HONEYMOON DATES: 7/2-17, 2016 | Links to Honeymoon Posts
Post by Wendy
I was very excited on our honeymoon to finally visit the International Rose Test Garden in Portland, Oregon. At long last I would get to see many of the roses I had seen and read about only in books and online.
It is called a test garden because it is not just a showcase for known varieties. For decades the garden hosted All American Rose Selections trials, which tested the same roses in gardens across the nation. After that effort ended, in 2013 the American Garden Rose Selections began, which recognizes roses that are easy to care for, disease resistant, and suitable for different regions of the country.
Here are some shots of roses that were being tested during our visit:
Later on our honeymoon Granger and I stayed on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. We visited the famous Butchart gardens north of Victoria, but in the city we also found a few roses at Beacon Hill Park.
Surprisingly, the most impressive roses I saw on the trip were in a plot south of The Empress hotel in Victoria, just a five minute walk from our room at The Magnolia. It was a lovely setting with no crowds, allowing me to browse to my heart’s content.
Rose garden at The Empress
The rest of this post blends shots of roses from throughout our honeymoon. We made this a separate post from the day-by-day ones Granger is posting. I love roses as much as Granger loves Star Trek, but we both realize only some of our gentle readers will be interested in those things. I’ve sorted the shots into categories for you.
So Nice to Meet You
I was surprised to find that a lot of roses I had read about and in which I’d had lukewarm interest were quite spectacular when viewed in person. Here are a few.
Always a Pleasure
Here are some roses that are always great no matter where I see them. The Peace Rose has an interesting history, and several sports such as Love and Peace, Chicago Peace, and Glowing Peace.
Showstoppers
Here are some roses that were real showstoppers for me.
Never heard of you, but glad you’re here
I also found a few roses that I’d never heard of:
We also saw quite a few unfamiliar miniature roses:
Easy to Grow
I realize many people are not as interested as I am when it comes to growing roses, but they would like something colorful yet easy to grow. There are so many, I won’t even try to identify them. If you’re looking for a good show of color but don’t care too much if there is fragrance, anything with these words in the title are your best bet: shrub, landscape, groundcover, drift, “Carefree”, or “Meidiland”.
The Knockout roses are quite popular due to how easy they are to grow, but to me, their colors aren’t really that spectacular, they have no fragrance, the blooms aren’t very large, and they aren’t challenging enough. They truly require zero maintenance, and they’re very disease resistant.
Here are shots from the trip of roses that are easy to grow, excluding knockouts:
If you need to fill in a blank spot in a bed, any of the aforementioned easy to grow roses will do the job. The only ones I have had any experience with are Carefree Wonder and Iceberg, which were vigorous growers. The Carefree Wonder bushes “fluffed” out pretty nicely. You could use them as a hedge since they are so dense. Here are a few pics of mine:
My, you’re photogenic
There were a few beautiful roses whose names we didn’t save, but the pictures came out great:
And finally here is the rose named for the International Rose Test Garden:
Honeymoon Day 4: Columbia River Gorge >
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