No Pretensions

It's not a refined rose. But Rosa 'Peggy Martin' suits this rough coyote fence and rusted sun face just fine. It's a rose that has no pretensions. It's unashamedly candy pink with little subtlety. It's a big rambler with no qualms about reaching out where it wants to go. When the blooms go by it sports limp, brown Kleenex shreds.

Without a trellis or pergola to climb, it simply grabs onto the bits of bark left on the coyote fence latillas. It doesn't mind that I planted it in the dead end alley on the side of the house where only employees are allowed to go and where gardening supplies are stored dumped.

It's still young, and the long canes have to figure out what to do. But it does not complain, only asks for water, and never asks for more.

Wait, what's this? 'Peggy Martin' has hot pink flowers, not white. What is this rogue white one doing here? 

Roses can have spontaneous mutations, called "sports" usually affecting flower color, but sometimes changing the genetics of climbers into shrubs or other altered characteristics. My pretty white anomaly isn't the rootstock overtaking the rose, it's a sport. Sports aren't always stable, they often go away. This one may disappear next year, it's just the one white flower.

The guest bedroom window looks out onto the corner of the blind fenced alley where 'Peggy Martin' is, so it is best appreciated when you come to stay overnight with us. 

But this rose blooms only briefly and then goes back to being a big green thing, so be sure to book with us in early June each year. We have availability.

This rose has no floral pretensions, no rose refinement, sometimes sports a white flower for fun, but is mainly pink simplicity. I like its willingness to consort with a rusted metal frame and deteriorating latilla fence poles at the end of an alley and to do it with no complaints. 

I can't ask for more than that.