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In Praise of Harkness
With all the minutiae examining of
Austin Roses that goes on, one rose nursery that gets overlooked is Harkness. I grow many of their roses. Guinevere, Compassion, Cream Abundance, Jacqueline Du Pre and Pink Abundance. Every year I am consistently blown away the shear vivaciousness of their performance. Harkness roses tend to have a strong R.Wichuriana strain in them as Harkness uses New Dawn extensively in their Hybridization. They therefore have dense, dark, rounded leaves with waxy strong canes. The leaves are bullet proof and the plants have proven very hardy (little winter kill) here in my Z5 Garden. Most are own root. Other than Pink Abundance the others have a strong scent. I my opinion Harkness does an excellent job of winnowing poor plants and hence a much greater percentage of their roses are very worthwhile. They deserve to be looked at and grown a loot more. If you are taking a wild chance on a new rose, let it be a harkness. You have a very high chance of being blown away. -- Theo in Zone 5 Kansas City |
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