EVERYTHING'S COMING UP ROSES

Morden  Parkland "Sunrise" Rose

I am tired of writing about flood fighting and doom and gloom and am going to take a break from all that to tell you everything is coming up roses at my house! Usually all my roses are in bloom by my birthday, which was on Saturday. Because of the cool, rainy weather we're having this summer, only the Henry Kelsey, Morden Blush and an unnamed white shrub rose were in bloom, but the others are in bud.

And, thanks to my birthday, I have a few more new roses. Dan gave me a Morden Parkland Sunrise and my sister gave me a Morden Parkland Centennial. Plus, I treated myself to a Thérèse Bugnet rugosa rose. I felt I deserved to treat myself - it isn't every day that a woman officially turns retirement age, and seeing as how I won't be retiring in the foreseeable future I thought I deserved a reward for continuing to toil away.

Morden Parkland "Centennial"

You will notice that the names Morden Parkland and Explorer crop up a lot in this post. All of these roses were developed in Canada - the Mordens at Morden, Manitoba and the Explorers in Ontario and Quebec. Lovely lady Thérèse was bred in Canada in 1950 by Georges Bugnet and named for a family member. Since these roses are hardy in Canada, they're also hardy here in North Dakota.

Fortunately, Bismarck has two nurseries that carry a good selection of both types of roses, for I have absolutely given up trying to raise hybrid tea roses or the gorgeous English David Austen Roses. No longer will I grow a rose that needs fussing over or overwintering. The Canadian roses fit my needs to a "T". In fact, I don't even bother to look at roses hardy in Zone 4. I want the super duper roses hardy to Zone 3 or even 2~!

Thérèse Bugnet

I am not quite sure about the Morden Sunrise. It is the only Morden rose that even remotely comes close to yellow. Some photos on the Internet show it as all yellow, some show it as yellow with peach, and some show it a really unflattering orange. I understand that the color depends on where the rose is grown. The one Dan gave me was in bloom and definitely yellow, so I hope it continues to act that way.

Had I known about Sunrise's vagaries, I might have requested J. P. Connell, an Explorer, which starts out with a gold bud, opens to yellow and fades to cream. Yum! Or, I could have searched online for a Harrison's Yellow, the extremely hardy rose found surviving at old homesteads throughout the American West.

Morden Parkland "Blush"

I certainly have no reservations about my other gift, the Morden Centennial. It is an absolutely gorgeous hot pink. They will join the Morden Blush and the unknown white, which towers over the fence on the south side of my front yard.

Explorer "Henry Kelsey" climbing rose

Of my two climbing roses, William Baffin is the proven winner, coming back winter after severe winter. Trained on the arbor over the sidewalk leading to my house, it is both sturdy and lovely. The Henry Kelsey is planted on the other side of the arbor. Although it looks better this year than it ever has, it's still quite straggly. I have some affection for it because my niece is named Kelsey (probably why I bought it) but if it doesn't start living up to my expectations, I may replace it with good old reliable William.

Explorer "William Baffin" climbing rose

(not my rose, not my house!)

Thanks to the darned Internet, I have really been bitten by the rose bug this year. There are still more Morden Parkland roses, like Adelaide Hoodless, Cuthbert Grant, Morden Ruby, Morden Belle, Winnipeg Parks and Prairie Joy, and a great many Explorers (each named for a real Canadian Explorer). There are climbers like John Davis and John Cabot, and shrubs such as David Thompson, Martin Frobisher, Henry Hudson, Simon Fraser, (Samuel de) Champlain and (Comte de Louis de Buade) Frontenac.

When I was trying to grow hybrid tea roses it was fun to choose the ones named for a person or special event, such as Peace, Agatha Christie, Amelia Earhart, John Kennedy and Mr. Lincoln. Now I'm on a quest to find beautiful Canadian shrub roses named for interesting people like Emily Carr. When I looked her up on the Internet and read the description "Canadian artist and writer heavily inspired by the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest" I remembered that I have read a great book inspired by Ms. Carr: "The Forest Lover" by Susan Vreeland.