There is a wonderful garden center in our area called The Growing Place. It is nestled in among the trees so that if you don’t know exactly where it is you are apt to drive right by it, realizing the error of your ways as you see the long line of cars getting in and out. It is well worth the turnaround – and the long line.
I did not know until today how beautiful she was. The Yellow Rose of Texas.
Eager to start planting annuals and on a mission to select a tree, we headed out to The Growing Place Sunday afternoon. Going to the Growing Place is like going on a field trip. It was one of the first gardening establishments in the area to plant “learning gardens” where plants they sell are actually grown. Through any season, one can stroll through an English garden, a prairie garden, or a shade garden, all in the same trip, and get a feel for how and what to plant.
The Growing Place distributes a wonderful and free garden guide each year of close to 200 pages that lists everything in their inventory with a description and growing needs. For me, and many of my gardening friends, the guide is a gardening tool, kept in the trunk of the car along with the plastic sheets to protect the carpets and a few boxes to contain the purchases that, no matter how hard I try to be good, manage to find their way home.
I could go on and on, extolling the virtues of this garden center. In truth, it is one of many wonderful ones in the area that my car just seems to veer toward from May to September. It remains one of my favorites.
On Sunday, a new reason to visit blossomed before my very eyes!
Click on to get a better idea of how large this rose is.
I don’t know how the rose managed to elude me all these years. I suppose I was never around at its peak blooming time. Pulling in to the long, narrow drive leading to the grassy arena where overflow traffic parks at the height of the gardening season, this magnificent yellow rose was holding court. I couldn’t wait to get out of the car and pay homage to her.
There I was, getting up close and personal, oohing and aahing as slow moving cars filled with all sorts of horticultural delights were trying to avoid hitting me. I just couldn’t help myself. I bent down and carefully brought a blossom to my nose, slowly closing my eyes to better capture her scent.
The Yellow Rose of Texas! She grows in zone 5. Rosa ‘Harrison’s Yellow’. It is a Scotch Shrub Rose and was carried by pioneers from the east along the Oregon Trial.
Rosa 'Harrison's Yellow'. 1830
By the time we wandered back to the rose section of The Growing Place, Harrison’s Yellow was sold out. It was for the best. I need to plan exactly where I want to plant it – and how to keep the deer at bay. It is good to wait for things, don’t you agree?
There is a great deal of history surrounding Harrison’s Yellow, how it got to Texas, and the song. I’ll leave it up to you to discover on your own. Me? I’m just going to sit here for a while, close my eyes, and remember the lovely scent.
