Earlier this year my dearest ginger cat Bruce made his final journey It was time for him to take his rest. He was a fabulous cat and I still miss him. I decided I would plant a rose in his honour and so the search for the right rose began.
My first thought, fairly obviously, was 'is there a rose called Bruce'. You would think there is one, and maybe there is but I could not find one available in the UK. This was disappointing. I then started to search by Bruce's formal title 'His Gingerness', this had more luck and I quickly found a rose called 'Ginger Syllabub'. I thought about it a bit and then committed and made my purchase.
A nice healthy rose soon arrived. Rose Ginger Syllabub is a climbing rose, now admittedly Bruce was not known for his climbing, I think he regarded that as effort and he was not a fan of effort. But Bruce was big in size and character so a big rose seemed a good choice.
I planted the rose into the Smell me and Dye Garden and it soon started to settle in. The constant rain this Spring definitely helped.
I purchased an obelisk for the rose to grow into. Happy that the rose was happy, I waited for a bud to form. In truth I rarely expect much from a rose in its first year and I do think they need time to settle in.
So you can imagine my delight when I saw the first bud, a nice healthy looking bud.
I could soon seen the tantalising signs of gingerness....
and then he began to unfurl,
I loved watching the bloom develop,
and there is what, beautifully scented and with a true ginger heart, just like Bruce. I had not been totally certain this was the right choice, but now I know it was completely right. I don't need this rose to remember to Bruce, but seeing this rose growing in the garden will make me smile and think of him.
Take care and be kind.
