Last Roses of Season

The last roses keeping me company in the kitchen. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Last Roses of Season

Every gardening season some plant is the last blooming diehard. One year it was New England Asters that bloomed into January. Another year, blue forget me nots kept me company in flower vases until Christmas. This year in USDA Hardiness zone 5, it is shrub roses. Two in particular, a dark red and a tiny pink one.

They are growing in opposite ends of the hillside garden, both exposed to sunshine and spoiled with compost and mulch. The red one was an end of the season purchase, variety unknown since there was no tag.

To my surprise, not only is the flower large and lovely but it has a beautiful scent, a given when I try to bring roses home.

Isn’t this gorgeous? And the flower scent is divine. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Roses don’t usually have a long growing season where I live, especially hybrid teas. I have had better luck with the shrub roses, from the miniatures to the landscape ones.

Last year, I picked up these tiny pink shrub roses on sale at one of our local garden centers. They didn’t do much their first year so I wasn’t sure how hardy they would be. After all, on this limestone hillside garden the soil is not the best to grow roses. This year, however, they have been blooming continuously since they started.

The tiny pink flower is a shrub rose that has bloomed continuously since June. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The pink ones are small and delicate, a perfect size for the small flower vases I keep on a tray in my kitchen. Studies show that having live plants and flowers boost happiness and feelings of well being. In these difficult times, having even one fresh flower can brighten a day as well as brighten up a room.

As sad as I am to be picking the last flowers of the season, their beauty is a reminder to start planning to plant more next year.

Charlotte