After two long years of waiting, and an exceptionally late spring, I can finally show you “Monster’s” flowers!
These two are the from the very first bud she ever made (which I poked, prodded, photographed, cajoled, etc over at least a month), and a second flower which, when about to open, had its stem invaded by some bug or other and fell over and started wilting. I pulled off the flower, snipped off the buggy part, and put it in water. Then I finally gave up and sprayed…
I was hoping for a Purple Spotted Moss rose… but two out of three ain’t bad! These two have spots only on the petal reverses, but I’ll post a picture of a bud just opening which shows spots on the obverses as well
The whole sordid story of Monster and Her Sisters, full of twists, turns, pathos and powdery mildew can be found via the link below. She is Nightmoss x Fa’s Marbled Moss.
Your work with found and “modern” gallicas is inspirational…
I’ve been taking a similar route, but only with the scotch roses. Started when I saw an old Harison’s Yellow and thought, what a beautiful rose even without a flower. I took several hips… fed them to Dorian, my pet ringneck dove… and viola.
I have two seedlings out of three. Looking very scotch rosey with all its thorns.
One seems especially good… I’ve named it “Dorian Dove”-- because it did come from her droppings.
