THE NAME OF THE ROSE..

Pretty, isn`t it?  Smells nice too.  This is Rosa Catherine, lovingly created in honour of Catherine Middleton, aka Duchess of Cambridge and Mrs. Wales.   It appeared a couple of months ago in advance of the royal wedding but has now been usurped by a new white rose, which made its entrance at the Chelsea Flower Show a couple of days ago.  

This new one is named William and Catherine, which got me wondering about how roses come to be named in the first place.   These two are clearly in honour of the royal couple and I`ve got some in my garden named, for example, Arthur Bell, Henri Matisse and Handel.   I`ve no idea who Arthur Bell might have been (or still is) but the other two are pretty obvious.

There`s probaby an Alex Ferguson rose somewhere, covered in dense thorns, rarely flowering and  less than fragrant, but I suspect it will be some time before the Chelsea Flower Show sees the emergence of Rosa Ricky Lambert Southampton`s Goal Machine.  Sweet.