Friday, April 3, 2009

William Baffin rose.....


This is a wonderful rose that grows on the south side of my garden shed. I found it at a nursery called the Blue Moose, up in Grand Marais, Minnesota. I had watched a lot of garden shows where this was mentioned as being a tough rose, so was glad to pick it up. You can also do a search on it at garden sites and it will pull up. My rose is probably six years old now and it is almost as big as the shed. I highly recommend it for those of you who have difficulty getting roses to survive 15 below temperatures in the winter. We are borderline zone 4 or 5.
I also recommend seeing the flowers in Grand Marais in the summer time. They live in this ideal micro climate that makes their flowers grow well and also the light makes the colors of their flowers to be very bright and clear. The town sits on Lake Superior and has a large protected bay. They always have hanging planters of red, white and blue. The blue is such a strong blue that glows against the red and white flowers.
I chopped on the rose last fall as the canes do get very large and are very thorny, but the rose will bloom off and on throughout the summer. You can tell my the multiple flowers that it is a real showy plant.

1 comment:

Far Side of Fifty said...

I have this same rose planted on either side of an arbor the one does great ..the other is half its size and struggling..maybe this is the year! It is a wonderful hardy rose..and it blooms its heart out! I want it to go up and over the arbor..probably not in my lifetime:(

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