Tuesday, December 7, 2010

The amazing transformation of Cecile

We have been in our present house for 4 years now, so most of the plants in my garden are still pretty young. However, we did inherit some roses from the previous owners, an elderly couple who neglected their garden for many years (we still dig out crushed soda cans from the beds). One of those sadly neglected roses was what turned out to be Cecile Brunner, a climbing polyantha. When we saw it first in November 2006 it had five smallish canes lying on the ground and wilting. We lifted the canes off the ground and gave the rose some water and food. Next spring it bloomed and we had an id.



And what a wonderful, forgiving and generous rose it turned out to be! Growing mostly in the shade of a huge ash, with some water and a bit of compost now and then, it became a large healthy shrub with canes weeping over the retaining wall and into the lawn and giving us a wall of blooms every spring. Here it is three years later.


This rose has almost no repeat, but there are a couple of blooms and some buds on mine right now.





1 comment:

I am so glad you have stopped by!