Rosa persica – a climate-adapted rose

Dear Readers, we were back at Golders Green Crematorium today. It’s always so peaceful, and I love to see the way that the plants and colours change with every season. The roses are still in full bloom, but I was very interested in particular to see several cultivars of Rosa persica. This rose comes originally from desert areas of Iran and Afghanistan, though its range extends right through Central Asia and even into Siberia. In the wild, it’s a somewhat straggly yellow rose, but it has those distinctive darker marks at the base of its petals.

Wild Rosa persica (Photo By Yuriy75 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11395767)

Since the 1800s breeders have been trying to create a hybrid that retained that distinctive mark at the bottom of the petals, whilst improving disease resistance and flowering. However, it wasn’t until 2004 that rose breeders (particularly Chris Warner) were able to create something that was not only beautiful, but that repeat-flowered. It’s also rumoured that the dark patch acts to attract pollinators, and as this is a simple flowered rose I suspect that this might be true. The rose in the photo above is, I think, a variety called ‘For Your Eyes Only’, but I have no doubt you lovely people will put me right if not.

I really like this purple one (below) too, It reminds me of a hibiscus.

Rosa persica ‘Eyes for You’

Anyhow, we were trotting around the crematorium gardens, when, as we came to the ornamental pond. I noticed this statue of a heron.

Umm…..

Nope, not a statue but a real-life heron, and not a shy one either. S/he was happy provided I didn’t get closer than about ten feet away. We walked around the pond very quietly, trying not to disturb the bird, and once settled on a rock in the middle of the water s/he seemed to be content.

I have no idea what s/he might be eating – I’m sure there are frogs around, but I’ve never seen any fish. On the other hand, I am very curious about this.

This is from the Merlin app – it records the bird calls that it hears as you wander about, and presents you with its best guess. I’m very happy with most of the bird calls that it’s picked up, as I either saw the bird myself or know the call well enough to agree. But Kingfisher? It’s not too ridiculous, as there is a stream as well as the pond, plus we’re pretty close to the Mutton Brook (and the Dollis Brook). I didn’t realise that the bird had been picked up by the app until I was walking home. I am intrigued, though. Fingers crossed that the app is accurate!