Some years ago someone asked this forum If you were a roseâ¦which rose would you be?
And I picked CdeR. The rose slugs (lacewing larvae?) do love it, so I have to be vigilant early in the spring to pick them off, or hit the plant with a spray. Otherwise the leaves are toast. The shrub survives wicked NH winters with no protection. Tough guy.
And the blossom! Fragrant, not huge, but very intense color. But what I love about it is that it ages so well, even as a cut flower. If it isn't too hot, and if cut, you keep it out of direct sun in the house, it doesn't shatter for several days. I put a single bloom in a glass vase on a very dark blue tablecloth. Finally, after it fades with such elegant gray/lavender grace - one morning I find the petals, like pale tissue paper, circling the vase on the blue cloth. On the plant, since it blooms for at least a week, there will be blossoms in all the different stages of life by the end of week one.

Tough, fragrant, dignified death - I love it.