LADY BANKS shows her full glory in a vase by Leroy Parker.

By Carolyn Parker

CAN YOU IMAGINE making a flower arrangement for a twenty-four foot long dining table? What would you do? When asked to decorate such a table for a formal event one autumn, multiple arrangements seemed like the best idea. Come early spring, when asked again, I had another option.

ROULETII beckoned me to consider its long, delicate cascades, blooming on our side fence. My imagination flared–I could trail the gorgeous canes down the full length of the table–but how?

A shallow glass bowl, with a 6-inch diameter frog stuck to the bottom, came to mind. Placed in the center of the table, eight-foot canes anchored in the sturdy spikes of the frog, could spill in graceful drifts down the table from two sides of the bowl.

To the astonishment of admiring guests, it worked, and the pliable canes really arranged themselves. I put the arrangement together in place. The main challenge was in transporting the canes to the event, in my car, without getting caught by sharp and numerous prickles.

When invited to speak at the Denver Rose Society in April of last year, I wanted to show them ROULETII, in person, not only because it’s the rose that inspired my book, R is for Rose, but because it was in full California bloom at the time. In Denver roses wouldn’t be blooming until June. I cut a nice long cane under water, split and scraped the end, stuck it into a water tube, then coiled it into a 9” x 12” manuscript box, and into my carry-on. The day of my talk, I hid the closed box in the podium. At the appropriate moment, to oohs and ahhs, I opened the box and held the bright pink, bloom-filled cane up like a sumptuous flag.

With proper preparation, roses have astounding capabilities and the opportunities for putting them on display in interior settings are endless. I’m always amazed that lengthy rose canes will survive for days and even continue to bloom when cut from the shrub.

CÉCILE BRUNNER

My friend Susan, who’s a florist, wanted huge CLIMBING CÉCILE BRUNNER canes for a wedding arch. I told her she was out of luck, because my two climbers were finished. Then I thought of RENAE, a similar yet almost thornless climber, and went out to take a look at the blooms. They were perfect at that moment. I called Susan and told her I had some wonderful branches, but they must be cut immediately. She said, “Great, I’ll put them in my walk-in fridge.” I wasn’t sure they’d survive for four days in a cooler. On the day of the wedding ‘Renae’, a Ralph Moore rose, was fresh and beautiful and lasted through the day.

Now is the season of ravishing bloom cycles and one of my favorite things is to encourage gardeners, when they have festive occasions, to harvest their rose bounty. As I write, ‘Rouletii’ has a few blooms and a zillion chubby buds, CÉCILE'S buds have only just emerged, ‘Renae’ has a ways to go–‘Lady Banks’ is in full bloom, alongside white camellias–that’s a first! Another favorite, the red CHEVY CHASE, has just a few buds so far.

Ramblers, climbers, shrubs, new and Old Fashioned roses have so much going for them–numbers of blooms, beautiful leaves. If you choose the right sized container, and fill it with roses to overflowing, there’s really very little to do as far as arranging goes.

ROSA BANKSIA LUTEA

For the LADY BANKS arrangement shown at the top, I harvested canes into a five-gallon plastic bucket. While cutting, I kept the opening size of the large vase in mind. After filling the vase with water, I just lifted all the canes at once, with both hands, out of the bucket, and placed them into the vase. Since the LADY has no thorns, it was especially easy going, and arrangement-free.

Roses like CLIMBING CÉCILE BRUNNER (above) have so much to offer. Here are ideas for small, medium, and large arrangements. The large arrangement, in this case, was more difficult because of big thorns. I wore gloves to fill the opaque glass container. The medium bouquet is a hand gathering of many panicles, which are like bouquets-on-a-stem.

To ensure longevity, harvest canes in the morning. With a large bucket of water nearby, plunge the cut cane in immediately, and cut it again under water, so there is quick uptake. I fill the water to the top of the bucket and keep it in shade until I’m ready to arrange. If the canes are thick, split them with your shears and even scrape them a little for continuous and easy uptake.

Since the ROULETII table arrangement was such a success, it inspired many more experiments, and great expectations of my roses. This is the season, and roses definitely like to be cut and love to go to parties. Experiment and have fun with your cut roses!

Click here for an article on hand-tied bouquets.

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