My grandparents\u2019 house was like a small English island in the middle of a vast \u00a0American sea.\u00a0 They went back and forth to regularly to visit English relatives and the relatives, in turn, sent gifts of impenetrable black fruitcakes every Christmas.\u00a0 A biscuit tin bearing the likenesses of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth sat on the cookbook shelf, the complete works of Robert Browning had pride of place in the living room and a recording of Winston Churchill\u2019s wartime speeches, read by the man himself, was played frequently.\u00a0 I never asked my grandmother, but I am sure that wherever they were on the day of Queen Elizabeth II\u2019s coronation, they participated in the festivities via radio or television.<\/p>\n
Now the Queen\u2019s Diamond Jubilee has taken place, marking her sixtieth anniversary on the throne.\u00a0 Many American Anglophiles have found ways to mark the occasion.\u00a0 I did it by buying a rose.<\/p>\n
My husband will tell you that if I could, I would mark every occasion, from April Fools Day to National Pickle Week, by buying a rose.\u00a0 He is wrong; I am much more selective than that.\u00a0 However, there are times when only a rose will do, and the Diamond Jubilee is one of those times.\u00a0 Besides, I was walking through the garden center, minding my own business, when one of David Austin\u2019s \u2018Jubilee Celebration\u2019 roses almost reached out and grabbed me.\u00a0 I had no choice but to grab it first.<\/p>\n
\u2018Jubilee Celebration\u2019 was actually created in 2002 to mark the Queen\u2019s fiftieth anniversary on the throne, but is in the garden centers this year to help rose lovers like me celebrate the Diamond Jubilee.\u00a0 It is a beautiful shrub with glossy, dark green foliage and salmon pink blooms with touches of yellow.\u00a0 Each of the flowers on the plant I bought shows several shades of salmon.\u00a0 \u2018Jubilee Celebration\u2019, which can mature into a shrub that is four feet tall and equally wide, has a pronounced fruity fragrance as well.\u00a0 It looks to be an eminently worthy garden rose, even without the aristocratic connection.<\/p>\n
The garden at our summer cottage is also home to another great royal rose\u2014\u2018Queen Elizabeth\u2019, a floribunda bred by an American, Dr. Walter Lammerts, and introduced in 1954, just two years after Queen Elizabeth\u2019s coronation.\u00a0 Most sources agree that the rose is named in honor of the current Queen, but at least one gives the distinction to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.\u00a0 The plant is truly regal–statuesque with big, full pink blooms.\u00a0 Mine can easily reach six feet when it is happy, which is most of the time.\u00a0 The thorns are few and the leaves are glossy and almost leathery.\u00a0 If \u2018Queen Elizabeth\u2019 has a flaw, it is the flowers\u2019 light fragrance.\u00a0 However the plant is beautiful and, in my occasionally-tended garden, a very strong grower.<\/p>\n
Queen Elizabeth the sovereign is well known for her ability to stand for hours in all kinds of weather and her namesake rose has equal stamina.\u00a0 Over the last few years mine has survived a couple of hard central New York State winters with no protection and soldiered on through periods of drought as well.\u00a0 It does not get black spot in sticky summers.\u00a0 When I am on vacation I try to douse it with soapy dishwater every few days to keep bugs off the leaves, but the plant shrugs off most pests without my help.\u00a0 The long-stemmed flowers are also excellent for cutting.\u00a0 Every serious rose grower should have \u2018Queen Elizabeth\u2019 in the garden.<\/p>\n
Peter Beales, an English rose authority and breeder, introduced \u2018The Queen\u2019s Jubilee Rose\u2019 at the recent 2012 Chelsea Flower Show.\u00a0 The result of ten years of breeding effort, the sturdy rose is too new to be available here.\u00a0 It was officially presented to the Queen when she made her annual visit to the Chelsea show, and features peach-flushed white petals clustered into double flowers that are described in one article as \u201cgoblet-shaped.\u201d\u00a0 As befits a celebratory rose, it is also fragrant.\u00a0 The Beales firm\u2019s exhibit at the Chelsea show won a gold medal and also featured two other new, non-royal introductions.\u00a0 I hope that \u2018The Queen\u2019s Jubilee Rose\u2019 will make its United States debut soon.\u00a0 It will look lovely in my garden alongside \u2018Jubilee Celebration.\u2019<\/p>\n
Whether you love or hate the British monarchy, the roses dedicated to the current Queen are eminently worthy in their own right.\u00a0 Try at least one\u2014they are all easy to care for.\u00a0 And you never know–the fragrance of \u2018Jubilee Celebration\u2019 might give even the most zealous Anglophobe a craving for tea and shortbread.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My grandparents\u2019 house was like a small English island in the middle of a vast \u00a0American sea.\u00a0 They went back and forth to regularly to visit English relatives and the relatives, in turn, sent gifts of impenetrable black fruitcakes every Christmas.\u00a0 A biscuit tin bearing the likenesses of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth sat … 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":[6,2,3],"tags":[38,34,36,39,35,37,11],"class_list":["post-407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","tag-david-austin-roses","tag-diamond-jubilee","tag-jubilee-celebration","tag-peter-beales-roses","tag-queen-elizabeth","tag-queen-elizabeth-rose","tag-roses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407","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=407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":408,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions\/408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}