Chinese roses

The Changeable Rose

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The more I know of the shrub rose, Rosa ‘Mutabilis’, the more I believe it is a metaphor for life.  Think of it–the tightly furled buds are a saucy peach shade that speaks of the flirtatiousness of youth.  Those racy young things open into sensible pink blooms, in a bow to the combination of vigor … Read more

Book Review: Chasing the Rose by Andrea di Robilant

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Italian writer Andrea di Robilant has long been a man in search of the past. He mined a rich vein of family history in Lucia: A Venetian Life in the Age of Napoleon, the 2008 biography of his ancestor Lucia Mocenigo, a late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Venetian aristocrat and friend of the French … Read more