Rosa ‘Crown Princess Margareta’
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Many years ago now, when my daughter was still at home, I was asked one May what I would like for Mother’s Day. My wish that year was for a rose bush to plant beside the front porch. I knew that a rose bush would give me roses each and every year in May; the Mother’s Day gift that returns year after year. We went together as a family to my favorite garden center and I came home with a beautiful rose covered with large, red flowers.
And my Mother’s Day rose grew into a beautiful, tall shrub that bloomed extravagantly every year after. It was a climber, and I got these special, soft little metal attachers that I could hammer into the mortar between the bricks to permanently anchor it to the front of the house.
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I left that garden and that Mother’s Day rose behind more than a decade ago, to move to this Forest Garden. But our first year here, once again I was seeking out roses. I love roses. I particularly love heirloom roses, climbing roses, and deliciously scented roses. The English Shrub Roses bred by David Austin’s team are among my all-time favorites.
Roses have been a real challenge to grow in this garden, between the weather, the surrounding forest and the deer. I’ve lost more than I’ve kept alive, which makes every blossom on every surviving rose shrub that much more special to me.
Rosa ‘Crown Princess Margareta’ is a climber bred by the Austin family. Its rich apricot color and warm fruity fragrance remind me every spring why I love roses so much. This one has grown up through a rose of Sharon shrub and it has blessed me this Mother’s Day weekend with more than two dozen blossoms.
The climbers are able to scramble up tall enough that the deer can’t munch the blossoms and prune all of the new growth. Those that stay smaller have little chance to survive, but one I thought was a gonner last summer has come back from its roots and has already given us several flowers. Every spring I read the new David Austin catalog wistfully, admiring the new introductions and old friends I’ve grown in the past.
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An heirloom peony planted by an earlier gardener in this space.
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I don’t give much time to such nostalgia, though. And I certainly won’t even try to establish any new rose shrubs in this very wild garden. This garden has ‘allowed’ me to expand my gardening tastes to include beautiful plants the deer will leave alone. Some, like our Iris, are long-time favorites I’ve grown everywhere I’ve lived. But I’ve learned to appreciate lots of other plants that I might not have tried, if necessity hadn’t inspired me to try new species.
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Iris pseudacorus, the yellow flag Iris, also left here by a previous gardener. Deer leave our Iris alone.
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Mother’s Day is a moment to pause and remember the long line of strong women who have loved us and made our lives possible. Some of these women might be special aunts and grandmothers, others family friends, teachers, neighbors, and others who have helped us along the way. This year many of us are connecting with our mothers through phone calls and video chats. Our greeting cards may be digital and our gifts delayed.
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Siberian Iris, a gift from a friend.
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But it is the remembering and expressions of love that matter, not the form they take.
Just as a rose shrub will give us a special Mother’s Day gift year after year, into an uncertain and often transformed future; so a garden helps us put down our own roots and grow into something new. Each of us is growing and transforming, too. Let us grow stronger each year; more generous and more appreciative of all life gives us.
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Iris ‘Rosalie Figge’
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Woodland Gnome 2020
Happy Mother’s Day to all of those who mother others
Please visit my new website, Illuminations, for a photo from our garden and a thought provoking quotation each day.
Many thanks to the wonderful ‘Six on Saturday’ meme sponsored by The Propagator
Forest Garden 