9:49 a.m. - 2003-05-02
Roses and Buddha Pulls
This is for Atomicbuddha, one of my Diaryland buddies who just bought a house. Hooray! Another home owner enters the world!! And, as an extra special touch, she bought a 1959 rancher, just like me!!!
Hooray for new homeowners! Hooray for 1959 ranchers!!
Anyway, I found a very groovy site for cabinet hardware, and on that site are two types of drawer pulls that have Buddhas on them! How cool can you get?! So go to My Knobs.com and look at the groovy Buddhas! And while you're there, do a search for the ones with the Om sign and the yin yang ones and the really fine lizard and cat ones, oh, and there's one with a leaping bunny, and some cranes.....
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And now I'd like to introduce you to two of my friends:
The rose on top is the famed Dr. van Fleet, who burst into bloom this morning! I love Dr. van Fleet, and I can't help but think of Seth whenever I'm around him, because the Dr. Van Fleet sounds like someone who'd be a good friend of Seth. Actually Dr. van Fleet was a rose hybridiser who introduced quite a number of fabulous roses, including the famous American Pillar rose.
The Dr. van Fleet rose was introduced in 1910, so it's a bit early for this house, but that's ok. I'm not one of those people who has to have everything the same vintage. Besides, for a climbing rose it's remarkably well behaved and trainable. And it's got great blooms! Look at that gorgee-oh-so pink!
The red rose is Don Juan, which I just bought in memory of a woman I knew when I was a teenager who was a dear friend and helped me get through some nasty adolescent times. She liked red roses, so I wanted to have one for her. Don Juan is a perfect rose for this house as he was hybridised in 1958 and introduced in 1959. He's also very smelly with a real rose smell - something I love in a rose. I hate these modern hybrids that have no smell, or worse, smell like lemons, or cleaning fluid or expresso or some other non-rosey thing.
I mean, a rose is a rose is a rose! Why have a rose that smells like Tampa Beach? Or am I missing the point somehow?!
We also have a rose that I think is Ohlala, from 1956. It was in such bad shape when we moved in that I didn't think it would survive the winter, but I mulched it and fertilised it and said many prayers to the rose spirits and a couple of days ago it bloomed. Really gorgeous blooms - red-orange semi-doubles. There are only two, though, so I couldn't bring myself to pick them.
And we have the red rose which I rescued from Home Depot. I think it's Mr. Lincoln, a 1962 rose, but it hasn't bloomed yet.
I love roses. Can you tell? I love them because they all have some weird history, or they are named after some nutty person, or they came from some area of the world that's interesting, or they're old as hey and no one knows where they came from. Do you know that you can still get roses that were hybridised in Roman times? That you can actually get the roses that represented the York and Lancaster families, in the War of the Roses? That you can get the famous Apothecary rose, that the mega-expensive attar of roses is made of? It's been grown in Bulgaria since the 1300's! You can get roses hybridised by the gardeners of the Empress Josephine!
Or, you can just match your roses to your 1959 house! Or any other house you might have! Or your birth year! I am dying to get Donna a Dr. Huey rose, which was introduced in 1914, the same year her house was built. Dr. Huey is a personal favorite of mine. He's deep, deep red, with splashy yellow stamens. A real Donna-esque rose!
Curious about what rose goes with your house? Then I recommend this web site!
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