moss," a rose with enough moss glands to give the bud a sticky feel and an identifiable smell, but without gland stalks and frilly sepals that would make it a true moss rose.
Over the weeks, that one bud died, and Andromeda's only other bud looked to be my last hope for a flower. Two was all she made this year. The bud upon opening showed very little promise. The flower opened tiny (not more than an inch and a half in diameter), but was pleasingly quartered. The petals are mottled, marbled and spotted. There was no fragrance that I could detect.
All in all, "Andromeda" seemed to simply stall out in the spot she is in. She is competing for resources with R. multiflora and 'New Dawn,' and unlike a couple of her sisters I think she is just not shade-tolerant. This year am going to pot her up and put her in the greenhouse and see if anything good happens.