Penelope

When I started growing roses, I tended to go for big sculpted brightly colored blooms. I am told many rose addicts get hooked this way. My tastes have since evolved, or, to be more precise, expanded (my lawn and my wallet were the two biggest casualties) to include more rose classes and a wider variety of plant habits, petal count, and size and color of blooms.

Penelope, an early 20th century hybrid musk rose, was one such departure from the world of hybrid teas. With each year I have spent with it I love it more and more.



I bought it as a tiny twig which now towers above the hodge-podge of perennials around it.



My plant came from Roses of Yesterday, and, if my memory does not fail me, is grafted onto multiflora rootstock.

I especially like looking at it in the morning when the sun just begins to hit the wavy petals

It spent its first few years as a mannerly 4x5' shrub, but in the last couple of years started throwing out gracefully arching 8' long canes with huge clusters of blooms.

The lovely creamy apricot color of newly opened blooms has not faded yet

Graceful or not, 8' long canes are too large :), and I have been cutting them back in half. The rose does not mind pruning at all, and I end up with a fairly small and dense shrub.

Penelope's best features are its wafting fragrance, generosity of bloom and plentiful healthy foliage.

I am not its only admirer, there are plenty of others

However, I treasure it most for its charming simplicity, a cool serenity in the heat of the summer and an ability to hold its own in the riot of color around it.