'Madame Lombard' - Thank you, Susan.

I have ooh-ed and aah-ed over many photos of 'Madame Lombard' aka 'Madame Lambard'. If you like the deeper shades of pink, this is the Tea rose for you. If you like light pink to white, this is the Tea rose for you. If you like reddish pink or even salmon-pink, this is the Tea rose for you. You see, 'Madame Lombard' is variable. She can present herself in so many ways that she has been quite difficult to pin down by those who do such things. The Vintage Garden Book of Roses says, "So variable is it that at one time we grew nearly a dozen collected forms of this rose which all looked different when they were found...."

As different as she can look in photo after photo, I seemed to swoon over them all. As I was selecting roses for my garden, the swoon factor was of primary importance from the beginning so she was on my list, but as the garden filled and the remaining spaces seemed to shrink smaller and smaller, the size factor became primary, and she moved off my list. In the world of Tea roses big, buxom bushes are the norm, especially in Florida. There are no small Tea rose bushes, and you'll be lucky if a medium-sized bush stays 5x5, but you're not that lucky. Sadly for me, 'Madame Lombard' is not a medium but a large Tea rose. So being prudent about my rose addiction, I was always constrained to decline the overtures of this beautiful heart-throb. She was just more than my little garden could handle.

Then, alas, poor 'Monsieur Tillier', also a large Tea rose, began to have health problems. Though everyone raves about Mons Tillier, he was not happy in my garden, suffering from many more black/dead canes than I thought was normal. So he was pruned with the shovel. Within a few weeks of his departure my dear, dear friend, Susan, said, "Ya wanna rose?" or words to that effect.  I said, "Well, as a matter of fact...what is it?" A symphony touched my ears...no, not really. The email said, "I have two ML's. Do you want one?" Yes, yes, yes.

First I had some really deep digging to do to get rid of the crappy soil (see the pile in the upper left corner?) where Mons Tillier had been. Maybe that's why he suffered so. It was replaced with some really good stuff, and the baby ML had a new home.

That's her in the middle on October 10, 2010. Looks like a preemie, doesn't she?

Then on March 4th she looked like this. It's obvious that she's bigger, don't you think? And there are flower buds on the cane to the right. Then on March 12th (at dusk, unfortunately)...

I saw my second 'Madame Lombard' bloom. Wouldn't ya know? The camera wasn't handy for the first, but I do remember that flower did not look like this flower.

On March 14th here she is from the other side, showing off her buds.

Aren't baby pictures fun? Can't wait to see what the next bloom will look like. And the next and...