Othello from my garden

I have a very small city garden but it is full of roses. Years ago, I took up the grass from my parking strip (I couldn't call it a lawn), built a fence along the sidewalk to support roses and started looking at catalogues. This was about 15 years ago and rose shopping was a little different then. The nurseries carried plenty of tea roses and some climbing roses but I had read about some 'new' roses from England bred by David Austin. But, there wasn't any place to actually see them in Seattle that year. Soon, nurseries would begin to carry them but for those first years, I was left to reading descriptions of size, color and scent and then ordering bare-root plants by mail.

I've been away from my computer for much of this month- taking people to doctor's appointments and other errands. While I sat in waiting rooms with my book on my lap, I pondered how to share my roses with you. Could I start with my favorite and work down to the rest? How could I pick my favorite?

After much thought, I've decided to start at the east end of the rose border- the third that isn't in the photo- and work my way west.

So, starting at the alley edge and outside of the fence is one of David Austin's roses- Othello (1986).

If the spring weather is on the cool side, a green center shows in each bud- a characteristic inherited from one of its old rose parents. Usually by mid-summer, the roses are without their green center. The new foliage is a reddish color as seen in the above photo and I think that the blackish area of the bud base is from our very cold and wet spring.
The foliage is a matte green and shows off the dark red roses perfectly. When I saw the canes of Othello, I realized that they could have served as one of the earliest weapons- they are thick with huge thorns and very sturdy.

All of the reds of these photos are typical of Othello as it goes through the changes of the year. A pure dark red but tinted towards the blue-ish tones instead of orange. And the scent- strong and heavy like an old rose. And the petals dry beautifully for potpourri.