Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Rosa xanthina



What a pretty thing this is when its in full bloom.  I grew them from seed, and they have become attractive small shrubs with an open habit in my school garden.  The yellow flowers are quite showy in midspring, and numerous hips are forming as I write this.  Sadly it only blooms once a year, but it also doesn't take over the garden later on like R. multiflora would if it could, as it is a major pest along our roadsides.  It does have lots of small thorns on the stems, which probably help deter deer from bothering it, at least in my experience so far they do ignore it.  It also blooms well before blackspot and other rose diseases get going in our humid weather, and I haven't even noticed if gets blackspot to be truthful.  In any case, it is a reliable early bloomer which does well without the fussing modern roses often seem to need in our climate.  Sometimes simpler is better.

2 comments:

Panayoti Kelaidis said...

Love your form of xanthine: the early yellows are indispensable. We're in the middle of the summer doldrums: ugggh.

Gardens at Waters East said...

Nice Blog. Just came across it. Living here on the shores of Lake Michigan in USA, things have their own style so I like seeing other gardens around the world. I have 13 different garden rooms here and often have the lake as a backdrop in my postings. JC