I spent a couple of hours this afternoon fighting with my monster rose. I call it a monster rose because it’s absolutely HUGE.
The rose in question is a William Baffin Canadian Explorer Rose. It’s about 10 years old and it’s oh … 16 feet tall and maybe 12 to 14 feet wide.
It’s just finishing it’s spring flush of blooms so all of it’s many branches are full of rose blooms. Thousands of them I believe! It’s absolutely gorgeous – all pink and unbelievable. I can’t believe how big this rose is and how many flowers it actually produces when it first blooms each spring!
Unfortunately about a week ago there was a big rain storm and the rose being so heavy with blooms half the branches fell to the ground. The rose looked like it was split in half!
So … yes, that’s what I was doing this afternoon, wrestling with my huge rose, trying to lift all those big heavy branches and make them stand upright again. I was out there with my husband pounding stakes into the ground and tying branches up with heavy twine. Oh and losing skin … all the while doing this with a hand that very well might be broken!
I sure hope that all the tying up and staking we did holds those branches up for a few years! That rose really is a monster!