The more I know of the shrub rose, Rosa \u2018Mutabilis\u2019, the more I believe it is a metaphor for life.\u00a0 Think of it–the tightly furled buds are a saucy peach shade that speaks of the flirtatiousness of youth.\u00a0 Those racy young things open into sensible pink blooms, in a bow to the combination of vigor and respectability that epitomizes the prime of life.\u00a0 In old age, those same flowers ripen to a glorious, rich rose color, symbolizing the depth of experience that comes with a life well lived.<\/p>\n
Metaphors are great and glorious things, but what if you just want a first-rate garden plant?<\/p>\n
\u2018Mutabilis\u2019 is truly marvelous in and of itself.\u00a0 The shrubs rise from three to six feet tall, depending on the climate, with wine-red young stems.\u00a0 They are among the first to bloom in spring and continue to offer up flowers until hard frost in the fall.\u00a0 Because of their changeable nature, every shrub features all three flower colors at the same time, in a constantly changing array.\u00a0 Fastidious gardeners cherish \u2018Mutabilis\u2019 because the rose is self-cleaning.\u00a0 Instead of turning brown and disgusting before leaving the scene, \u2018Mutabilis\u2019 petals simply fall gracefully from the plants, leaving nothing but pretty memories.<\/p>\n
People used to the many-petaled hybrid teas that defined mid-century American gardens may not be impressed with \u2018Mutabilis\u2019, nor will lovers of the sumptuous old roses with flowerheads so lush that they seem to explode from the bushes.\u00a0 \u2018Mutabilis, which is sometimes also called \u2018Butterfly Rose\u2019 or \u2018Tipo Ideal\u2019\u2014\u2018Ideal Type\u2019–in English, is simpler and more subtle.\u00a0 The flowers appear in the five-petaled configuration of the wild roses from which they descended, with a scent that is light and elusive.\u00a0 Known in the west since 1894, the variety has been grown in China for much longer and is often grouped with the ancient Chinese roses that are the ancestors of most modern rose varieties.<\/p>\n
I sometimes refer to it simply as \u201cthe Chinese rose\u201d.\u00a0 Whatever you call it, the flowers justify the butterfly nickname, appearing as if they had multi-colored wings.\u00a0 If the blooms take flight and touch down in cut flower arrangements, they last reasonably well, as long as you clip them while still in bud.<\/p>\n
In yet another life metaphor, my \u2018Mutabilis\u2019 has survived some tough experiences.\u00a0 It is probably about fifteen years old.\u00a0 At times, with cooperative weather, it has soared to great heights and produced hundreds of blooms over long growing seasons.\u00a0 A few years ago, however, a particularly hard winter killed off many of the canes and I feared for the shrub\u2019s survival.\u00a0 When I looked closely, I saw that some slender canes survived the wind and temperature onslaught and leafed out on schedule.\u00a0 A massive pruning effort took care of the dead appendages, allowing the living ones a little more air and sunshine.\u00a0 \u2018Mutabilis\u2019 lived to bloom another day and now a more compact bush seems ready to conquer the garden once more.<\/p>\n
\u2018Mutabilis\u2019 has a completely carefree nature, which has made it a favorite of rosarians at botanical gardens and other institutions.\u00a0 I saw one blooming in great profusion at the fashionable High Line in New York City.\u00a0 It was one of the few roses included in that singular landscape and fit well with the naturalistic planting scheme.\u00a0 The butterfly rose has also landed in the civilized and beautiful confines of the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx.\u00a0 \u2018Mutabilis\u2019 is part of the Texas AgriLife Extension Service\u2019s \u201cEarthKind\u201d program, which evaluates rose cultivars for disease resistance, ease of culture and hardiness under a variety of growing situations.\u00a0 In 2005, the \u201cEarth-Kind\u201d experts named the shrub \u201cRose of the Year\u201d.\u00a0 It has also won many other accolades.<\/p>\n
If you have a bit of sunny space, you should have Rosa mutabilis.\u00a0 In fact, if you only grow one rose variety, \u2018Mutabilis\u2019 should be it.\u00a0 Forget \u2018Knock-Out\u2019; \u2018Mutabilis\u2019 has ten times the charm.\u00a0 Buy it, plant it, water it regularly until it is established and then just watch it bloom, over and over again.\u00a0 You can even grow the shrub in a very large container if your sunny space is covered with concrete, decking or other non-rose-friendly material.<\/p>\n
Not all metaphors bring as much joy as the ones embodied by Rosa mutabilis.\u00a0 Get yours at Chamblee\u2019s Rose Nursery, 10926 U.S. Highway 69 North, Tyler, TX 75706-5933; (800) 256-7673; www. Chambleesroses.com.\u00a0 The free paper catalog contains a selected listing of rose offerings.<\/p>\n
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The more I know of the shrub rose, Rosa \u2018Mutabilis\u2019, the more I believe it is a metaphor for life.\u00a0 Think of it–the tightly furled buds are a saucy peach shade that speaks of the flirtatiousness of youth.\u00a0 Those racy young things open into sensible pink blooms, in a bow to the combination of vigor … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3,5],"tags":[1412,1276,1410,1388,1414,1409,521,1411,1413],"class_list":["post-1888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-winter","tag-buttefly-rose","tag-chinese-roses","tag-color-changing-plants","tag-earth-kind-roses","tag-easy-roses","tag-rosa-mutabilis","tag-shrub-roses","tag-single-roses","tag-tipo-ideal-rose"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1889,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions\/1889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}