Late Winter Roses: The Odds Are Good, But The Goods Are Odd

A long-time Alaska resident told me that back in the boom years of the 70's when the Trans-Alaska pipeline was being built,  single ladies in search of eligible gentlemen made the trip to Alaska.  The standard advice to these ladies was:  "The odds are good, but the goods are odd". 
Today. perhaps that saying is more appropriate for the very first roses of the year.  The odds are good there will be roses blooming at this time, but they are rarely the best the plant can produce.  The goods will be odd:  rain, colder than usual nights, and less daylight create unusual flowers.

Take this 'Lady Emma Hamilton', which has a yellow segment in an apricot flower.  How did that happen?
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A 'Barcelona' has less than half the petals it usually has, and double the pollen:
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'Ebb Tide', normally grape-jelly purple, is nearly red...
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...while 'Firefighter' is pale!
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Normally unblemished 'Black Bacarra' is spotted and dinged.
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Though 'Comtesse de Provence', which is usually toasted and crispy, looks superb.  Cool-weather rose, I guess.  
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Not only the Comtesse enjoys cool weather.  A hybrid Echeveria is intensely aqua:
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And Graptopetalum superbum is lavender-pink, and producing a very delicate flower spike:
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The puppies, and the gardener, enjoyed the cooler weather today, too, though the gardener didn't get much time to garden. 
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Comments

  1. They are all lovely, the rose, the rose-like and the rose-pup! I envy gardening in colder temps, if only we have a few months like that then it will be easier. Here you will be sweating like there's no more tomorrow, and you easily get tired even if it's just watering. Grrrr!

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  2. Hi Andrea, when it is hot here, the garden must take care of itself, because I am staying in the shade!

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  3. The blooms look pretty to me! Didn't your roses take even a brief winter's nap? Your puppies look like such happy little guys!

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  4. Hi Dorothy, The roses did take a few weeks off, but only a few.

    The puppies are happy, and I am tired!

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