Random thoughts and discussions about roses
| Old-Fashioned Gardens - perspective from 1895 |
| Genetic Blues - is a blue rose possible? |
| Reality Check - not everybody thinks the rose is the perfect plant |
| On Aphids, ‘Lions’ and Ants - lesson in entymology |
OLD PERSPECTIVE ON OLD-FASHIONED GARDENS - by Charles Sargent, 1895 From "Old-fashioned gardens."Garden and Forest" 8 (July): 281-282, 1895. "There is a fresh call for the perennials and annuals which enlivened the borders of long ago, and those who are fortunate enough to possess one of these old-time gardens show with pride the long-treasured plants which have bloomed for so many years. . . . The charm of those old gardens was in their wealth and tangle of bloom. . . . The spirit of those gardens came from the hands that tended them and culled their fragrant produce. . . . The fairest of these gardens were unsymmetrical ones, with winding paths that led by unexpected turns to some half-hidden bower wreathed in roses. An old-fashioned garden appeals to the mind as well as the eye, and whether formal or informal has about it something individual suggested by the mind of the owner. Its very tangles have a meaning and its stiffness a significance. . . . The plants of an old-fashioned garden were beloved, and are still justly beloved, for beauty or fragrance or for picturesque habit." Sargent, Charles. 1895. Old-fashioned gardens. Garden and Forest 8 (July): 281-282. |
| GENETIC BLUES - by Dr Diane Eager and John Mackay. Taken from Creation Research Email Update 16th November 1999. GENETIC BLUES as 10 years ago genetic engineers set out to produce a blue rose by transferring a gene from a purple petunia that codes for an enzyme used to make a blue pigment (delphinidin) (New Scientist, 22/5/99 p7). However it seems that more than one enzyme is needed to produce blue roses. In roses the delphinidin pigment seems to be masked by already existing pigments or altered by acids in the petals. Yet delphinidin does turn white carnations purple and these 'unnatural' plants are now available in flower shops. Ed. Com: This kind of genetic manipulation reminds us that God programmed information into living things and made them to multiply after their kind. Carnations and roses were not given blue genes so no amount of breeding could produce blue flowers. Genetic engineers had to find the information for blue colour in other flowers and then, by intelligent manipulation, transfer it to roses and carnations. When all is said and done, the purple carnation is still a carnation and the hoped for blue rose will still be a rose. (Ref. genetic engineering - rose) |
ROSE REALITY-CHECK - Not everybody thinks the rose is the perfect plant. "Roses are not monomania with me. The bush is shapeless at best, more often downright ugly, and rescued only by its foliage, flowers or fruit. To me it seems obvious that roses need to be integrated with other plants, other themes. that would mean that you could not grow nearly so many of them, which is surely as it should be when there are so many other deserving plants." --- Christopher Lloyd in Christopher Lloyd's Flower Garden, 1993, Dorling Kindersley, London. "Thus, at the start of each season, we are spurred on to make new resolution and fresh efforts. 'This year it will all be different,' we think. But at the end of the year we find that it was no different unless rather worse. 'It must have been the spray application I missed when we took our holiday in August,' we think, in order to explain our failure. Thus can gardening founder beneath a load of negative tyranny. Of course the pesticide manufacturers are doing a good job in their way but it is sometime difficult not to see them in the light of parasites who not only feed upon our misfortunes but help to create them. If we can't grow decent roses without spraying them a dozen or more time through the growing season, then the answer surely is to grow something else. I don't mind taking trouble over a plant I love if it is constructive trouble like sowing seed at the right time, potting on frequently at the right time, feeding and tying. But if I feel that I am starting off with an in-built invalid that has been bred to be susceptible to every passing ailment, then I am inclined to rebel." "A complete spray programme on roses is anyway such a bind that one looks around for other ways out. One way is to grow fewer of them. There is a danger in any sort of monoculture because it provides the ideal breeding ground for specific pests and diseases The bigger the crop, the more easily these parasites can build up. Don't, if you can help yourself, make a whole rose garden within your garden or even commit yourself to beds of roses that cannot easily be changed over to other occupants. If you can let your roses take their place in the garden with other shrubs and plants, a serious build-up of their special pests and ailments is less likely to occur." --- Christopher Lloyd in The Well-Tempered Garden, 1973, Lyons and Burford, Publshers, New York. |
ON APHIDS, ‘LIONS’ and ANTS - by Mark Stewart of Greenfield, Ohio By permission of Mark in March 2001. If you were to ask a farmer what he thinks of aphids, he may make your ears tingle. These tiny insects suck the sap from stems and tender leaves in his crop and can do a great deal of damage. On the other hand, beekeepers in Germany prize aphids highly. In the Black Forest there resides an aphid that gives off a substance called honeydew, which bees love. Beekeepers from far away travel there with their bee colonies. After the bees get honeydew from the aphids they can make expensive, famous fir honey for their owners. Other insects are divided in their disposition toward aphids, just as people are. Certain species of ants are so fond of aphids (for their honeydew!) that they protect their little friends from their enemies and even hide them underground. The fact is that aphids are already well equipped for survival, even without the aid of the ants. They have a bewildering sex life, for one thing, which for all practical means assures rapid multiplication. Several generations of aphids may not even have to mate in order to produce offspring! The aphids are born with eggs for other aphids right inside them. These eggs hatch and are born as live aphids with more eggs inside! In other species, the aphids do not grow wings if a food supply is plentiful where they are, but let the supply run short and the wings begin to grow! Soon they fly off to find more food. As one source puts it, "Here it is literally true that hunger gives wings." If it were not for their natural enemies, the earth might be overrun with aphids. But what happens when their friends, the ants, protect aphids against their enemies? The "aphid lion" (the larva of the green lacewing) is a creature that has a voracious appetite for aphids. It is gray, bristled, and big, while the aphids it likes to eat are white, small, and covered with a fluffy wax-like secretion. As soon as the aphid lion shows up for dinner, alert ants attack it, driving it off. What does the aphid lion do? Some aphid lions sneak up on aphids and snatch bits of the fluffy wax from their backs, using them to disguise themselves until they appear like overgrown aphids. Then these ‘lions in aphids’ clothing’ sneak into the "flock" while the ant "shepherds" are unaware. If an ant gets suspicious, the disguised lion hides its huge jaws by lowering its head down, and stays very still. Generally, it is inspected and then left alone. As soon as the guardian ant walks away, too bad for the nearest aphid! To most people, aphids are just tiny dots on a leaf, at most a nuisance. Closer examination, however, reveals the amazing handiwork of the Creator.
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last updated 2003 October
9
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