Key Largo Here I come

Me at Anne's Beach in the Florida Keys last year.

I'll be gone for a bit. Don't want anyone to worry, or think I've abandoned my blog. I'll be shell combing and seed collecting as usual. )

Fantin Latour

This is the rose that makes me sigh that sigh you make just look at something so incredibly beautiful . Fantin Latour was named after the still life painter, Henri Fantin-Latour. Maybe the person who named this rose thought it looked too perfect to be real like a painting?
I bought this rose after a pic I saw in a book. It called out to me. It is a centifolia hybrid so there was some question as to how hardy it would be and how large it would become. I read 5'x'5' for a more northern location. Well that was completely wrong. Fantin is a monster shrub! The winter here does it no harm.


I actually have a small shade garden beneath Fantin.



I still have trouble fathoming why people don't plant once bloomers more often. I have some re-bloomers, but I'll never look up to see a view like this.

Fantin becomes so full of blooms the stems can start to bend down toward the ground. It has a lovely scent as well. I don't fertilize this rose either. This is another I would be afraid to rose. There are not a lot of thorns on Fantin's canes. It can get black spot later in the season, but I've never had it become an eyesore.

For Marie

Here's Gary at Plantation Key Nursery down the road from Key Largo. I can't wait to visit there again next week! The vine in question is the one directly above Gary. Of course as I said, need something else? Let me know : )

The Many Faces of Leontine Gervais

2008

Leontine Gervais is a large rambling rose that loves to change the look and color of her blooms. Some years the flowers are very double like 2008 and other years they readily show their stamens.

2007

Even in the same growing season the look of the blooms varies.

2008
I'm not bothered by the changes, I love them.

2008

Leontine grows in a wild octopus type fashion. She is thorny, and will grab you as you pass, but you can escape her grasp unlike the strong grip of LJS. The foliage is is a nice glossy green that stay beautiful until winter makes them drop. This rose is very disease resistant. I also have never fertilized it.


I've found the scent to be elusive. There a few roses like this for me. There have been a few good discussions on scent on the Antique Roses Forum on GW in the past, and it seems certain scents are hard for some noses to detect. I just know sometimes I smell Leontine and some times I don't. I've been with people that could smell him while I could not.
While in full bloom she is a quite a charmer. People always make comments on her that pass by the house. I've even been asked for cuttings.

2008
As the blooms age they take on a pinker tone.

2007

At that point usually a thunderstorm comes rolling through and all the beauty becomes a memory.

Long John Silver, A Manly Rose

The snow has been coming in massive quantities this winter and food is getting scarce for the rabbits. They have been causing major damage and I don't know what I'll see of my wonderful once bloomers like Long John Silver this season, but thankfully I have photos to remember them by.
Long John Silver is a big manly rose in my opinion so the name fits well. He has vicious thorns, and his long limbs will travel far it you let them. I've more than once got entangled with him, and he has quite the grip! I of course didn't realize this when I planted him along the driveway in my long border. Thankfully, we don't try to drive vehicles past him very often. You might not believe me, but I've never fertilized this rose. I can't imagine what would happen if I did!


(Creton last June with LJS getting out of control. My Creton baby died of cancer later in the year.)

He is very disease resistant though late in the season if conditions are right, he'll get blackspot. I don't spray my roses, and his possible BS is is not enough to bother me. For someone spraying it wouldn't ever be an issue.
The blooms are a beautiful pure white. The buds sometimes will have a hint of red at the tips, but that doesn't show in the blooms. They are scented, not overly so, but when the rose in in bloom, you can't help but smell him since he is such a monster. For a once bloomer, he blooms late. He will sometimes throw out a few late blooms in the fall if the weather is right, but even then it is only a few. That doesn't matter though. The massive quantities of blooms he pumps out once a season is pure joy. Once cluster of blossoms alone is enough to fill a large vase!