This is the shrub rose that my friends gave me recently. The label on it tells me it was ‘Rose of the Year 2003’ and I can certainly see why.

Colour may sometimes be called what it isn’t,  eg in the Cat breeders’ world, a grey-coated cat is referred to as ‘Blue’ – as in Blue Persian, or a ginger cat is Red, as in Red-self. And so it is in the plant breeders’ world it seems – for it says clearly on my Rose’s label that it is a purple rose , changing to slate grey as it fades. But Blue? – no – that is the colour of the sky.

 

Still, leaving aside the anomaly, it is a truly beautiful rose and I love its name. It photographs well too.  I love to get ‘creative’ and I have a couple of mirror tiles that I like to use sometimes.

 

The accuracy of reproducing the actual shades of colour may be a little bit off  in these images , especially in the post production stuff I do,  so I hope technical purists will forgive me. My artist’s eye tells me the purple of this rose has more red in it than blue, and part of its charm is its changing colour.  I welcome any comments /advice  …. bye for now,   Eileen