It all started a number of years ago when I went to get a bush to hide the second air conditioner from the street. I had a black thumb. There was a potted umbrella tree in my house that was dropping leaves–and it’s plastic. When I explained this, they showed me a cocoplum bush. On the way to pay for it, I passed some rose bushes. They suggested a Duchess du Brabant rose bush. The Duchess has been flattened by three or four hurricanes and was under the tent along with the cocoplum when I had the house tented for termites. They both are doing fine. The Duchess is blooming its head off most of the year.

Duchess du Brabant rose bush

You can just see the cocoplum bush peeking out from behind the rose bush.

I have one other big rose bush. I got it at Lowes. I’m not sure what the name is.

What is this rose?

If you recognize it, please let me know.

When I started to plan the garden railroad, I thougt that micro-miniature rose bushes would look great around the houses. I got a variety of them. Unfortunately the garden railroad is on the north side of the house and doesn’t get much sun, especially in the winter. The ones that did are near the front edge (away from the house) or on the west side where they get afternoon sun. The gallery below shows the sizes of the blossoms.