Old Rose

Here’s one of those roses which is sentimental but just not a great garden success. ‘Mme Pierre Oger’ has a beautiful old-fashioned cupped shape loaded with crinkled petals, an old rose scent and lovely pale pink color, but it is not at all disease resistant (witness the black spot on the leaves). I have it in a very sunny and breezy location, which keeps the plant alive but certainly not healthy. Why grow this? Because a tussy-mussy of these romantic flowers is the sweetest thing in the world. It’s a Bourbon rose introduced in France by Verdier 1878.