Rose
of the Month #1
By Gaird Hamilton
APRICOT
NECTAR
Every year most of us get busy looking through
the Fall rose catalogs, looking at the pictures of the newest and the
latest roses. We read all kinds of superlatives about just how great
they are. Sometimes in all of this even a veteran rose grower can lose
sight of just how great and wonderful some very common older roses can
be. A case in point is Apricot Nectar, a floribunda and AARS winner
in 1966, which we bought probably in 1966 when we only had two roses
in our yard.
All of the intervening years while we were accumulating
a huge number of roses, it has continued to bloom abundantly year after
year with large fragrant flowers in nice clusters on a healthy bush.
Flowers which have a very unique warm apricot color and which last an
incredibly long time in a bouquet, filling the room with their wonderful
aroma. When we took all kinds of roses to the library this Summer, Apricot
Nectar was a rose which the librarian asked about when we got there
the next week because of comments from the public. It may not be a big
winner at rose shows, but where it counts, in the garden, in a bouquet,
or in your heart, it’s a real big winner.
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