Oh Cecil, We Hardly Knew Ye!

This is a Cecil Bruner rose from my planting of about five or six years ago.

What turns out is that Cecil Bruners do wonderfully well around here, love the local climate, and are mostly desease resistant.

I didn’t know this when we planted it, but I do now. This climber worked its way up our fence and arched over the sidewalk to the street signs, forming a fragrant and colorful tunnel.

What I also didn’t know was that this flowering tunnel bothered some people (although others loved it). There were anonymous complaints to the city (c’mon people, why don’t you just talk to us, we are neighbors)!

Once I realized that it upset people, of course it had to come down. A big job. The Cecil Bruner will flower in our garden, but it won’t overhang the path, and it won’t bother people. (And it will grow back!)

I like my garden somewhat wild looking, and I think that offends a suburban mentality – even here in Berkeley. If we lived in the country far away from neighbors, of course we could plant anyway we liked, but here one has to respect the feelings of others.

All this said, in some ways I like the garden better without the massive Cecil Bruner dominating one side. It is lighter and airier.

This is a photo of a small bud from the cuttings. Taken with my 105mm Nikkor macro and a 30mm Kenko extension tube, 4 seconds exposure time, and stopped down to f/51.


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