The joy of climbers is that they present their flowers at, or just above, eye level, allowing you to inspect individuals, then inviting you to turn your gaze skywards – always a hopeful gesture. I have just been admiring the velvety pink flowers of the clematis ‘Mme Julia Correvon’ (see the entry for 31 July 2009) then, a little further on, noticed that those of the vigorous rambler ‘Wedding Day’ are just beginning to open.
Wedding Day is a vigorous rambler, covered in clusters of single white flowers in early summer
There’s a host of roughly similar ramblers that produce great clusters of single white flowers – ‘Bobbie James’, ‘Seagull’, ‘Rambling Rector’ (actually, I think two out of these may actually be one and the same thing) – but what distinguishes ‘Wedding Day’ is the buds, which are a delectable creamy yellow.
Mine is now covering one side of my old apple tree (which manages to fruit regardless of the competition). Some of the flowers are already fully open, but its peak is yet to come. Even so, the flowering is brief – but spectacular.
Tags: Bobbie James, clematis Mme Julia Correvon, climbers, climbing plants, climbing roses, once-flowering roses, Rambling Rector, rambling roses, rampant climbers, rose buds, roses, roses to grow through trees, roses with one flush, Seagull, vigorous climbers, Wedding Day, white plants, white roses, white-flowered plants, white-flowered roses
Andrew Mikolajski's Blog 
August 24, 2010 at 8:50 pm |
20 years ago walking in the woods in Mobile, Alabama at an old abandoned home site (nothing left but the brick chimney) in early summer or spring there were 30 feet up in the tops of trees still budding out with the sun shining through thousands of white glowing roses. It was an unforgettable sight that I’d love to recreate. The whole site seemed to be covered with these roses in somewhat small trunked trees not more than 30 years old. It could have been a white lady banks since the rose petals seemed to be single layered enough to let the sunlight shine through. Would a Lady Banks grow that high? What tree would be good? The Cowcumber magnolia comes to mind since it is so slender trunked but I’m not sure when they start putting out leaves. Any other suggestions?