A Walk Through The Garden, 2008

'Reine des Violettes'

Hybrid Perpetual, 1860, Millet-Malet

A beautiful rose—and a picky one! She was a new addition in 2006, bought as a potted rose already leafed out. Upon planting she immediately dropped her leaves and sulked for a month, before sending up several new canes. I was quite amazed by the plant; the leaves came up in such an array of subtle shades of color that they were almost, in themselves, as interesting as the flowers.

When The Queen finally did deign to bloom, I was not disappointed with her at all. The color was exactly what I'd read; a purply-pink shading to mauve. But her flowers are to be enjoyed quickly; two days was all I got from any of them before they shattered.

The queen's first winter was nearly disastrous; she suffered a lot of dieback and had to be severely pruned. But in the summer of 2007 she grew on very well, sending one cane almost two meters straight into the air. She overwintered well too—in mid-April that huge, long cane was breaking along its entire length.

Last year the Queen set legions of hips, each one of which I searched. There wasn't a single seed in any one of them. Nevertheless, I have gotten some pollen from her, and hopefully this summer won't be the disaster last summer was, and I'll get some crosses from her.

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