Bloomfield Abundance in my garden
I got this plant from a rose sale - Fred Boutin, one of the original "discoverer's" of what is thought to be the correct BA (with Judy Dean) donated it. (hybridized by Thomas, 1920). It had some trouble originally, because of where I planted it. It got overwhelmed and buried by a lot of very large & rambunctious Four O'Clocks. So, when my DH built me a new fenced in garden which gets a lot of full sun, we dug it up and moved it. Very hot/dry/sunny Summer. I thought BA had some sort of crud or other fungal disease - all of the leaves sort of curled up and got horrible looking. However, happy to say that after about 4 months in the ground, and cooler temps, it started putting out large, clean leaves, and blooming a lot.
As most of you know, the original of this rose was evidently confused with a type of Cecile Brunner in commerce a LONG time ago. In England, Spray Cecile Brunner has been grown and sold under the name Bloomfield Abundance for generations. This has been confirmed by DNA analysis, but Spray Cecile Brunner is still being sold under BA's name. One famous English rose hybridizer said on a comment I read that it HAD to be Bloomfield Abundance, because his father grew it (SCB) under that name. This implies that the confusion happened almost from the start. BA was hybridized in the US, and shipped to England shortly thereafter. Perhaps the wrong rose was shipped? However the error occurred, it was argued about for decades, because of course Spray Cecile Brunner (a sport of the bush form) LOOKS like a Cecile Brunner! Looks like a duck, walks like a duck, talks like a duck, .....
Anyway, what is now thought to be the actual BA is a gorgeous plant. Mine is in full bloom now, and later today I will take more pics of it. There are very good ones on HMF. Here are some of min
The blooms open a dark pink, sometimes with darker edges, and then get bigger and paler.
Jackie
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Bloomfield Abundance
Comments (1)Working on the Auction catalog, I tracked down a couple of the contemporary photos of 'Bloomfield Abundance.' It's hard to look at those, and imagine how that Hybrid Tea could have become confused with Spray Cecile Brunner. I'm really looking forward to seeing this rose, and hopefully getting photos of it for future reference. We grow a couple of Thomas roses -- 'Bishop Darlington' which is a GREAT rose, here at the SoCal coast -- and 'Bloomfield Courage,' which was collected at the home where the Breen family lived, after their Donner Party ordeal. I can see why Capt. Thomas' roses were so highly regarded in his day. Jeri...See MoreThe REAL 'Bloomfield Abundance' - pics?
Comments (38)Altorama -- Some of the roses (and other plants) in the Sacramento Historic Cemetery survived the intervening century and a half -- but as families moved away (or died out) no one was left to tend the plots in the Garden Cemetery. By the beginning of the 90's, the place was a disaster. Dedicated plant people re-planted this cemetery, with roses collected across California -- Thank Fred Boutin, for one . . . So, today, there is a Historic Rose Garden, but there are other gardens there, as well. Native Plants, Perennials . . . And a few roses DID survive from the 1860's -- they call them "Legacy Plants." I am particularly fond of "Elisabeth's China." (Elisabeth Stober, born in Germany, died in Sacramento in the 1880's. Her rose has been cut to the ground multiple times, but it yet survives: Any city could do this -- with enough dedication and work....See More'Bloomfield Abundance'
Comments (15)Even without dna, I could well believe that the rose in commerce as Bloomfield here in the uk, is actually a Cecile variant - I took a picture last year of a 'Bloomfield' doing that classic Cecile thing where it proliferates to the extent that there's a whole new bud growing out of the middle of the first one. That found rose certainly is a darling looker, even without the name....See MoreBloomfield Abundance vs Cecile Brunner
Comments (32)I think what must have happened is that they got confused a LONG time ago - I remember reading a statement by a famous rose person in the UK that he was sure they had the correct BA (I think this was before the DNA results) because "my father grew it". So, perhaps the mix up happened in the US, and the wrong plant was sent to the UK, or it happened there right after they got the first plant. Then it became conventional wisdom, so by the time it was questioned everyone's feet were in concrete. Thank heavens DNA analysis can be done now! Jackie...See More
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