Choosing a rose

An empty spot in the garden, between a Forsythia intermedia ‘Spectabilis’ and a Rhododendron ponticum. Once flowering is over – March & April – the Forsythia is leaving behind fresh green leaves lasting till autumn. The Rhododendron is flowering just after that with bright pink flowers, reflecting in the water of a pond below. In between there is this awful concrete wall the neighbors long time ago installed, blocking not only all sunlight, but also all contacts. Very effective I have to admit – a bit similar to the Berlin Wall, certainly for small animals, such as hedgehogs. So I decided to fill the gap between the Rhododendron and the Forsythia, this time with a shrub or climbing rose. And I found one at the nursery of Lens Roses in Oudenburg, close to Ostend. I believe it is already the fourth or fifth generation cultivating roses, so they have an amazing collection of roses. If you ever go to Ostend, it certainly is worth to visit them. To fill the gap, I found the ideal rose, something in between a shrub and a climber, so I will let it start to grow like a shrub and see how it develops.

The rose I have chosen has the beautiful name Zéphirine Drouhin. It is a Bourbon-rose with rose-pink flowers repeat-flowering in summer and autumn with a dark green foliage and thornless stems. The double flowers are quite large and highly fragrant.

I managed to plant it a few years ago as a bare rooted rose, at the end of winter, hoping to see and smell roses in a few years time, replacing my Berlin Wall.

Today - on the last day of November, the rose still has a lot of flowers and buds as well as a delicious smell, which makes them also an ideal rose to put inside as cut flower. And when you enter the house, the smell is there - gorgeous - even in late autumn, replacing the sun and adding an early summer feeling.