Awaken me with a kiss

This is another favourite plant of mine, (maybe I should do a favourite rose) I have a serious problem with rose's, I'm addicted to them. If i could only have one type of plant in my garden it would be rose's, anyway back to the point.

This is rosa sericea ptericantha

image via flickr


I came across this rose a few years ago whilst visiting an NGS garden and fell head over heels in love with it. Its just so beautiful and unusual. The thorns are it main focal point although it does flower quite early on in the season (about now)with small creamy yellow flowers. But it's the thorns that are so amazing, I mean just look at them.

This is the kind of thing you'd imagine growing rampantly around sleeping beautys castle. It's pure brothers Grimm.

It's best to prune these in the late winter/early spring to get a flush of new growth which has the deep red translucent thorns although you'll end up cutting off the flowering stems (it flowers on the pervious seasons growth) like I seem to have. And make sure it gets planted somewhere it catchs the light, to show of the thorns.