Category: Today’s Flowers

“He who cultivates a garden and brings to perfection flowers and fruits, cultivates and advances at the same time his own nature.”  ~Ezra Weston

 

As I profile this wonderful native plant, I am linking in with Gail@Clay and Limestone for her Wildflower Wednesday meme.

And I am joining forces once again this year with a local native plant nursery, Amanda’s Garden, to purchase native plants for my garden.  The owner, Ellen Folts, specializes in woodland, prairie and wetland native perennials.  Check out her wonderful 2015 Spring Catalog to see which natives Ellen is selling this year.

 

 

 

Growing Conditions

 The Swamp Rose is hardy from zone 4 to 9.  It will grow in full or partial sun, but the less sunlight the fewer flowers the plant will produce.  And it must have wet to moist richer soil, so I do amend my clay with compost.  If you have areas that flood in the spring this rose will love it.  The one I have in the Bog Garden will be moved and well placed to take advantage of the moist areas in the garden.  While it likes it wet, it does not like to be in standing water all the time.  

You can propagate the Swamp Rose by stem cuttings or divisions. Softwood cuttings need to be treated with a growth hormone. Swamp Rose can also be planted by seeds extracted from the hips as soon as they are ripe.  Plant the seed in the cold fall to let it overwinter.

 

 

 

Benefits to Wildlife 

Both the flowers and hips benefit wildlife.  The flowers are cross-pollinated primarily by bumblebees and other long-tongued bees.  Many other insects feed on the pollen and foliage.  And butterflies use this rose as a nectar source too.

Cedar Waxwings, and other berry eating songbirds, like the  rose hips as do small rodents like the White-Footed Mouse.  

And the White-Tailed Deer are said to browse the twigs and leaves keeping them pruned. I have not seen the deer browsing my native rose, preferring my hybrid roses instead.

There are also many birds that like to make their nests in tall roses like the Swamp Rose.  These include the Catbird, Northern Mockingbird, Brown Thrasher, Yellow Warbler, and Cardinal.  I would love to see any of these birds making nests in my Swamp Roses.

 

 

 

Uses

The Swamp Rose is perfect for any poorly draining area in your garden including rain gardens.  And plant them on the fringe of bog and water gardens.  Perhaps one near my pond might be a great addition too.

This rose is also lovely in fall as you can see here and in the collage at the end of the post.

And of course birds, butterflies and pollinators love it too. 

 

 

 

Folklore and Tales 

Native Americans tribes were said to use the bark and roots of this rose to combat dysentery.  

Roses in general are also said to be a cure for toothaches, earaches, stomach problems and nosebleeds.

Archeologists recently found the fossilized remains of an unidentified wild rose that are said to be over 40 million years old.  The remains were found in Colorado.

In the seventeenth century, French explorer Samuel de Champlain brought the first cultivated roses to North America.  I wonder if he ever saw the native Swamp Rose.

The world’s oldest living rose, thought to be 1,000 years old, is on the wall of the Hildesheim Cathedral in Germany.  

The rose is the State Flower of New York.  There is not one rose specified for this honor, but I like to think our native Swamp Rose should hold this distinction.

In the Language of Flowers a wild rose stands for Simplicity.  The pink rose represents Friendship, Grace, and Admiration.

 

 

Do you grow Swamp Rose or any roses?  What is your favorite rose?

 

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In A Vase On Monday 

 

As winter continues here in central New York State, I have more indoor bulbs blooming.  The big question now is how do I create a vase with another Hippeastrum bulb.  This one is ‘Red Lion’.  And the way this winter is going, most of my future vases will be with more Hippeastrum bulbs.

 

 

 

The bulb comes up not looking red at all, but more coral and variegated.  As it opens, it turns redder until it is a brilliant crimson red.  I cut this when all four blooms had come out and were just opening.  

I decided to pair the flowers with the Chinese Evergreen or Aglaonema ‘Emerald Beauty’ that I used a few weeks ago.  I am glad many of the greens, I used in other vases recently, are staying fresh as I will need to reuse them given the unavailability of any greens in the garden buried in snow.

 

 

 

You can see I also added the Barberry branches (Berberis thunbergii ‘Helmond Pillar’) I also used a couple of weeks ago.  It was not easy getting the thorns past the flower blooms, but the effort was worth it.

I do love how it looks, where I finally placed it, on an antique sewing machine with a few props; a candle and a cherished picture of my mom and her sisters.

I am joining in with a few memes this week:  Cathy@Rambling in the Garden for her wonderful meme, In a Vase on Monday, Today’s Flowers hosted by Denise@An English Girl Rambles and Judith@Lavender Cottage who hosts Mosaic Monday.