By Claudia von Duehren
I love roses! Its scent, its spectacular flowers, it is not called the queen of flowers for nothing. My garden does not offer ideal conditions for roses at all.
Roses like five to six hours of sun and they prefer medium-heavy, loamy, humus and sandy soil. The garden divas don’t get both from me. The garden has a north-east exposure and the soil is rather sandy.
Right next to the basement stairs there is a kind of no man’s land to the neighbor. Years ago, she planted a rose cutting for me from her property in North Friesland and said: “At least give her water from time to time. You’ll see, it’s robust.” I just shook my head, but whenever the water tank from the tumble dryer in the basement was full, I poured the contents onto the rose and gave it rose fertilizer once a year.
Now, every time I step out of the basement into the garden, their heavily scented blooms brush my face, as if to say, “Look what I’ve become.”
It is currently my greatest joy in the garden to admire this victory of nature over the most adverse circumstances. Today I googled the name of the rose miracle: It’s the Damask rose ‘Rose de Resht’. Her description says “Ideal Beginner’s Rose”, true!
There is also a rosy child prodigy in the front yard. After more than ten years, my rambler rose has finally climbed the lilac bush and envelops it in its delicate pink flowers. I didn’t give the poor plant any water at all this early summer because, as reported, the front facade is being renovated and the rest of the front yard is like a field of rubble.