{"id":2561,"date":"2018-11-12T06:14:02","date_gmt":"2018-11-12T14:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=2561"},"modified":"2018-11-12T06:14:02","modified_gmt":"2018-11-12T14:14:02","slug":"the-life-of-the-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/the-life-of-the-party\/","title":{"rendered":"The Life of the Party"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sally<\/a>Some people are party animals.\u00a0 They may arrive early or late, but they always stay to close the place down.\u00a0 I have some roses like that.\u00a0 Now that the fall garden party is almost over, they are still awake and alive, dancing in the cold wind, putting on an exuberant show of new growth and generally behaving as if there is no tomorrow.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if there is any research on the longest-lasting garden rose varieties, but at my place, the party animals are all white-flowered.\u00a0 One is \u2018Sally Holmes\u2019, a well-loved modern hybrid musk with large, single white flowers surrounding golden centers.\u00a0 Another is a nameless, cluster-flowering white rose with a pronounced spicy fragrance.\u00a0 The blooms are small, but fully double.\u00a0 In mid-November they are still numerous.\u00a0 A spray from this plant is an instant bouquet.\u00a0 The third rose is \u2018Pax\u2019, another hybrid musk that turns 100 years old this year.\u00a0 \u2018Pax\u2019 is one of the most vigorous rose bushes I have ever encountered and has to be pruned back several times during the growing season.\u00a0 Cold does little to deter its lively nature.<\/p>\n

\u2018Sally Holmes\u2019 is awfully virtuous for such a relentless partier.\u00a0 Guidebooks call the variety a \u201cshrub rose\u201d, but \u2019Sally\u2019 has the disposition of a social climber.\u00a0 Rising six to 12 feet, the rose sends out very long canes adorned by small clusters of elegantly pointed, pink-tinged buds.\u00a0 These open to blooms that are almost flat, staring the gardener directly in the eye.\u00a0 If sun is at a premium, the rose can get along with very light shade.\u00a0 No matter what the light situation, \u2018Sally\u2019 also has the sturdy constitution of a socialite who can dance all night and still get up the next morning.\u00a0 I have never known a \u2018Sally Holmes\u2019 rose to be afflicted by that scourge of humid climates, black spot.\u00a0 Bees love the rose, but Japanese beetles and aphids seem a little less<\/p>\n

interested.\u00a0 To add to that list of merits, \u2018Sally\u2019 has the longest vase life of any rose that I grow.\u00a0 At this time of year I have to resist the temptation to cut off all the remaining buds and open flowers for indoor arrangements.<\/p>\n

The anonymous white is supported by the skeleton of a long-deceased yew.\u00a0 It looks to me like a polyantha rose, distinguished by upright clusters of small, pinky-white buds that open into exuberant little one-inch flowers.\u00a0 The canes have very few thorns, which is a definite plus; since my shrub is near the path I use to get to the outdoor tap.\u00a0 Of my three party-goers, it is by far the most fragrant and stays the longest.\u00a0 This may have something to do with its location close to the house, or it may simply be more cold tolerant than its kin.\u00a0 It is generally not the first to bloom in the spring, but its ability to carry on long after the larger roses have gone to bed, makes it highly desirable.<\/p>\n

Many roses are named for that most elusive state of being\u2014\u201cpeace\u201d.\u00a0 Pemberton most likely christened his promising white seedling rose \u2018Pax\u2019 to commemorate the end of World War I.\u00a0 In my garden, it will be blooming on Armistice or Veteran\u2019s Day, November 11.\u00a0 That seems rather fitting.<\/p>\n

\u2018Pax\u2019 is a large shrub, growing five feet tall and spreading in all directions, if it is allowed to do so.\u00a0 It blooms almost continuously throughout the growing season and keeps going until the hardest frosts hit.\u00a0 Unlike \u2018Sally Holmes\u2019 and my presumed polyantha, \u2018Pax\u2019 does not do well as a cut flower.\u00a0 The little buds and blooms look good for a day at most, before shattering into a cascade of white petals.\u00a0 This is probably a blessing in disguise, because I leave most of \u2018Pax\u2019s flower sprays on the bush to keep the garden looking a little more lively in late fall.<\/p>\n

People who talk about the fussiness of roses have never attended my late season garden party.\u00a0 When I fertilize the shrubs at all, I stop at the end of August.\u00a0 The absence of supplemental food does not seem to induce \u2018Sally\u2019 and her two friends to leave the scene.<\/p>\n

Ultimately even the longest running rose party will come to an end.\u00a0 But at a time of the year when daylight is at a premium, it is nice that a few roses stay until the last dance.\"Late<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some people are party animals.\u00a0 They may arrive early or late, but they always stay to close the place down.\u00a0 I have some roses like that.\u00a0 Now that the fall garden party is almost over, they are still awake and alive, dancing in the cold wind, putting on an exuberant show of new growth and … 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":[4,6,5],"tags":[1512,267,1979,1980,858,11,521,1498],"class_list":["post-2561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-winter","tag-sally-holmes","tag-fall-gardening","tag-pax","tag-pemberton-roses","tag-polyantha-roses","tag-roses","tag-shrub-roses","tag-white-roses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2561","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=2561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2564,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2561\/revisions\/2564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}