A Walk Through The Garden, 2007

'New Dawn'

I wish I had a picture of Nonna's 'New Dawn,' because mine is just a pale imitation of hers (for now, anyway). Nonna's was huge; it covered a fence fifty feet long in one direction and two others 21 feet wide in another (almost all row-houses in Brooklyn were built to a standard 21 foot width).

I found the plant I have as a very forlorn container rose at the end of a long, hot season. I was so surprised to find a 'New Dawn' of any kind that I bought her and brought her home, thinking that even if she only survived long enough to produce one flower, I would be happy enough for the old memories. Well, she did survive, and produced quite a few flowers, every one exactly as I remembered. What a thrill! I eagerly awaited the time she would grow to cover her pergola. It's not happening. To date her longest cane is about two meters. Maybe it's the altitude?

But alas, she grew very little that first season. By the next spring she had lost every last cane, and I was sure she had died. But eventually she grew new, though short, canes from the bud union. She never grew into a giant, though. I think the largest cane she produced was about two meters. But unlike Nonna's rose, which flowered once in spring and rarely, if ever, thereafter, my 'New Dawn' flowered the summer through.

I have heard people say that 'New Dawn' has a wonderful fragrance. I must say, honestly, that I have never smelled any fragrance at all from her, not now nor when I was a child. But then again, some people say 'Peace' has no fragrance, and to me it smells lovely.

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