When you come to our Antique Fair and Rose Festival, many of the roses in the display gardens will be in full bloom, creating a lovely display. There are close to 100 rose varieties planted around the Schoolhouse. Some will be past their prime because they are old rose varieties that bloom once. Some are very aggressive such as a 'Bobby James' rambler that is taking over the Schoolhouse roof. Some varieties are hard to find in the nursery trade. Many are English varieties that are in the nursery trade. John & Toni Christianson selected the roses that grace these gardens in order to archive the rare and unusual and to provide an English feel to the mixed borders. Of all the roses in the display, John has his favorite varieties based on reliability, disease resistance and beauty.

Here are a few of John Christianson's favorite roses:

'Gertrude Jekyll': Introduced in 1986, the flowers of this rose start as perfect little scrolled buds and soon open into the most beautiful, large, rosette-shaped flowers of rich, glowing pink. The growth is upright and vigorous and in every way reliable. Grows 4.5 feet as a shrub or 6 to 8 feet as a climber. The most outstanding characteristic of this lovely rose is its beautiful and perfectly-balanced Old Rose scent. This is often described as being the quintessential old rose fragrance. The foliage and growth are similar to that of a Portland Rose, with the typical Portland widely-spaced leaflets. It forms a medium sized shrub which is robust and free flowering. Gertrude Jekyll was a famous 19th century English garden designer, who has had a profound effect on the style of English gardens to the present day.

'Graham Thomas': Located on the west border, this award winning rose is probably the best known of all the English Roses and one of the most popular roses in the world. Medium-sized, cup-shaped flowers of an unusually rich and pure yellow is hard to match in any other roses. A vigorous, upright variety that makes a particularly good climber, reaching 10 - 12 feet. The fragrance is fresh tea rose with a cool violet character. It was awarded the Henry Edland medal for fragrance in 2000.

'Graham Thomas' has been voted the World's Favorite Rose by the World Federation of Rose Societies (WFRS) which represents over 100,000 rose lovers in 41 member countries. The award was announced at the 2009 World Rose Convention in Vancouver, when the rose was inducted into the society's 'Rose Hall of Fame'.

'Graham Thomas' is ideal when grown on a wall where it will repeat flower in several flushes.

'Leonardo da Vinci': Introduced by Alain Meilland in 1994, 'Leonardo da Vinci has been a difficult rose to classify. In France, it grows like a customary shrub, but in this country after the first flush of blossoms, this variety begins to trail sideways, eventually becoming as wide as it is tall at three feet. None the less, this variety has very large, very full, old-fashioned flowers that are light to medium dark pink. The flowers grow in clusters making this rose an extremely rich bloomer with a mild tea fragrance. A must-have for any rose garden display, it is located on the end of the SW border and along the south border in front of the hedge.

'Marie Pavie': Introduced in 1888, the flowers on this polyantha rose are held in clusters of 8 to 12 blooms, beginning as pink buds and opening into white semi-double flowers. The flowers are extremely fragrant with a musk scent. An excellent repeat bloomer this rose is almost completely prickle free. It is compact, 2 to 4 ft. and as wide as it is tall. An excellent container rose, it makes a nice small hedge and a great specimen plant. This rose is located on the left side border of the main entrance to the display gardens.

'Nevada': Located in the SE corner of the garden, 'Nevada' is a white rose cultivar, developed in 1927 by Pedro Dot in Spain. It is one of his most successful hybrid roses, named for its color: nevada is the Spanish word for snowy. Its parentage has long been under discussion. Dot introduced the cultivar as a hybrid of moyesii, but the cultivars round, black hips point to its R. pimpinellifolia parentage. It is probably a cross between Dot's pink Hybrid Tea 'La Giralda' (introduced in 1926) and the wild rose species Rosa pimpinellifolia var. altaica (synonym R. 'Altaica'), but is sometimes still described as hybrid of moyesii.

Reaching an average height of 7 to 13 feet, 'Nevada' forms a tall arching shrub with roundish, light green leaves and few prickles. The single to semi-double flowers have an open bloom form with an average diameter of 4" to 5". The ovoid buds have a pink or apricot color and open to ivory-colored flowers with golden-yellow stamens. They have a mild, sweet fragrance, and normally quickly fade to white. 'Nevada' is generally disease resistant, but can be susceptible to black spot. 'Nevada' is suitable for planting in woodland areas or near water and can be grown as solitairey shrub, in small groups, as a hedge, or trained as a climber.

'Pat Austin': Introduced in 1995, this was an entirely new color break in English Roses: a bright copper on the inside of the petals, with pale copper-yellow on the outer sides, creating a similar effect to 'Austrian Copper' (Rosa foetida 'Bicolor'). The flowers are large and deeply cupped, the contrasting colors giving a most attractive effect. There is a strong Tea scent with a warm, sensuous background. 'Pat Austin' forms a large shrub, growing to 5 feet tall and 3.5 feet wide with attractively glossy foliage. The blooms nod gracefully from the strong, elegantly arching growth, which is in proportion with the large flowers, showing them off to perfection. With its bright coloration, it is a wonderful rose for bringing excitement to a border of softer colored roses and plants. Named after David Austin's late wife, who was an accomplished sculptress. This rose is located on the west border of our display gardens.

Antiques At Primrose

Primrose carries a variety of antique and vintage collectables and accessories including McCoy pottery, glassware, jewelry, French linens, garden furniture and garden tools.

For June brides, there is lovely selection of bridal crowns and hand-made bouquets made of vintage silk ribbons and flowers.

Primrose will have a presence at our Antique Fair on June 20th and 21st, so be sure to stop by to see a large selection of fine antique furnishings and accessories.