white rose

When we were planning out the plants for the side of the house driveway I knew that

white roses, July 2012

I wanted to put a rose at the end. They are such a classic, what with the pretty scents, flowers and lovely greenery. The thing is that most roses are so high maintenance that I just can’t be bothered. What I do love however are the old fashioned apothecary roses. They are pretty, even if the blooms are less ornate and shorter lasting than the the long stemmed varieties. They more than make up for it with their hardiness, constant flowering and (very important to me) production of tasty hips. I also like that their thorny shrubiness makes them a great filler/blocker for an edge space. What we choose was one with white flowers, even if it was a bit a trial to track it down. (the pink ones are so much easier to find but I wasn’t prepared to settle since they are so very common) It has a single layer of petals but they are the lovely, pure white I wanted. It was planted last year and the mild winter meant that there was no die-back at all so it’s had a really strong start. (aside from some frost kill on it’s first batch of leaves, but that seems to have done no harm)

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