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catsrose

Name Themes

catsrose
10 years ago

Anyone else collect roses by the themes of their names? For instance, I have all of Lens' musician HMs, Mozart, Sibelius, Verdi, etc, plus Austin's Symphony. I also pick up children's lit character's, Peter Pan, Robin Hood, the Seven Dwarves, Jiminy Cricket. And I also have most of the Kosters just because we had a Margo Koster by the backdoor when I was a child.

My question was inspired by another posting that listed a foodie roses, Rasberry Swirls.

Comments (13)

  • jacqueline9CA
    10 years ago

    Nope - I grow roses only if I think they will like my climate, not by name groups. If I was into collecting new roses, I might do that if they were all from one hybridizer, and I had decided that their roses did like my climate, but I focus on old roses. (I guess one could collect old roses that way, by, for example, specializing in roses named after French Generals of the 19th Century...).

    Jackie

  • Campanula UK Z8
    10 years ago

    Nope, years ago, I used to enjoy a bet on the horses which entailed many hours of following the form book, knowing which jockey ran for which stable (first string, second string horses etc), what each horse carried in terms of weight and handicap, knowing the going (hard ground, distances run and so forth) and especially the form over a couple of seasons.....whereas my friend used to make a selection based purely on horse names. To my utter disgust, she was as successful as me (ie. not that much) and probably led to my giving up this costly habit.

  • subk3
    10 years ago

    The city of Nashville has a "Music Garden" with all the roses (and maybe some daylillies, too) that are named after Nashville music people. Dolly Parton, Barbara Mandell, Pam Tillis, ect.

    I've never bothered to go see it as hybrid teas don't do much for me. In our blackspot haven I've wonder how limiting it is to produce a garden that doesn't make any effort to select roses that are good matches for the envoriment. But I guess that gets back to the whole HT thing with intensive labor, spraying et.al. that doesn't appeal to me.

    I must admit though that I have considered the Kosters. My last name is very similar to "Koster"--probably the same German root--and I have a daughter named Margo. So buying and collecting based only on the name has certainly tempted me!

    Here is a link that might be useful: Nashville Music Garden

  • sidos_house
    10 years ago

    I have a corner in my garden set aside for a little Colette theme.

    Colette -- for Colette :)
    Sydonie -- for Colette's mother, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette
    Great Maiden's Blush -- for the Cuisse de Nymphe in Claudine in Paris

  • seil zone 6b MI
    10 years ago

    Early on I tried to but it fizzled out. I had Love, Honor and Cherish at one time but Honor died off. I tried to find a rose named for all the members of my family but that failed because there weren't any for some names. I tried to collect roses from certain breeders but, alas, some of them are no longer available. In the end I just gave up and started buying what I liked and would grow well here.

  • cramoisi
    10 years ago

    Catrose,

    I have to admit that I have an attraction to roses with family names that are in my own family tree, or family rose shrub, if you will. (Roses and genealogy, anyone?)
    I also love the French names, but I find that I veer towards the French aristocracy.

    Best,

    Larry

  • dublinbay z6 (KS)
    10 years ago

    Years and years ago (back when I had no idea what I was doing), I thought I'd buy all the "peace" type roses. Think I got Peace, Chicago Peace, and Pink Peace--and gave up as BS took over and defeated me.

    Nowadays I somewhat favor literary names for Austins. So far I have William Shakespeare 2000, Lady of Shalott, The Pilgrim (from Chaucer), and Scepter'd Isle (from Shakespeare), and wish I had room left to get the older Austin Wife of Bath and a few others.

    Kate

  • lynnette
    10 years ago

    Themes sound interesting. The only roses I refused to have in my garden are those that are named after someone I didn't like or a famous person I disliked.

  • nanadollZ7 SWIdaho
    10 years ago

    Without any planning on my part, I also ended up with several Austin literary names for roses. Jude the Obscure, a Thomas Hardy novel; Young Lycidas, a poem by John Milton; Brother Cadfael, the main character in a mystery series; The Prince, a political treatise by Machiavelli; Sisters Fairy Tale (a Kordes rose) has got to refer to Snow White and Rose Red (or something like that) by the Brothers Grimm. These are all I can think of right now, but I bet there are plenty more out there with literary connections like just about all the Fairy Tale series. Diane

  • catsrose
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I also plant roses for friends, family and cats by name. In my database of my roses, I have a column for "in memoriam." I'm lucky that I can plant most classes of roses here, so I don't really have to worry about what is appropriate (tho Hybrid Teas don't do well for me because I refuse to baby them--the older ones seem to be tougher).

  • nastarana
    10 years ago

    No, not roses. I do refuse to buy roses with offensive or too cute names.

    However, vegetable seeds are cheap, and if the cultivar with the fun name is a dud, one simply can not grow it again. I just had to try a yellow wax bean named 'pencil pod'.

  • mariannese
    10 years ago

    I wanted to mix roses with plebeian names among all the duchesses and countesses but I found that there are very few roses named for ordinary people, at least available over here. I gave up the idea when one of the few, a found HP called Greta Persson, proved to be a very sickly rose.

  • rross
    10 years ago

    I'm down to only about ten roses, NOT chosen for their names, but it recently occurred to me that 2 - Jude the Obscure and Nahema - are variations on my sisters' names - Judy and Naomi. I was even contemplating buying a New Dawn, also not for its name, which makes it easy to guess my mother's name. It's actually made me think twice about it. 3 of my rose bushes come from Ross Roses - Ross was the name of my very first cat.