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Rose of the Month
Fragrant Cloud

By Kim Borland, Consulting Rosarian


Picture of Fragrant Cloud

Whew !!!

Rose season 2008 is almost over. By my calculations, beginning around March 1st, I have watered 148 times, deadheaded 46 times, sprayed 28 times, fertilized about 15 times, and mulched 3 times.

I added 30 new bushes to my garden this year. As most of you saw when you were here for the picnic, I am in the process of expanding my garden significantly. While doing so there were days that I donned work gloves and headed out doors by 8am, got so involved in the raking, digging, hauling and sweating, next thing I knew it was already 4pm. So, I’ll admit on days like that with the heat index up around 100 degrees, the only word that describes it is WORK!

Fragrant Cloud, photo courtesy
of Jackson and Perkins

I’ve asked myself more than once “why do I subject my self to this…it’s only a hobby”. My neighbor has a hobby, she grows orchids. They are nicely planted in containers sitting prettily on her bay window. They stay indoors, where it’s cool and comfy’. We grow roses, our backs hurt, our fingers have blisters from pruning and clipping, and the scratches on my arms look as if I’ve wrestled a mountain lion.

All this is going through my mind as I’m working with a particularly fragrant Hybrid Tea rose named appropriately ‘Fragrant Cloud’. Introduced in 1963, by a German gentleman by the name of Mathias Tantau. A lovely tall upright bush, with dark green foliage producing enormous coral-orange blooms that have the most heavenly fragrance imaginable. A particular bloom causes me to pause for a minute and look. It’s about 4” across; color vibrant, petals symmetrically framing a pinpoint spiral center, no spots or insect damage anywhere to be seen. It is truly a site to behold, indeed the perfect rose. I then realize this is why I do it. Something this beautiful could never come easily, that’s why we work so diligently in our gardens season after season. We are Committed Rosarians. Therefore, we are willing to toil day after day under extreme conditions, because we truly appreciate the captivating beauty of that flawless rose.