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.