Perennials: What new plants have you just put in the ground?, 2 by DonnaMack

DonnaMack wrote:
I'm not sure whether it was impulse or insomnia, but I just gave in to an impulse and bought Rose Constance Spry for the parkway of my new house. I had resisted this, and then I realized that the rose is slipping from commerce. Pickering discontinued this. They have been discontinuing roses for a couple of years because, they explained, there is not enough demand for them, even those they love. They announce that roses are in their last season, but somehow it escaped me that CS was one of them. I can only get it from Antique Rose Emporium by ordering three roses (have you seen their shipping costs?), Chamblees does not have it (love their one gallons). Heirloom does, but their roses are very small - I got some last summer, and while it's wonderful to have them, it is going to be a while before they put on any size.

So I panicked - and added it to my Roses Unlimited order. Which was already three roses. Rose du Rescht, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and Zephirine Drouhin, all from my old yard. NUTS! But the thought of not having this great rose, which became enormous after only three years from a Pickering bareroot, was just too much.

Here is a three year old Constance Spry. In 2011

Pic 1, against my neighbor's house, with a Zephirine Drouhin to the right twice its age.

Pic 2, displaying its lovely cascading habit (many grow it as a climber.

Pic 3, 4 and heaven help me, the flowers.

Pic 5, here she is as a one year old plant, in 2009.

It only blooms once, but for six weeks, the flowers are five inches, and the scent is fantastic. Afterwards, you deadhead it, and it then requires no care, just looking like a handsome shrub. It's so big that the parkway is the only place I can put it.

I really need to stop!