A Walk Through The Garden, 2008

'Golden Celebration'

English Rose, 1992, D. Austin

English Roses typically don't do well out here. They dislike cold winters and they seem to especially dislike our warm, drying winds. Yet every once in a while, you're walking around a nursery, and you find something you just have to take home. I took 'Golden Celebration' home and decided to give her a shot.

She immediately dropped all her leaves and went into a prolonged pout. But, rather late in the season, she decided to leaf out once again, and began blooming very well.

Over the winter she seemed to do fine; she even seemed to take our January snowstorms in stride. The late freeze in March, however, took its toll; she ended up losing about a third of her height after I pruned off the dead wood; some canes continued to die back after that.

But come April, she leafed out nicely, and bloomed with a vengeance throughout the summer. Come fall, I noticed that we was covered with hips. I took these off and, after much coddling, one seedling is now growing. No idea what it will be like especially since it was open-pollinated, but it will be fun to watch! Right now it only has two leaves.

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