April in Paris . . .

. . . is a rose. I bought two of them (yes, two bushes full of promise) today. One because today is Kimberly's birthday :-) Two because April (more likely June or July) in Paris is a someday dream we share.

This new for 2008 marvel has been on my musthave list since the first Jackson and Perkins rose catalog arrived in my mailbox last winter. The clincher, though was its parentage--yet another child of Pristine.

I seem to have a thing for "P" roses. Peace (but I have finally admitted I don't have what it takes to keep Peace alive). Promise (no longer available for purchase at any price but it's my personal icon on this computer). Any rose that's pink (which is why I decided to salvage Ultimate Pink today). And Pristine (see last summer's bloom above) . . .

Brigadoon, J&P's rose of the year in 1992, is another of Pristine's offspring.

13 springs ago--one of the more confusing, more difficult springs in my life--I bought two roses: Brigadoon and Pristine. Container-bound their first three, maybe even four, seasons, they became the anchors for my first rose garden here.

Too many other roses to count, to remember, have struggled and lost heart and hope and life in this too shady, too rootbound garden. Yet Brigadoon, a tiny shell of its former self, and frail but determined Pristine live on . . . touching my heart with their hope against hope against hope. . .