an old rose

 

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In a garden the size of ours I probably can’t justify too many plants that flower only once a year for a few weeks. Unless it is as severely romantic as charles de mills, a gallica rose more than two centuries old. In October and November it is smothered in shallow quartered blooms tightly packed with ruffled crimson petals. img_5024 The colour of the roses is highly variable depending on the light and the weather. It looks very pink in some of these photos but in the flesh the colour reads as a deep crimson with slatey purple tones. img_5039It has a sweet perfume which is however eclipsed by the powerful old rose scent of its neighbour gertrude jekyll. img_4908