I was running around the Homestead gardens here at Struan Farm this week when I looked up and saw this:
Madame Leonie, making her annual entrance in the gardens, quite early!
This rose is actually called "Souvenir de Madame Leonie Vientot," also "The Dunny Rose," according to the Auckland Botanic Garden because it was often planted by settlers to disguise and perfume long drop toilets. She's a climber, and has been in the gardens at Struan Farm for years. But she was always known as "Roma's Rose," after family friend Roma Ronaldson. I grew this one from a cutting of a rose that was a cutting from the original here at the farm.
Happy to see the roses starting to happen, the bees will be too.
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