[Publib] Bard's Gardens

[backwage at aol.com]

Rosa laevigata is the Cherokee rose.  Different from eglantine, except that the thorns are just about as bad.  The reason some roses have hooked thorns is to climb; when the wind blows the canes against an object, they catch and permit the plant to rise.  Come to think of it, I also had the rose Mermaid, another hooked monster.  I sometimes see that one growing wild along the freeway.

M. M.    

Shakespeare’s rose sounds suspiciously like the Cherokee rose abundant here in Georgia. 



-----Original Message-----
From: George Hazelton <ghazelton at mail.henry.public.lib.ga.us>
To: Backwage at aol.com
Sent: Mon, Jul 27, 2009 7:54 am
Subject: RE: [Publib] Bard's Gardens




Shakespeare’s rose sounds suspiciously like the Cherokee rose abundant here in Georgia.  Where it got the name eludes me, since it is an import from China.  My wife unfortunately spent MONEY for several of these monsters, which have gigantic recurved thorns on evergreen canes.  As I mow the weeds the damned thing reaches out and attacks me.  I will need kevlar clothing, a chain saw, and probably a flame thrower to eradicate them.  They seem to spread via underground runners, erupting far from the main infestation.  They do have attractive white flowers about 3 inches across, and they would make a wonderful spite fence for the neighbor you love to hate.  I suppose the shrikes would love them for their avian impalings of small critters.

 


 

George Hazelton

Assi
stant Director

Henry County Public Library System

1001 Florence McGarity Pkwy

McDonough, GA 30252

Phone: 678-432-5353

FAX: 678-432-6153

email: grhazelton at mail.henry.public.lib.ga.us


 




From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Backwage at aol.com
Sent: Saturday, July 25, 2009 11:28 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Publib] Bard's Gardens


 


And now about those Shakespeare gardens.  For those of you who like to begin with research, go here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare_garden and see about the subject.  For the rest, understand that there has been a sort of horticultural mania for Shakespeare-themed gardens in the English-spouting world.  Some fool or other gets a load of money and decides to throw down some pansies on the evidence that the good old Bard himself wrote about 'em.  



 



No harm done there.  The problem as I've found it is that the concept makes a tough theme for a garden.  The different species are also hard to cultivate in some areas (outside England) and they don't always make a decent presentation (i.e., bloom) at the same moment.  Then there is the problem of authenticity.  If one desires to have planted the actual types of plants and flowers present and available in Shakespeare's time, the garden will look odd to the contemporary viewer.  For example, Shakespeare's eglantine rose (Rosa rubiginosa) is a very gangly, aggressive plant with fantastically hooked thorns which b
looms only once each year--the actual flowers are the size of a quarter, and unimpressive to today's gardener.  I had one of these plants at my old house.  It got no bigger than a master bedroom, could have killed a passer-by, and never ever gave off its reputed scent of apples, even with its fresh leaves were crushed according to the rule.  On the other hand the hips left behind later were quite pretty in winter.



 



If you want the pansies Shakespeare knew, you will find them almost microscopically small in flower, not the huge clown-faced things of today.  Other plants will present the same situation.



 



One nice alternative to the authentic garden is to plant roses with names from Shakespeare's plays.  Grower David Austin has done a splendid job of "recreating" old rose appearance and fragrance, and even naming some roses after you-know-who's characters.  Go here to see:  http://www.davidaustinroses.com/american/Advanced.asp



 



Now, these are also not the roses of olden times, but those of a later era--if that.  They are a good attempt at reviving what used to be best in older roses and a lot of fun to grow.  If however you are a rose person, which assumes you enjoy that package of mingled joys and frustrations.  



 



Librarians will be pleased to know that practically every author, literary character and/or famous place in literature has had a rose (and sometime other plant) named after it.  Want=2
0to find out?  Google in the name of the person and then the word 'rose.'  It's a joke among rose fanciers that there is not an Adolf Hitler rose only because the stock were all killed during the war.



 



By the way, to where would you direct a patron who wished a comprehensive listing of all modern roses?  And where to find the growers of same?  Ah, I'll leave that to you to discover.  And Ruth, don't you dare tell them.



 



Michael McGrorty



 





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