Centifolia Muscosa

This winter so far is a very mild one. Exactly one year ago we had temperatures of minus 18 degrees Celcius; today it is some 10 degrees Celcius in the day time  and 5 degrees at night. I’m sure winter will eventually arrive, but every day that we have these mild temperatures are fine by me. Side effect of course is that the roses allready are starting to sprout. This week the roses that I ordered last year from rose nursery De Bierkreek were delivered and today was a perfect day for planting five of the six new moss roses. The roots of the roses were this time beautifully wrapped in compost and plastic and the tips of the stems are dipped in wax, as to prevent them from drying out. It also saves time in digging; because of the compactness of the roots I don’t have to dig extra big holes, for spreading out the bare roots. It wil be interesting to see if there is a difference in growth for the first year.

Zoë

Today I’ve planted ‘Centifolia Muscosa’, ‘Marie de Blois’, ‘Pelisson’, ‘Soupert et Notting’ and ‘Zoë’. The sixth rose, ‘Whichmoss’, a Hybrid moss Wichurana, is temporarily ensiled, pending her planting in my homegarden. I’m very anxious to see how all these beautiful moss roses wil develop in the coming years. Luckily this year I can rent some more land adjacent to my plot, so hopefully more (moss)roses will find their way to my garden in the near future.

Soupert et Notting

The first ‘new’ ordered roses arrived this week and Friday was a perfect sunny day for planting. After clearing the plot by removing the runner beans and lots of weeds I found a nice place for ‘Précoce’ and ‘Mme Clémence Beauregard’. For the white moss rose ‘Blanche Double’ I found a good place near the purple ‘Cardinal de Richelieu’ and the soft pink Hybrid rugosa ‘mme Ballu’.

When planting I noticed that the hips wich where still on ‘Blanche Double’  where very smooth and that the plant itself is very thorny; not at all like a moss rose, but more like a Centifolia (or like the Autumn Damask ‘Quatre Saisons’). Now I’m afraid that this rose sadly is not the real ‘Blanche Double’. Maybe it is the Centifolia ‘Unique Blanche’, only that is something I will probably discover next year, when the plant will be in flower.

The owner of the nursery where I bought this rose, said it is a rare rose, which she had for the first time. When she took the rose out for me, she also noticed that the hips looked like a Portland or a Damask. That could be normal, because there are mosses, that have damask genes. She decided to watch this rose, because she is especially interested in Portlands and Damask. So now there are two ‘detectives’ watching this rose next year.

Smooth hips and lots of thorns; this is most likely not ‘Blanche Doube’