It was rose season during my most recent visit to Olbrich Botanical Gardens - hooray!
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| Roses with allium, catmint, heuchera, geranium |
I missed the rugosa display this year (bleepers!), but I did catch the shrub roses in their full glory. The ones that impressed me the most were the ultra-hardy Canadian Explorer series of roses. They all looked so healthy and abundant! I love the flowers of any rose, but many have awful foliage and awkward shapes. The Explorers all looked great.
George Vancouver was perhaps my favorite. I had not seen this one before and found it arresting. The flowers are a brilliant coral red color - a wonderful glow in the garden!
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| Explorer rose 'George Vancouver' |
It is a relatively small plant with a tidy habit. Here it is in a mixed border with willow and geranium.
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| Explorer rose 'George Vancouver' with Salix integra 'Hakuro Nishiki' and geranium |
John Davis is my other favorite - this one is gigantic. It looks like it emerged from a fairy tale. At Olbrich they have lots of these growing up through enormous tuteurs. Here it is intermingling with an unlabeled clematis. This specimen was at least 8 feet tall - this is a close-up of its mid-section!
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| Explorer rose 'John Davis' with clematis |
Here it is growing alone, in a mixed planting with catmint, tiarella, allium 'Globemaster', and other delights. This specimen is much smaller than the others I saw - not sure if it's just younger or if they prune this one back drastically to squeeze it into the space. Either way, as you can see it makes a very dense bush smothered in full double blooms.
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| Explorer rose 'John Davis' |
William Baffin is an Explorer that is planted often up here - and it is a happy, healthy thing for sure! The individual blooms are not very fine on close inspection, but the overall effect is breathtaking when this tall climber blooms. At Olbrich they have several of these planted around the stone arches at the base of their beautiful rose tower.
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| Explorer rose 'William Baffin' |
I want to plant more roses in my garden (if I can ever remove the gigantic gravel pit from the only remaining sunny spot in my yard... long story). I think I will have to make room for an Explorer or two!
What a fabulous botanical garden you visited. We just had a visit to Balboa Park here in San Diego and found the roses in full bloom there too. The smells are intoxicating. You have some wonderful pictures, thank you for sharing your day.
ReplyDeleteI love visiting botanical gardens - such a great source of inspiration and ideas! (And lots of fun.)
DeleteThe Rose and Clematis combo is beautiful - maybe one to copy?
ReplyDeleteYes, I plan to try something similar - wish the clematis had been labeled so I knew which one it was! It seems my favorite plants are never labeled...
DeleteI have a couple of William Baffin roses overlooking the driveway. They are quite unstoppable in face of even a cold Canadian winter. I find William Baffin to be a good re-bloomer too. Sadly the fragrance is rather non-existant. Unfortunately, my William Baffin roses have become a favourite with Japanese Beetles that have infested many of our North American gardens. Last year the beetles devoured the second flush of flowers entirely. It was heartbreaking to say the least!
ReplyDeleteOh no - I hate Japanese beetles! We have them here some years really bad, some years just slightly annoying. Hopefully their population will go in a down cycle in your area now.
DeleteGlad you had a nice visit at Olbrich garden. It is a pretty nice place. We are fortunate here in Wisconsin to have so many wonderful gardens and nature areas to visit and experience both in Madison and beyond. For myself here on the shores of Lake Michigan, it really is a paradise. And though the lake is right here, it does affect the whole eastern part of the state and is part of the "garden" and vacation land that we all love. Jack
ReplyDeleteThank you Jack - yes, I do love the outdoors in our northern part of the world!
DeleteBeautiful roses! I have heard great things about Explorer roses, and these pictures look like proof! I love that John Davis with the clematis intermingled in it. What a gorgeous combination.
ReplyDeleteYes, they are a boon to us northerners who want big, vigorous climbers that can stand the cold! The individual blooms will not win a competition viewed close-up, but the garden effect is awesome.
DeleteThe roses that you highlighted really are gorgeous. Now that I have a deer fence I can plant roses and the explorers look promising.
ReplyDeleteI don't have deer in the city Carolyn, but I've had to put chicken wire around all my roses because the rabbits eat all the leaves! Hopefully that will stop when they get bigger (the roses, not the rabbits...)
DeleteThank you for sharing this Botanical garden tour! The roses are always beautiful, although to grow them in Northern garden is difficult.
ReplyDeleteYes, many roses are not happy in my part of the world - the might survive but look like they would be happier dead. The Canadian Explorers are an exception to that - super hardy, can be grown as far north as Alaska!
Deletehow gorgeous! I do have a nice little collection of roses (mostly from the previous owners of the house), but they're so incredibly ratty most of the time - black spot and all kinds of other stuff - plus they're usually strangled by the neighbors grape weeds and morning glories. I should dedicate one year to just caring for the roses.
ReplyDeleteSome roses are a royal pain, but some are not so difficult to take care of. You might want to be ruthless and rip out the old ones, replace with some easy-care modern shrub roses.
DeleteMost of the gardens in the northern hemisphere have Roses now growing in abundance, your ones are very beautiful. Here in Aberdeen its normally the very end of June before they make an appearance, well some years its July.
ReplyDeleteInteresting Alistair - I didn't know Scotland was so far behind us in the northern U.S.! I've always had the impression that northern Europe was perpetually cool, but never too cold, so actually a warmer type of climate in general.
DeleteGreat photos, especially the last one. I don't think there is anything more beautiful than a roses against a stone wall! Gorgeous. Jeannine
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