Saturday, October 2, 2010

Real Things of Beauty

Rose Bouquet
 

 
Gardening Daughter (GD), as you might imagine from my previous mentions of her, is a lover of flowers.  She has taken a part time job, which she enjoys very much, with a small local florist.  Her boss was invited to attend a seminar sponsored by the largest wholesale florist in our county, and she, in turn, invited GD to attend with her. 

My daughter enjoyed the seminar, which lasted almost a whole day, and was very interested in the presentation of one of the featured demonstrators, a commercial rose grower from Ecuador who is trying to create a market here in Arkansas.

GD was quite taken with the Ecuadorian roses, a generous quantity of which she was able to bring home.  She brought me the arrangement pictured above, which is no more than a bunch of roses in a vase; nothing more was needed, in my opinion.

The grower maintains 10 hectares (almost 25 acres) of greenhouses in which nothing is grown but roses.  What a heavenly place that must be.  I can only imagine what it must look like when the roses start to bloom.

One of the roses (a separate photo below) is the largest I have ever seen.  It does not have quite as much "rose" fragrance as the smaller ones (which are not "small" except compared to this one), but it is remarkable for its size.  I wonder how many of these beauties grown on one plant?  I placed my gnarly hand to the side of the blossom to show relative size.  A huge flower, is it not?



The red roses are particularly beautiful. There must be hundreds of petals in each bloom; I've never before seen a rose with so many. Photo below.  Observe how the petals swirl.

I've had the bouquet for an entire week and all the flowers save one are in excellent condition.  The huge rose has opened up even more, and while it's not as beautiful as it was the day it arrived, it is still lovely -- hasn't shed a single petal.

Amazingly, although the cats have been very interested in the flowers, they haven't taken any actions which would damage the flowers.  That's not always the case; I've had several bouquets in the past that have been picked apart in a few days, despite much scolding.

I hope you're having a lovely weekend.

13 comments:

Peter said...

Hi Pat,
Those roses are so lovely. I am astonished by the size of the large one. A million years ago I worked for about a year at a farm that grew carnations. There were 22000 plants in three glass houses. It was quite a sight some mornings when a lot were in flower at the same time. We would start work just before the sun came up, and it was beautiful working in the dewy stillness at that hour of the day.

I do hope that you enjoy better health soon. You are often in my thoughts. I put a photo of a magnolia flower on my latest post with you in mind.

Best Wishes,

Peter

Pat - Arkansas said...

Peter: carnation is my very favorite flower scent, even above delicious roses. 22,000 carnation plants? What an wonderful, if slightly overwhelming image that brings to mind. If the carnation flowers were of the fragrant variety, your sense of smell must have been overloaded -- but how nicely!

bittenbyknittin said...

I'm not a rose person, but even I can appreciate those blooms. My SO has roses - I will have to alert him to these, but I'm guessing they can't be grown here.

Snap said...

Beautiful, Pat. Nice to have a gardening daughter working in a florist shop!!!!! :D

Arkansas Patti said...

My roses have pretty much hung their heads for the fall so this was such a treat.
How beautiful. That pink tinged one is breath taking.

Patty said...

What beauties.

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Hi Pat, It's good to hear from you... I didn't think you were blogging anymore.... But--was I wrong? I looked back at some previous blogs. Sorry to hear about your health problems. Hope you are better... It's no fun to be sick. I had knee surgery in June --and that wasn't as easy as I thought it would be... ha

Your daughter has a green thumb. The roses are beautiful. We still have some pretty ones blooming here too..

Keep in touch.
Hugs,
Betsy

Hilary said...

Wow these are indeed beautiful. How lovely your home must smell. How incredible it must be at the greenhouses you described!

NitWit1 said...

That red rose is breathtaking and interesting they have held together so well.

Will be out of pocket I suspect as AHH does not have WI FI except in 1 & 2 floor lobbies where I don't suspect patients lounge. My computer picks ups signals pretty good but that is a tad far. One nice man answering my e-mail offtered me his telephone connect card, a kind of new internet connection but pricey. I could not accept that but thanked him profusely for offering.

Sniffles and Smiles said...

WOW!!!!!!! That's one enormous rose!! And so gorgeous!! I can only imagine the fragrance of these exquisite roses!!! Simply stunning! And your photographs are fabulous!! Loved reading about these...Love you! Janine XO

Carolina said...

Gorgeous roses.

Yorkshire Pudding said...

The last picture - of the swirling red rose from Ecuador was lovely. Greetings from Yorkshire! Please tell Mr Obama not to bomb us accidentally and give my regards to Bill Clinton if you see him out strolling....

Sniffles and Smiles said...

Hello, my dear friend!!! Love you! Janine XO