Not all of my roses came from nurserseries. Not all of them have official IDs and names. I have several Farmgirls tht have come from neighbors in Heath. This magnificent rose was given to me by Rachel Sumner the summer before she died. She told me this was a mighty and vigorous rose. Many years before her husband was building a big garage which required substantial excavation; he piled all the excavated soil on top of her rose. She was not best pleased! However, the rose barely noticed and grew right up through all the soil to continue her robust bloom.
I took her home and planted her at the end of the Rose Walk where she thrived. Then we decided to build our Cottage Ornee, essentially a screened porch that is not attached to the house. Upon the advice of our consulting architect, we decided to use four large boulders as footings for the four corners. One had to be placed exactly where the rose, we named her Rachel, was growing. We dug her up and planted her at the other end of the Rose Walk, where she thrives to this day. See photo above.
However, we obviously left a bit of root under that boulder, because three years later another generation of Rachel joined the alba Celestial that we planted next to the boulder. See photo below. They both thrive and are putting on quite a show for the Rose Viewing. Tomorrow!
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