November 25, 2002
the green-eyed goddess
I do not feel the tug of desire for other people's possessions most of the time but as a gardener I find Envy is my frequent companion. There is envy of Size--the bigger garden; of Skill--the hand-made rock wall or waterfall; and of Beauty--the perfect perennial border or the artful woodland glade. But the most insidious form of the sin is Rose Envy. It is the equivalent of wanting somebody else's Jaguar or Rolex, or Wolf range.
I suspect that something like R.E. is at work in David Austin's creation of a catalog's worth of Perfect Roses. They work not neither do you toil at producing blooms worthy of a travel brochure for the Cotswolds or Garden Design magazine. Here is a gardener who looked upon Rose du Roi and thought "I must have that rose." The rest came when he hadthat rose but wanted it to bloom more than once a year, not send up suckers all over the place, be less droopy of form, and, of course, be patented. Now David Austin's roses are the envy of many gardeners--even ones who didn't use to like roses.
But I am trying to escape the point here. Which is that while looking at pictures of Rich's roses I have been easy prey for the green-eyed goddess.
Rose du Roi from the Bayview garden:
