Hello dear friends
I think if you're a regular visitor
to my blog you will have an inkling
that I'm very fond of roses.
Not just any roses though....
about 35 years ago I fell in love
with the old fashioned roses.
Such as the Damask roses
regarded for their wonderful fragrance.
They came from Iran (Persia that was).
In the tenth century there was a European
demand for rose oil.
The trade markets were concentrated in
Damascus, Syria - hence it got the name
the Damask rose.
The various branches of the old rose family
have romantic names such as the
Gallica's.
While in France this year I visited the
ancient market town of
Provins
which in the 12th and 13th centuries
was the centre of a great rose industry
based on the Apothecary's Rose.
When dried and reduced to a powder
this rose retained it's heady perfume.
Provins then became a special place on the map
and people travelled from far and wide
to purchase all manner of products derived from
this great rose!
I belong to a group called
The Heritage Rose Society.
November is the height of the flowering season
and on Saturday a friend and I
spent the morning "dead heading"
in the Nancy Steen Memorial Garden.
As you probably already know
this procedure encourages more blooms.
I will tell you more about Nancy in another post....
There were many visitors in the garden
most of them taking photos of the roses
with their super duper cameras with zoom lenses.
Probably like your cameras Donna and Eileen!!!
(I was green with envy)!
While in France this year I visited the
ancient market town of
Provins
which in the 12th and 13th centuries
was the centre of a great rose industry
based on the Apothecary's Rose.
When dried and reduced to a powder
this rose retained it's heady perfume.
Provins then became a special place on the map
and people travelled from far and wide
to purchase all manner of products derived from
this great rose!
I belong to a group called
The Heritage Rose Society.
November is the height of the flowering season
and on Saturday a friend and I
spent the morning "dead heading"
in the Nancy Steen Memorial Garden.
As you probably already know
this procedure encourages more blooms.
I will tell you more about Nancy in another post....
There were many visitors in the garden
most of them taking photos of the roses
with their super duper cameras with zoom lenses.
Probably like your cameras Donna and Eileen!!!
(I was green with envy)!
If you are still with me after all
my rabbiting on...
you'll have the message by now
I'm an old rose lover....
or should that be
a lover of OLD roses - that's better!!!
And now a cautionary tale....
My talented friend Karen of the blog
had a bad experience after making some
behind the scenes changes to her blog and the
URL
......her blog vanished
along with a 1000+ faithful followers.
Thankfully she was rescued by
the expert in all things bloggy,
Karen of Valentine Design.
Sadly her followers couldn't be rescued
so if you were a follower
please go over to Karen's blog
and re-join her blog.
I'm so glad you've come back to us Karen!
I'm so glad you've come back to us Karen!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
to all my wonderful American friends!
I'm looking forward to reading your
posts about your special day.
Thank you as always dear friends for being here
WELCOME
to my lovely new friends - it's lovely to meet you.
Merci à bientôt
be kind to one another!
♥ Shane ♥
I love a pink rose too, and these are gorgeous. I can almost smell their heavenly scent from your description, and love that pretty heart at the end. Lovely post Shane XXX
ReplyDeleteSo gorgeous! I can almost smell them from here Shane. I don't have one rose bush but I love the old fashioned wild roses that grow in the ditches here and the big old bushes that grow on old farms. Have a lovely day. It's cold and flurrying here this morning after heavy rains and mild temperatures yesterday. Pamela
ReplyDeleteWhat beautiful roses I can see why you are so fond of them. Have a blessed day. Madeline
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm a heritage rose lover too.
I picked up at the library this week a lovely book you may like.
Women in my Rose Garden. The History romance and adventure of old roses. By Ann Chapman
Love Leanne
On this very cold Thanksgiving Day, they remind me that spring will one day return!
ReplyDeleteSo beautiful! And looking so nice as we are fully embracing winter here now. At least our rain is over and the sun is shining, though not warming things up much. I've heard of several others recently who have had the same problem with their blog --scarey!
ReplyDeleteYour posts are always so beautiful Shane - your photos & the way you arrange things like the heart of petals & flowers. I too love heritage roses but really, I must confess I love all roses.
ReplyDeleteI sympathise with your friend who lost all her blog followers - I am often too afraid to make changes to my blog as am not very computer savvy & worry they may disappear into the wide blue yonder!!!!
Like you Shane, i love the old roses with their heady perfume and shaggy heads .... makes me want to hop a jet-plane to Provins.
ReplyDeleteHoping your week-end is filled with roses. xx
'All Things French"
Dearest Shane,
ReplyDeleteWe had so many Heritage Rose varieties but with sadness I have to tell you that we lost again most of our roses. Such hard work and quite an investment that we are about to give up on them. Makes my heart ache. We got several antique and highly fragrant roses from Canada. Sad for having to give up...
Enjoy your deadheading and the perfume of those damask roses!
Thanks for the Happy Thanksgiving wishes and our day was a great one!
Hugs,
Mariette
I adore those old-fashioned roses too and used to grow several of them at our former cottage, where we had room. Thank you for the shout-out and link to my blog, LOL! I had to click on it because I wondered, "Is she talking to me?" Yes, I would indeed had been a shutterbug pest in a glorious rose garden. Those flowers sure are beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure dead-heading the roses in that special garden was the most worthwhile way of spending time. I can imagine the perfume. Will you do something with the petals? Happy weekend, dear friend.x
ReplyDeleteMy dear Shane, the roses are just beautiful :)
ReplyDeleteWow, you have shared some really beautiful photos here Shane! I can only imagine how wonderful that garden bag must smell. Beautiful! x
ReplyDeleteYou certainly like the best roses Shane. The Rose Society here really pushes the heritage roses for smell as the newer ones have been bred for size and disease resistance at the expense of scent. What a shame, a beautiful rose should really smell wonderful. The David Austin roses are a heavenly group as well.
ReplyDeleteIt must be gratifying to deadhead the roses with a group of people passionate about these plants too.
Judith
We too have had a lovely show of roses. The winds and rain and humidity we are currently having are not favourable to them. Have to do some serious deadheading now. I live in the Waikato and we are constantly fighting blackspot even tho' we spray against it. Loved ypour "heart" of roses, could almost smell it.Shirley
ReplyDeletehello
ReplyDeleteje suis enchantée de votre visite
j'adore également les roses
je viens d'en planter 3
2 blanc " winchester Cathédrale "
1 " Cyrano de Bergerac "
ma passion est également les IRIS
à très bientôt
je m'inscris à votre blog
tendresse
edith (iris)
These are so lovely Shane! Especially nice to see on a cold November morning here! :) thanks for sharing your beautiful roses with us!
ReplyDeleteThose roses are so beautiful. I am off to spend some time browsing through your past posts. I am now following your blog as well...
ReplyDeletePenny
I must admit my favourites are the old fashioned too, especially the single ones. We had a lovely hedge of them at the house and it's pretty much the only thing I miss about being there. I could smell them the minute I walked out the back door, despite them being at least ten feet away.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful post, I can almost smell them, gorgeous! Lots of deadheading to do here too....
ReplyDeleteGorgeous roses. And a bit of history, too. :) Deadheading roses and taking a bag of the sweet blooms and petals home sounds like a lovely day to me. Best wishes, Tammy
ReplyDelete