Penelope Rose, an Antique Rose for the Organic Garden

English clergyman Joseph Pemberton introduced the Penelope rose to the world in 1924. Pemberton's roses are also called hybrid musk roses, and Penelope has a delicious fragrance that is a blend of musk and fruit. With large clusters of medium to large, semi-double blooms on a sprawling frame, this antique rose has a unrestrained, romantic appearance.

The flowers are a pale peachy-pink, fading to creamy white. The hotter the weather, the paler the blooms. Penelope is a rebloomer with a large flush of blooms in late spring and then another flush in early autumn as the weather cools, with sporadic flowering in-between. One can encourage repeat blooms by deadheading the earlier blooms. Later blooms should be allowed to mature on the shrub, as lovely coral pink hips follow the flowers. 

Like all roses, Penelope likes loamy soil. Clay is fine as long as generous amounts of organic amendments are added. Penelope has lustrous, healthy foliage with little need for spraying or fertilizing. I feed mine in spring with fish emulsion, and I usually treat it, along with almost everything else in my garden, with a summer tonic of 2Tbs epsom salts and 2Tbs fish emulsion per gallon of water. In late winter I spray it with a dormant oil. That's it, and Penelope probably would carry on just fine if I did nothing at all.

Growing in hardiness zones 6-9, It will reach 5 feet by 5 feet or larger but can be pruned to maintain a more moderate size. It could be considered a semi-climber. My own Penelope grows amidst perennials and other carefree roses, but I think it also would look wonderful growing along a wall or fence. Penelope is one of the few roses that will bloom in semi-shade and will do well along woodland edges.

My humid, hot climate is not kind to most roses, and I use a low maintenance, organic approach to everything I grow. I am happy that Penelope has done so well for me. The American Rose Society rates Penelope 8.7 on a scale of 10. That means it is an excellent rose that is recommended without hesitation. I heartily agree.

You may also enjoy Red Cascade: A Favorite Low-maintenance Rose and Summer-Proof the Garden.

Gnats in My Coffee

As I stroll through my garden, I hold a cup of coffee, the sweet kind with additives that are purported to transport one to exotic locations. It is early morning. I am still wearing my pajamas. My husband fusses at me for walking around that way, but who is to see? I am blessed with privacy. The atmosphere is warm and laden with moisture: 100% humidity. I move slowly through the thick air, like a vacationer drifting in a tube down one of those lazy river rides, breathing in the vapors of the surrounding waters.I don't mind the mugginess of a summer morning when a view like this one in the front garden is waiting for me. Above are more midsummer views of the front garden. The shrubs with lavender blooms are a dwarf form of Crepe Myrtle.

The problem with this scenario is the coffee. What nut drinks coffee outside on such a muggy summer morning? Ice water would be more appropriate, but old habits, acquired in a cooler season, are hard to break. And there is another purpose for the coffee. It is difficult to pull weeds while carrying a mug of steaming coffee. Even with one hand free, the danger of spilling hot coffee is too great to be bending over and tugging at offenders near the ground. So the coffee is to keep me on task, which is to enjoy a morning stroll. I want to concentrate on the garden while the birds are active and before the glare of the white hot sun begins to scorch the skin and dazzle the eyes.Assorted coneflowers(echinacea) are blooming in the front garden now.Penelope Rose in the front garden bloomed lavishly earlier this year and is beginning to put out a second flush of flowers.Colorful exotics like Stromanthe 'Tricolor' bring a dash of color to the summer woodland garden.
Top is 'Limelight' Hydrangea, just coming into its summer glory. Below Limelight is Hydrangea 'Lady in Red', fading but still lovely. Its blooms, originally blue in my acid soil, have turned to rose.

The coffee doesn't work. It never does, and I don't know why I retain the silly notion that it might. A weed right there demands my attention. If I wait till later, it will be two feet tall with offsprings of thousands. So I sit my coffee down on a nearby stump. It will only take a moment to yank the weed out of the ground. An hour later I return to the coffee. A pile of weeds, long snaky vines, and clippings from a shrub lay nearby. The coffee is cold, and an assortment of tiny twigs and dead gnats are floating in it. I sigh. I didn't need to drink the stuff anyway. What I do need is a bath. It is time to start the day.