YOUR GUIDE TO THE TWIN CITIES

Global Search
Friday February 10, 2012
« Guest post #2: A happy marriage — Books and gardening
Guest post #4: Goth garden surprise »

Guest post #3: Meeting Fru Dagmar

Posted on July 22nd, 2009 – 12:27 PM
By Robyn Dochterman

From London Nelson:
fru.jpgJaime’s post about shrub roses got me reminiscing about my first meeting with Fru Dagmar. She was recommended to me (I call my roses she.. sorry guys) by my master gardener and chief advice-ologist down in Kansas. Patti swore it would grow here and that I would love the fragrance and cute pink blooms.

I had a gift certificate to heirloomroses.com and thought, what the heck. The teeny little rose arrived in a cardboard planter the size of a school milk carton. It was ridiculously small. Not knowing much, I planted it in a goofy semi-shady spot and it didn’t thrive. I probably didn’t take care of it and it definitely wasn’t fertilized.

The following year I moved Fru to a much happier spot, with lots more sun, in front of the house. And she took off. Every year she gets bigger. In fact, I have to whack her with the pruners a couple times a year or she’ll try to take over the front sidewalk.

What do I like about Fru Dagmar? She smells great, she’s a long bloomer and she’s a bee magnet. The whole bush seems to vibrate with bees inside every bloom. Here’s a couple shots of my Fru.

Happy gardening everybody!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 at 12:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

6 Responses to "Guest post #3: Meeting Fru Dagmar"

Judybusy says:

July 22nd, 2009 at 3:00 pm

This plant sounds great…wish I had more room to grow it!

Danika says:

July 22nd, 2009 at 4:39 pm

She’s beautiful!

DebW says:

July 22nd, 2009 at 9:09 pm

I have a good old Hansa rugosa that has the same world domination idea. I have to take the loppers to it every year or it tries to claim the sidewalk and attack the neighbors. It smells so great however that no hard feelings last very long. I keep saying I will attempt to make attar of roses with the blooms but never have gotten the time or nerve to actually DO it.

kiwi9mm says:

July 23rd, 2009 at 1:33 pm

I have no experience with growing roses. In my opinion, most roses have had the smell bred out of them, and thus, I have not bothered to plant any. However at a garden tour this weekend, I did come across the most wonderful smelling rose which was a David Austin (although the owner did not know which one) Now, I believe I just changed my mind after finding a kind that smelled like the roses Grandma used to grow.

http://www.davidaustinroses.com/american/Advanced.asp

Margaret says:

July 23rd, 2009 at 6:52 pm

I grow David Austin Heritage and it’s lovely.

DebW says:

July 26th, 2009 at 4:03 pm

Many of the “old fashioned” roses still have that good old time smell. David Austin roses and Rugosa bush roses are not as needy as the hybrid and tea roses in terms of winter protection or feeding, a win-win deal as far as I am concerned.

Subscribe to Greengirls

Learn more about RSS

Categories