Tales of the rose. It's one of those stories that goes back before myth. It's more than a flower. It's a world view. Ask any gardener who has grown one. And not all do, of course. I tried mightily to avoid them in the beginning of my earthy apprenticeship. They reminded me of my mother. But then I got hold of a peculiar catalog of "old fashion" roses that came out of a nursery in Watsonville--rather more famous for artichokes than roses. "Roses of Yesterday and Today" it was called. The "Today" roses were much like the ones I was trying to avoid--the ones my mother loves: "Queen Elizabeth," "Just Joey," "Peace." I knew the words "hybrid tea" but didn't know that it referred to a vast collection of hybridized eye candy developed in the Eisenhower Era for a new generation of post-war gardeners. The ones that had just acquired ranch-style homes on fenced suburban plots with lots of empty dirt.
But the "Yesterday" roses shipwrecked me. The siren song of rosa mundi called me and I floated into the mists of obsession...
Posted by briggs at November 14, 2002 12:27 PM