Applejack is a wonderful rose, growing on a graceful bush about 7 or 8 feet tall with single pink flowers. It doesn’t begin blooming until mid-June but I had to cheer myself up with a post and picture of a pretty pink country rose because winter is not relenting easily. The weatherman teases and promises 60 degree days and sun, but each afternoon I finally give up and build a fire in the wood stove.
Griffith Buckwas a great hybridizer of hardy roses who spent most of his working life at the Iowa State University College, later Iowa State University. He want cold hardy roses, but his choices also turned out to be disease resistant. He said, ”
”While I didn’t start to develop roses that were disease resistant, I had inherently selected for disease resistance by the manner in which I made the selections in the field. My normal procedure was to grow the seedlings in the greenhouse one year until they got big enough, and plant them out the second spring.The only attention they would get would be water and cultivation. I didn’t spray for disease. If they couldn’t hold on to their foliage, they wouldn’t properly mature, and therefore they wouldn’t overwinter well. In a sense I was selecting for those that could hold on to their foliage in spite of becoming infected with foliage diseases.”
Applejack is one of his earliest hybrids, and one of the first roses I planted here at the End of the Road. It has thrived, enduring bitter winters and winds. It requires no care except the cutting out of winter kill and spreading of compost every spring. It stands at the head of our ‘driveway’ and welcomes guests as they arrive. It is one of my very favorite roses. Unfortunately, I cannot find anyone currently selling this rose. You will find many Buck roses at Chamblee Roses – but not Applejack. If anyone knows where to buy it I would love to know as welll
Looks like I may have lost some roses this past winter. I’m at a point now where I do not replace many plants.
We have a lot to thank those people who get ‘bees in their bonnets’ for, don’t we! A lovely rose.
Denise – Do you mean you don’t REPLACE a plant with the same plant? Or do you mean – lucky you – that you have arranged things so you don’t NEED to replace plants anymore.
Cathy – We do love inventive creative people!
I got my Apple Jack Rose in 1995 from Heirloom Old Garden Roses in OR
Patty – I had to prune out a fair amount of winterkill, but Applejack looks great this year.
I just got an Applejack from Roses Unlimited, in SC.
Ellen – I LOVE Applejack. It was my Welcome! rose in Heath.