Old Garden Roses

Photos courtesy of Lisa Scherer

Heirloom roses line old fence posts, cover old graves, and are found in overgrown areas in Marianna. You just have to find them. They tend to get covered in vines and weeds.

Their smell is nothing like today's roses sold at retail stores. Heirloom roses are potent, somewhat fruity, whereas store-bought roses are often unscented(partly due to hybridization over the years).

These are literally forgotten roses, perhaps Alba and Gallica, that grow in West Bethlehem township along a roadway. The person who planted them has long been deceased. But the beauty of the rose lives on...partly because of the gardener, partly because conditions are right.

Rose rustlers would agree that old rosebushes are irreplaceable; rose rustlers are people who traverse countrysides in search of old roses in overgrown and abandoned homesteads and cemeteries. Their goal is to protect and preserve rare roses. 

I like to think these old roses would surely make the list of a rose rustler.

Personally, I anticipate this showy rose display every year. Even though the roses are somewhat hidden among the tall weeds, they are seen for what they are, rare beauties with delicate charm and wonderful fragrance. They too, like the people who once lived here, have a story to tell us. If we slow down and take the time, their stories will unfold before us and reveal all the magic they have stored over the years. 

"She was one of the rare ones,

 so effortlessly herself, and the world loved 

her for it." -Atticus

Update:

This is an old pale pink miniature rose growing along the road in West Beth. The rose was hidden until the township had to do their yearly trimming along the roadway and exposed the gem soon after I made this post.

Late last fall I clipped a heirloom rose hoping to propagate it. I dipped it in root hormone (which you can make with the cuttings of a weeping willow) and it rooted. I have had success in the past with propagating roses but have also been unsuccessful. Timing is everything; it is difficult to propagate a rose when it's 95 degrees out no matter how much you water or protect it.