#'du Maitre L'Ecole' Gallica rose Roses

[ahamiltongarden]

FROM THE ARCHIVES: TWO OF MY FAVOURITE SPRING ROSES

The quilted wine-dark roses above are David Austin’s ‘The Prince’, a superb garden bush that constantly throws up new burgundy wood and flowers. In spring the lush velvety blooms are heavy with damask infused petals. It really is quite remarkable then. The flowers at other times are lovely but not as spectacular. The charming striped rose here is ‘Rosa Mundi’, one of my all time favourite Gallica roses. I absolutely adore this rose and wait all year for its short period of bloom. It comes and goes so quickly. Our two low plants flower in our box edged front garden in mid-November, the pair of miniature Centifolia roses ‘Du Meaux’ flowering before ‘RM’ and the two Gallica roses ‘Du Maitre L’Ecole’ flowering afterwards. If we have had excessive rain the leaves of ‘RM’ do mildew a little but it doesn’t mar the effect too much. The flowers are very transitory and don’t last in a vase but that only makes one treasure them all the more. I love the boss of golden yellow stamens against the pink and white colouring. Our bushes of lovely rough bright green foliage have their bristly stems staked with bamboo to train and balance the shape of the bush and to ensure that the flowers don't drag the stems downwards..The latter is a sport or mutation from Rosa ‘Versicolour’, the old medicinal rose. These very old roses are such a joy. They are actually living antiques that have survived the vicissitudes of time and taste. The hand painted saucer is Gien.