The first buds are soft crimson opening to a flower-head of royal purple, what more would you expect from a young prince? Observing his conservative stance & straight forward foliage I often forget why we love this rose so dearly. He lacks the flamboyance of the purple leaved 'Times' rose & the laissez-faire attitude of 'Nevada', but the moment his first bud appears his power is hypnotic. He has inherited his colour through a long line of crimson roses that began with a cross of Tuscany & Dusky Maiden. His perfume is thick & heavy, just as one would expect having been
lured from the other side of the garden to admire his beauty. The ispiration for this planting was The Smoking Room in a Gentleman's club. This hillside planting is based on the tonality of the colour-wheel combined with the fairy story of the plants that inhabit this west-facing hill. When we planted The Prince we imagined that he was in the smoking room, after dinner, playing cards with the french rose 'Nuits de Young' for the hand of the beautiful 'Lily Regale'in the next bed. 'Nuits de Young' was bred, in France, by Laffay and named after the english poet Edward Young 1683-1765. It is a rich historic moss rose with nearly-black loose double blooms. They flower once together in mid-june, but it is only the Prince that flowers again; suggesting that after a game of cards that stretched deep into the early hours it was the Prince who won the hand of the 'Lily Regale'. He announces his victory with a glorious, second- display of his colours in early august!
