A Walk Through The Garden, 2008

"Nonna Bella" (2005-1)

"Nonna Bella" was actually the second seedling to sprout. She always differed from the others in that all the others had very red stems, and Nonna never showed any sign of red in her leaves or stems until this year.

Nonna was always a very vigorous plant and by the end of the 2006 season she had grown about two dozen canes. She went dormant early—and then began breaking again, in October! In early 2007, she sprouted her first runner, and quite far away from the parent plant, too.

In 2007, Nonna was the last of "The Nine" to leaf out, but she is doing so splendidly, making many, many laterals. I have a feeling that of all of them, she will be the most likely to flower this year. I found her first bud, a nice mossy little affair, on 11 May.

By 21 May, Nonna had produced several buds, but I noticed that she was producing them much more sparingly than the other roses from her "litter." When the buds began opening in mid June, I found that I had, in most respects, a rose that was nearly identical to her seed parent, "Fa's Marbled Moss," but with several small differences which may be due to youth: fewer petals, somewhat less moss, fewer flowers per cane, and not as strong a fragrance. But she does show, occasionally, one very interesting feature that her mother lacks entirely: the occasional purple stripe.

I'm hoping that those purple stripes are something real and not an artifact, and will let a few hips self-pollinate to see what else may come of this flower.

Nonna suckered heavily in 2007 and early in 2008 I potted up the two largest suckers and brought them into the greenhouse. They didn't just grow—they flourished! No buds yet in mid-April, but maybe soon....

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