In an interview, on the last page of Garden Design magazine (Jan/Feb 2007), renown garden designer Andy Cao was asked, “What is the most underrated plant?” His answer was simple, “Roses.”
Andy’s elegant response speaks volumes. I assume he was referring to species, shrub, and antique roses that are invaluable in the landscape, and for the most part, unavailable in the more common channels of commerce.
Living in the San Francisco Bay Area, I’ve had the opportunity to learn about and work with such roses, thanks to local rose nursery Vintage Gardens. I've taken it for granted that this nursery will always fulfill my rose dreams. I can’t do that any more.
With my spare time focused lately on presidential politics, I hadn’t logged onto GardenWeb for about a year, until a recent Tuesday evening when I stopped by the Antique Roses Forum. At the top of the queue, Luanne Wilson had an entry titled “Without Vintage…” She wrote that spring ’09 might be the last season for Vintage Gardens rose nursery.
After reading each anguished response (there were 60) to Luanne’s sad news, I walked into the kitchen for a cup of tea. I passed ‘Angel’s Camp Tea’ on a side table in the living room, and ‘Duchesse de Brabant’ resting in a small white agate bowl on the dining table, only to face ‘Zéphirine Drouhin’, on the kitchen counter, as I lifted the teakettle to the faucet.
I picked the three roses that morning. Each one, and many more in my garden, have been both players and celebrities in my life’s great rose adventures, thanks to Vintage Gardens. “Without Vintage…” the thrill and charm of a life devoted to roses may not have happened. Vintage fulfills my rose whims and much more.
When I became fond of ‘Poulsen’s Pearl’, I wanted more roses hybridized by Mr. Poulsen; when I acquired ‘Pâquerette’ (the first Polyantha), I wanted additional white Polyanthas; when Gregg Lowery (owner of Vintage) suggested I try the Tea, ‘Madame Antoine Rébé’, its beauty inspired a Tea rose collection. All it took was a phone call to the order desk at Vintage to fulfill my wishes.
When I was interested in rose parentage and wanted the pollen and seed parents in the same bed with their offspring, I called Vintage to order ‘Belle Isis’ and ‘Dainty Maid’, the parents of ‘Constance Spry’. And when I wanted ‘Iceberg’s’ lineage represented, Vintage sent ‘Virgo’ and ‘Robin Hood’.
When I met the granddaughter of ‘Lady Hillingdon’s’ hybridizer, at breakfast one morning, on a trip to England, our conversation about the 1910 Tea rose inspired me to order it from Vintage on my return.
When I wanted the namesake roses for renowned California rosarians ‘Barbara Worl’ and ‘Miriam Wilkins’, Vintage supplied them. Vintage sent all the above because they have a collection of over 3,000 roses–the world’s largest.
Then there were the impulse buys:
The small band (three-inch pot) of a perky apricot rose I added to my cart at the last minute. That was ‘Crépuscule’ (French for twilight or dusk). The tiny rootling now faces the setting sun as it covers six square feet of trellis.
‘Hi’, a single mini that’s about half an inch across, alights from tiny leaves on a chic shrub that looks like boxwood. The little charmer holds its own, on our patio, in a large pot.
Ah, and then there’s the gorgeous Hybrid Tea ‘Snowbird’––a productive, disease resistant wonder with an old fashioned look––the shrub is as good, if not better, than ‘Iceberg’.
On the home page of the Vintage Gardens website, Gregg Lowery writes, “The economic difficulties that all Americans face have begun to filter down to businesses, and we see a decline in sales as folks reevaluate their priorities.”
Until I read that, I thought I had the luxury of planning rose garden scenarios to suit the whims of a long and rosy future. I sobered up and wondered what I can do to help right now. First, I thought I should compile and order from that list that continuously plays “ring around the roses” in my head. Then, as a garden designer, I thought about purchasing bands of classic roses that I can grow into mature specimens. That way they’ll be garden-ready for future clients. And how about giving Vintage Gardens gift certificates for the coming holidays?
It also occurred to me that I could send rose loving friends the Vintage Gardens Catalog. It’s unique and invaluable, not only for its three thousand rose descriptions, but also for its rose lineage information. And the line drawings showing shrub size in relation to human figures has helped me countless times in my purchasing. It’s a must for the rose lover’s library.
Paula, known as Rosefolly at GardenWeb, on an uplifting note, near the end of the thread wrote, “We need to see this as a wake up call, not a signal to throw up our hands and despair. Vintage is still open. If enough roses are sold over the next season, it will stay open. It is alarming that this wonderful resource is at risk, but we can see it as a call to action.”
Let’s see. . . I want to order the gorgeous pink Teas ‘Catherine Mermet’ and ‘Maman Cochet’, the Polyantha ‘Mignonette’, the Rugosa ‘Delicata’, and . . .