Homere ~ Tea Rose ~ introduced 1858

Good morning Friends ~ In my last post, I showed a picture of my sweet rose Homere. I bought this many years ago from two ladies in GA, who had a rose nursery and sold online.  One of the reasons why I bought this rose is because it is small and can be grown in a container. 

One of my commenters for last post asked if it might not be Honore.  I Honore, and while they have similar coloring, they are two different roses.

Also when I bought this rose and a few others, I was and still am, interested in the old garden roses and this is one of them. They are more hardly than the modern roses, and fit my cottage style garden better.

Here is a link to Homere which can be found at Old Roses and Beyond a wonderful website by Paul Barden.

I love roses, but especially the old garden roses.  I love their fullness, their shapes, colors and scents. I have lost some due to drought conditions, and other things, and sure do miss them. I ache when I lose a rose. I’ve not bought any in a few years now as they are not a priority in this economy.  I take cuttings of what I have and hope they root, not all do. (Looking through photos for pics of this particular rose, I saw several that I no longer have and my heart cries at the loss. But oh the joy their pictures give me after they are gone.)

It takes about three years for a rooted cutting to really take off and once this cutting does, I plan to take more cuttings, hoping a couple more will root to add to our gardens.

Here are some pictures of Homere over the years here at Plum Cottage gardens.

Feb. 2010

March 2010

June 2009

July 2009

Sept. 2009

Feb. 2008

Oct. 2008

The first bloom from my rooted cutting taken yesterday, balled up from all the rain, but still beautiful to me. I can hardly wait for this little rose to grow up, giving me larger blooms. Patience, patience.

As you head out into the world, seek flowers and let their beauty seep into you, filling you up with joy and thankfulness to the great Creator.

***

"Who can estimate the elevating and refining influences and moral value of flowers with all their graceful forms, bewitching shades and combinations of colors and exquisitely varied perfumes? 

These silent influences are unconsciously felt even by those who do not appreciate them consciously and thus with better and still better fruits, nuts, grains, vegetables and flowers, will the earth be transformed, man's thought refined, and turned from the base destructive forces into nobler production. 

One which will lift him to high planes of action toward the happy day when the Creator of all this beautiful work is more acknowledged and loved, and where man shall offer his brother man, not bullets and bayonets, but richer grains, better fruit and fairer flowers from the bounty of this earth."

Father George Schoener (1864 -1941) 
The Importance and Fundamental Principles of Plant Breeding