If you were to ask me for a list of my favourite roses, I’d be hard pressed to keep it to five or even ten roses. But one rose sure to make the list would be Sedona.
I first encountered Sedona in one of my local garden nurseries. This nursery always stocked an amazing selection of roses in two large greenhouses. I found Sedona by way of my nose….”what is that amazing fruity fragrance?” And there was Sedona, a hybrid tea rose in a small pot, with a single large bloom pumping out the most incredible fragrance. I bought it without a second thought.
My Sedona is an own root rose, planted in a large pot on my patio right outside my back door. The foliage is a dark matte green, remarkable simply because it is completely disease resistant in my no spray garden. The colour of the bloom defies easy description, a mix of coral, pink and orange. Sedona does not seem to resent living in a pot at all. Given a foliar spray of kelp this spring, it promptly grew several new canes. The first flush of bloom tends to occur a little bit later than most of my other roses, but is worth the wait. The canes are long but easily able to support the large blooms. There is a short break between flushes. The fragrance is consistently strong.
The nursery where I bought Sedona was unique, in that every year it put all the unsold roses at the back of the nursery, all clumped together in a disorganized jumble. I always used to poke through these rejects. Last year I found a pot with a single cane of Sedona in it. I seriously thought about buying it, but in the end I didn’t. The nursery has since closed, having sold their property to developers for millions of dollars. I really regret not buying that rather sad pot of Sedona, as it is now impossible to find it in any of the garden centres in my area. Jackson and Perkins still list this rose on their website, but don’t ship to Canada. I would hate to lose this rose. Next year I will attempt to root some cuttings from my plant.
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