The Name of the Rose

Rosa Wedding Day - in closeup
Photo courtesy Wych Cross

Not a discussion of the mystery novel by Umberto Eco, which was popular a number of years ago, but a rambling on roses and their names!

I recently attended a very small wedding.  We were asked not to bring gifts, but I have never been particularly obedient, and therefore decided to buy something plant related for the happy couple, who were fortunately enthusiastic gardeners.  Naturally, my first thought was to buy a rose, and in particular the variety Wedding Day.  Off I trotted to the fabulous Wych Cross rose nursery in the Ashdown Forest, to purchase it (click on the link to visit their website).  Or not to buy it, as it turned out, as I had made a big mistake and hadn't fully researched the rose beforehand.

Rosa Wedding Day - 30 foot high!
Photo courtesy crocus.co.uk

Let's consider the demographic of the people for whom  you would normally be buying Wedding Day as a present (at the risk of sounding like a geography teacher, which would require a pair of corduroy trousers).  Most of the time, surely, this will be a younger couple, probably without much gardening experience.  They won't have had much time to move up the property ladder and so are probably living in a small house, with a tiny garden, or a flat with a shared garden, assuming that they are likely to ever be lucky enough to own their own property at today's hyper-inflated prices.  What horticultural genius, therefore, decided to give the name Wedding Day to a thirty foot rambling rose?  What on earth are your typical newlyweds going to do with it?  It will swamp a small garden, and definitely won't be welcome in a shared garden.  Surely, with a teeny bit of thought, someone must have realised that if you want a genuine commemoration of your wedding, plant-wise, it should be small and portable.  A patio rose is ideal - it can sit in a pot and be transported from property to property.  It won't annoy anyone in a shared garden, and can even sit on a balcony or doorstep if that is the only space available.  And if the rose should unfortunately snuff it, at least they will still have the pot it was given in to remind them of the gift!  The Bride and Groom in this particular wedding do have a garden, but it is never going to be the type of place that could cope with a thirty foot rambler.

Rosa Newly Wed
Photo courtesy Wych Cross

Fortunately, Wych Cross (a word of warning - this nursery does not open on a Sunday), has a whole section dedicated to suitably named roses for special occasions, such as birthdays, anniversaries, baby arrivals etc.  There is even a hybrid tea rose named Champagne Moments which covers a multiple of events - assuming, I suppose, that the recipient is not teetotal.  For matrimonial occasions they have some hybrid teas called Wedding Celebration and Special Occasion, and also some patio roses too.  Unfortunately, these turned out to have slightly naff names (in the words of Princess Anne, who coincidentally has a rose named after her), such as Newly Wed and Lovely Bride; the latter was not desperately appropriate as the Bride at this particular wedding was a pensioner.  Not, I hasten to add, that the Bride wasn't lovely, but there are some adjectives that are suitable for adults as we grow older, and some that are really a bit more suited to much younger pre-adolescents, "lovely" being one of them.  Frankly, at this point of my life, I'd be happy to receive a rose called Well Preserved, but this doesn't seem to be available even from a specialist nursery.

If I am in the same position again, I think that I would research it a little better.  The RHS plant finder has loads of plants listed under "wedding" and "bride", and I could have found a suitably named (and sized!) fuschia or clematis without too much trouble.  It's just that, for special occasions, I always turn to a rose.