Sunday, June 20, 2010

Midnight Blue Rose

Well a rose I planted decided to bloom a little young. Not even established yet and it's already sending out flowers. This is the Midnight Blue Rose that I planted earlier this year, to compliment one called Agatha Christie, so named after the author. Agatha isn't blooming yet but I'll let you know when she does.

I'm so impressed with the color. More so by the radiant pink that burns out from the middle. The purple is nice and dark too. This rose turns into a smallish sized shrub and with brilliant blooms like this I'll have to rearrange what's growing around it.

Some nice companions might be:
Rosa carolina, for it's brilliant pink color but apparently it spreads aggressively.
Asclepias tuberosa, for it's brilliant orange color. 
Generally anything that goes with purple. Be warned with anything yellow though. Colors that are opposite one another on the color wheel will trick the eye into thinking they're vibrating. Perhaps that's another reason why the middle of the flower looks so intense. A larger bloom might lose the effect the center of the flower creates.

It's fragrant too. It smells, to me, like hand lotion. Very much like Oil of Olay. It's not as strong as I'd thought it'd be but for only one flower I'm still impressed. I can't wait for this to take off into a full shrub.