A Walk Through The Garden, 2008

“Fa’s Found Alba”

Alba? Found Rose

You never know what you will find in the East Rose Ditch. There are at least six different roses there, all related, I think. This is one I only noticed last year. I suspect it has been there for at least three years, as it already sported a couple of hips; but I never noticed it before because I never walked so far down the ditch. When I got there, rather far removed from all the other roses, I found the small bush at left, just coming into bud.

Here was a rose very like the one on the driveway, a furlong away, which matched a Rédouté engraving of "Rosa centifolia pomponis" in almost every detail. There are differences, though; the leaves are much darker, and the flowers rather lighter. Moreover, whether on the bush or cut for the house, the flowers (which open a clear pink as in the photo at right) lighten to palest blush within a day. Intriguingly, some of the petals share the spotting of "Fa's Marbled Moss" and "Fa's Morning Stars," which are in the same ditch. The color is, generally, a pale, warm pink.

In late 2006 I found one sucker of "Fa's Found Alba" and brought it into the garden. It didn't really like the move, but by the end of the summer it had grown some. In 2007, FFA put on a remarkable show of beautiful, sweetly scented flowers and then proceeded to grow like the proverbial weed. Hopefully I'll have lot of pictures to show you this year.

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