Sunday, February 14, 2010

For the Love of Heirloom Roses

 
On this Sunday, Valentine's Day,
the day of love and roses...
  
I wanted to share some pics from a not-so Secret Garden
we stumbled upon during a visit to Oregon.
  
It's off the beaten path,
down a country road...
  
In the heart of the beautiful Willamette Wine Valley,
south of Portland, Oregon.
  
A magical little shop called Heirloom Roses.
Not just a pile of bare roots leaving you confused and confounded, relying on a picture to make your purchase decision. No no.. Here we found garden after garden of luscious roses in full bloom! Each rose flaunting a name tag so we knew exactly who we wanted to take home.
  
We wandered through the Tranquility Garden...
The Hope Garden...
And ~ be still my heart! ~ an entire Miniature Rose Garden, my absolute fave.
 
Enter at your own risk.
Tip: Lock your credit card in the car to avoid big trouble.
 
Inside the 'candy store.' 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* The idea of this post came from Gail/Clay & Limestone - who suggested we go through our photo files and 'fall in love with our gardens all over again.'

In doing so, I skipped right over my own garden and spent my afternoon drooling over the Heirloom store's roses.

Just in case you're wondering... They do grow other colors than pink. On this blog, you're at the mercy of a pink rose fanatic.

Last, but not least, they didn't compensate me, in any way, for this mention. But that's not to say I wouldn't happily work for roses. I'd love to build them a better website. For some odd reason they don't show pictures of these fabulous gardens on their site!

16 comments:

The Redneck Rosarian said...

Thanks for posting these gorgeous pictues of roses! Happy Valentine's Day!

KC said...

Pretty photos Kate. Hope you have a Happy Valentine's Day!

jan said...

I love heirloom flowers, period! They are just such hardy, independent types! Maybe some are not as flashy as their hybrid cousins, but they more than make up for it, in my mind, with their ability to take care of themselves. (Very important for a lazy gardener, such as myself!)

Kate/High Altitude Gardening said...

Happy Valentine's to you, too, Rosarian. Are you really a redneck? :)) I must go check out your blog and see...

Kate/High Altitude Gardening said...

Happy Valentine's to you, too, KC. We should visit that place when we're in OR in August.

Hey - I followed your lead and used the Jacquie Lawson website for VD cards. What a great a find. :D

Kate/High Altitude Gardening said...

I hear ya, Jan! Wild roses are a big passion of mine. Their super duper hybridized cousins, not so much. Who's got the time to care for those high maintenance beauty queens? Happy Valentine's!

D said...

Hi Kate, so happy you visited Heirloom. Years ago we bought a number of old heirloom climbers for our deer fence... 12 inch starts that now cover the span. One of my favorites is 'Rambling Rector' that is about 25 feet long and would be as tall if the fence were also. ;)
Happy Valentine's Day, Kate.

Marsha said...

What gorgeous roses and how I would love to visit this place someday. Thanks for sharing and Happy Valentine's Day to you!

Kate/High Altitude Gardening said...

Hi, Di;
Ooohh... that's a neat idea. I have a long, brown fence that most definitely needs to turn pink! :D

Kate/High Altitude Gardening said...

You would love it, Marsha. I think it's only about a half hour from Portland but, of course, it took us another hour to find the place. I'm better at growing roses than I am at following directions!

Will said...

Some of these heirlooms have heavenly scents. The hybrids can not compare.

Killara girl said...

wow these roses are just perfect! i'll have to remember that thanks! i want a climbing rose bush, maybe along the fence that my new kitchen window will look out to.

Shady Gardener said...

Hi Kate, What beautiful roses. Do you have many in your own gardens? Happy Valentine's Day! :-)

Kate/High Altitude Gardening said...

Hi, Will;
Oh, I hear ya! The heirlooms all seem to have strong wonderful fragrances.

Hey, Shelle;
I greatly enjoyed your photo walk through the snowy park today. :)

Hi, Shady;
I have about a half dozen growing in the gardens. All pinks, of course. I'm actually surprised how well roses do here -- and in the worst spots, where they get buried by the snowplow all winter long!

sweetbay said...

Those certainly are some beautiful roses!

Anonymous said...

Today is virtuous indisposed, isn't it?