Roses

Molineux, a David Austin English Rose

I can't remember our garden without the roses, though we only started planting them within the last few years.  One summer we went to the Park's Seed Festival of Flowers in Greenwood, SC.  After touring the gardens and eating ice cream for several hours, we realized that most of the people were crowded into an area behind the show gardens.  "What's back there?" we wondered.  When we finally fought our way through the crowds, we realized we had hit the jackpot!  Lily, daffodil, anemone, dahlia bulbs, Vitex trees, and southern acclimated Lilac shrubs for really cheap!  Okay, so I'm not being paid to advertise Park's Seed.  The point of the story is, we found these almost dead looking bareroot roses for $1 each.  They were hybrid teas and floribundas.  So we thought we'd splurge and pick up a few.  We brought them home and planted them directly in the garden (not even knowing we were supposed to soak them in water first) but the Lord blessed them and they all lived and grew huge the next year!

So began our LOVE for these magnificent plants.  Now we are rose snobs and buy primarily English roses from David Austin.  English roses are the more elegant and fragrant cousins of the hybrid teas.  They are quite beautiful close up.  But, nothing beats the huge, hardy Grandiflora, Queen Elizabeth, who never ever stops blooming it seems.  Then there's the old pink climber our grandfather gave us (we have no idea what kind it is) that is breath-taking when it blooms in the spring and threatens to take over our garden the rest of the time.  It's hard to pick a favorite!  Here are a few we really like:       

Reine des Violettes, or Queen of the Violets

Climbing Joseph's Coat, another gift from our grandfather.
His own love relationship with roses began when
he was a little boy in his mother's garden.

The Lady of Shalott, another David Austin 

Everyone loves the roses, including our dad, who very much appreciates the beauty they add to the garden.  Every once in a while he says, "Wow.  That's a lot of roses.  Can we eat these things?"  We can, in fact, but more on that later!

One day while pruning.... Yes, I stayed away from that rose for awhile.

One of our favorites, David Austin's Young Lycidas.
How could you not love a rose named for the great John Milton?

The Generous Gardener (David Austin)

The Alnwick Rose (David Austin) has the most perfect scent.

Golden Showers Climber, one of the originals from Parks.

Not sure the name of this one, but it has the largest red blooms!

The key to our success with roses- lots of horse manure.

Beyond the temporal beauty of these flowers, roses are a gift from God to remind us of the work he is doing in our hearts and the world through His mighty power and grace.  He is turning our hard hearts in to hearts of flesh, and turning this sinful world into a garden.  Yes, paradise will be and is being restored, and the roses are a living testimony to that.  Samuel Rutherford put it as only he can:  

"Even amongst men, we see hewn stones, timber, 
and a hundred scattered parcels and pieces of a house, 
all under tools, hammers, and axes, and saws; 

yet the house, the beauty and ease of so many lodgings and ease-rooms, 
we neither see nor understand for the present; 
these are but in the mind and head of the builder as yet. 

We see red earth, unbroken clods, furrows, and stones; 
but we see not summer lilies, roses, and the beauty of a garden." 

-From his Letters

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there without watering the earth
And making it bear and sprout,
And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
 “For you will go out with joy
And be led forth with peace;
The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you,
And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
“Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up,
And instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up,
And it will be a memorial to the LORD,
For an everlasting sign which will not be cut off.”
Isaiah 55:10-13

Duncan admires the Lady Emma Hamilton.
If he could talk, he'd quote Burns.
"My luv is like a red, red rose..."