Something funny happened yesterday. I received a duplicate shipping of a large climbing rose, 'Alberic Barbier'. Don't know where in the world I can put it!
I don't know if it was my mistake or theirs, but it would not survive a return shipping in this heat, I think. So, for now, I'm thinking it will stay here - and I have to find a place for it! Where can I put it! The first one is already in the ground in the chosen spot, hoping it will climb up and onto the pergola.
Husband/Best Friend/Chief Photographer asked me about that name: It was bred by Barbier Fre'res & Compagnie, 1900. I guess Alberic is the French form of our 'Albert'. So, I'm guessing (based on a lot of reading about roses and how the developers and hybridizers tend to name them) that it is named for a man, Alberic Barbier, and if he had lived in England, or here, we would probably know him as Albert Barber. I love reading and learning about the plants and "their people", and enjoy the names of roses.
One climber we planted this spring is 'Alister Stella Gray' (Gray 1894). It has a sad history. It was named after the hybridizer's (Alexander Hill Gray's), son. Stella, Alexander's wife, died in childbirth of Alister. Sad. But such pretty names and these sound British to me. Almost as pretty as the French ones.
Photograph from Antique Rose Emporium
Brenham, Texas, U.S.A.
http://www.antiqueroseemporium.com
Brenham, Texas, U.S.A.
http://www.antiqueroseemporium.com
