Category — Faces

‘Mme. Marie Curie’, Hybrid Tea, Gaujard, 1943

Marie Skiodowska-Curie was born in 1867 in Warsaw which was then still part of the Russian Empire. Today is the 110th annaversary of the day she and her husband, Paul, discovered radium ushering in a new age. She also discovered polonium (named for her home country) and developed the theory of radioactivity, a term she coined.

She moved to Paris to study magnetism and in 1895 she married Pierre Curie. Their joint research led to the discoveries for which they along with Henri Becquerel were honored by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1911 Marie was awarded her second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry. Marie Skiodowska-Curie was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize and the first of only two to people to ever receive a Nobel in two catagories, Linus Pauling being the other (Chemistry and Peace).

Marie died on July 4, 1934 from aplastic anemia, more than probably caused by her exposure to radiation. She was known to have carried test tubes of radioactive elements in her pocket and remarked on the pretty blue-green light that the substances emitted in the dark.

Einstein is said to have commented that Marie was the only person who had not been corrupted by fame he knew. The Curies spent part of their Nobel Prize money to replace the wallpaper in their Parisian home and install modern plumbing with a bathroom.

The rose named for her is still available from a few specialty rose nurseries. I have grown it for years and it is a good medium tall Hybrid Tea with good repeat bloom and has and holds its strong yellow color well even under our harsh summer sun. The rose received the AARS (All-American Rose Selection) award in 1944. One good online resource to aid in purchasing rare roses is Help Me Find Roses which you can go to by Clicking Here.

Pierre and Marie Curie in their Paris lab, before 1907

‘Charles Dickens’, Floribunda, McGredy, 1970, photo ©RogersRoses

Charles Dickens published his classic Christmas story 165 years ago today on December 19, 1843. The full title A Christmas Carol In Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas tells the tale.

The orange pink blend Floribunda named for him has lovely brown tones at times. A low growing shrub it flowers well throughout the year.

A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, First Edition, 1843

Now all we need is to select your favorite movie version, a fire, and a frothy mug of eggnog to put us into the holiday mood. My grandmother’s receipt for eggnog was simple and quite satisfying: a good vanilla ice cream, nutmeg, and a generous shot of Bourbon whiskey, blend and serve. We called this concoction Ann’s “Bourbon Malt.”

Happy Holidays!

The Young Charles Dickens

‘Ellen Willmott’, Hybrid Tea, Archer, 1936

Ellen Willmott’s (1858-1934) career as an armature horticulturist spanned one of the Golden Ages of British horticulture. Born into a wealthy family she started gardening with her mother when the family moved into Warley Place, Essex, in 1875. Her independent income allowed her to sponsor many important plant collectors and field trips around the world including Ernest Henry (Chinese) Wilson who named Corylopsis willmottiae and Rosa willmottieae for her.

At her own expense she published one of the most important 20th century rose studies, The Genus Rosa,in two volumes between 1910 and 1914 with color illustrations painted by Alfred Parsons. The original are still in the possession of the Royal Horticultural Society Library, London.

An extravagant and influential gardener she was a contemporary and friend of Gertrude Jekyll. Her gardens at Warley Place and in the south of France were famous in their day. Never married she was known for her independent mind and in later life became a little odd and cantankerous. She was accused of shop-lifting and took to caring a loaded revolver in her hand bag. She also booby-trapped her daffodil fields to deter bulb thieves. At one time she had over 100 gardeners in her employ but she died penniless and her great gardens were sold to pay her debts. There is a story that she and her father had been heavily invested in German railroad stocks and she paid no attention to that fact until World War I was well under way and the stock was rendered worthless by the war with Germany.

‘Fortune’s Double Yellow’, by Alfred Parsons from The Genus Rosa 

“Duchess of Windsor”, aka ‘Permanent Wave’, Floribunda, Leenders, 1932

Edward VIII, King of the United Kingdom and British Dominions, Emperor of India abdicated the throne on December 11, 1936 all for the love of an American divorcée, Wallis Simpson.  He was King for only 325 days.

Wallis Simpson twice divorced had met then Prince Edward and soon became his mistress.  On his abdication his successor, his brother George VI, made Edward the Duke of Windsor. In his abdication radio address to the nation and Empire he declared, “I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love.”

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were married on June 3, 1937.  During the Second World War the British government posted the Duke to the Bahamas where he served Governor throughout the war. It was thought at the time this assignment was to keep the couple away from England because of their perceived pro-Nazi proclivities. After the war they returned to Paris where they lived out the remainder of their lives.

In 1936 Time magazine named Wallis its first Woman of the Year. The couple spent the rest of their life together apparently the stars of international society but in reality quite bored with each other. The Duchess is quoted as summing up her life as: “You have no idea how hard it is to live out a great romance.”

Wallis Simpson on the Cover of Time Magazine, 1936

‘Permanent Wave’, aka ‘Duchess of Windsor’, photo ©RogersRoses

Whatever you call this rose it has lovely fragrant, wavy petals in clusters of softly colored carmine. A good rose for a container or the border. I like planting them as a low hedge.

‘Karen Blixen’, Hybrid Tea, Poulsen, 1992, photo ©RogersRoses

The Danish author Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke (April 17, 1885-September 7, 1962, also wrote under the pen name Isak Dinesen and as a child she used the pseudonym Osceola, the name of a Seminole Indian warrior, thought to be because her father had lived among Chippewa Indians in Wisconsin.

In 1913 Karen maried her distant Swedish cousin, Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke and in 1914 the couple moved to Kenya where they established a coffee plantation. Bror Blixen found it dificult to remain faithful to his wife an she was diagnosed with syphilis by the end of their first year of marriage. She underwent the highly toxic mercury treatment as the only known cure for syphilis before the advent of modern antibiotics. And by 1925 she was cured and the couple divorced.

At some point she and the English big game hunter Denys Finch Hatton developed a close friendship which eventually became a long-term love affair. Finch Hatton died in a airplane crash in 1931 and soon after Karen was forced to sell the coffee farm and move back to Denmark where she lived for the rest of her life.

Best know for two books, Out of Africa, which was published in 1937 tells the story of her life on the coffee farm in Kenya. One other of her best know stories was also adapted as to the screen, Babette’s Feast, is about a chef who spends her entire ten-thousand-franc lottery prize to prepare a final, spectacular gourmet meal. Both films received great aclame. Out of Africa, directed by Sydney Pollack, received 7 Oscars in 1985. Babette’s Feast, first published in the Ladies Home Journal was addapted to the screen and directed by Gabriel Axel received an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1986. 

Blixen wrote in English and later translated her stories into Danish. She lived at her family’s estate, Rugstedlund, 24 kilometers north of Copenhagen where she died and is buried. Rugstedlund is now maintained as a museum to Karen Blixen and her family.

The rose ‘Karen Blixen’, won the Baden-Baden Gold Medal in 1991.

“Miriam Wilkins”, found Hybrid Perpetual photo ©RogersRoses

The rose “Miriam Wilkins” was found by Miriam and named in her honor. Miriam is the founder of the Heritage Roses Group in the USA. Her influence has been felt in Australia and New Zealand where heritage rose societies were founded on her model. Founded in 1975 the Heritage Roses Group publishes The Rose Letter quarterly. Membership is open to anyone who is interested. For information and to view the Heritage Roses website Click Here. To read back issues of The Rose Letter Click Here.

Miriam Wilkins photo by Bill Grant

‘Mr. Lincoln’ © RogersRoses

Today, November 19 is the 145th anniversary of President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address delivered at the Civil War Battlefield and National Cemetery in 1863. Lincoln was not the first speaker but Edward Everett was the primary speaker that day and gave a two hour, 13,607 word address after which Lincoln spoke. Abraham Lincoln the 16 President of the United States of America rose and in a little more than 2 minutes gave one of the most important speeches in American history.

Click Here to read the speech.

Abraham Lincoln

‘Gertrude Jekyll’, Shrub, Austin, 1986

Gertrude Jekyll, November 29, 1843 to December 8, 1932, influential British garden designer, artist, and author created over 400 gardens over her life time in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States. Her brother, the Reverend Walter Jekyll, was a friend of Robert Louis Stevenson, who borrowed the Jekyll family name for the novella Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Trained as an artist, she was forced to give up that profession and took up gardening where her refined sense of color reinvented British gardening. Along with her fellow author and gardening friend William Robinson (1838-1935) they invented the perennial flower border.

As an author of note she wrote over fifteen books including Roses for English Gardens. She also collaborated with the British Sir Edwin Lutyens, designing gardens for his famous country homes built in the Arts and Crafts style. Together they collaborated on her home Munstead Wood.

The rose named in her honor by David Austin and introduced in 1986 is one of the most fragrant of the English Roses. A tall grower she often reaches twelve feet or more in warm gardens. Her parentage is listed as ‘Wife of Bath’ x ‘Comte de Chambord’ gives her a strong dose of Old Rose and her Portland father gives her a strong remontant bloom.

“The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies.” Gertrude Jekyll

‘The McCartney Rose’, Hybrid Tea, Meilland, 1995

Sir James Paul McCartney, June 18, 1942, the English rock singer and composer and a member of The Beatles along with John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr is one of the most influential figures in twentieth century rock and roll.

Intensely fragrant, ‘The McCartney Rose’ can reach five to six feet and blooms throughout the season.

Sir Paul McCartney in Prague

‘Veterans’ Honor’, Hybrid Tea, Zary, 1999

World War II Memorial, Washington, DC