Do roses grow on trees???

[dreamshark]

We're just back from a visit to Portland. As expected, the weather was rainy and cold, but there were still flowers blooming everywhere, including this beautiful thing that appears to be a rose tree. The trunk looks like a tree trunk and no rose thorns were in evidence, but they sure looked like roses to me. Is this for real? I know Portland fancies itself a "City of Roses" but still...

Comments

[pameladean]

Sure. They're in Alice in Wonderland, after all! You can get them from Jackson and Perkins or David Austin and so on. They are not hardy in Minnesota. They're also not exactly natural, being a graft of regular leafy blooming roses onto a tough rose cane of a different type that doesn't bear foliage on its lower parts, so it looks like a tree trunk.

P.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I wonder. Those flower buds look nothing like roses to me.

I think it's a camellia.

We need Kate and LeoKaren and Jon and we need them now!

K.

[pameladean]

I bet you're right. I was struck by the trunk -- it didn't really look like a rose cane, even a very old one in a mild climate. The leaves still fool me, though.

P.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

My guess would have been that it's just a really old, and therefore thickly rooted bush.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

But it's 30 feet tall!