Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Roses from my builder

This is another post related to my bathroom, but in a tangential way. Larry, the builder working on it, has been sorting out our houses for a long time. He goes right back to the first house Harvey and I bought together, in Woburn Road, Northland, not far from Larry's own home.
         When we moved to Karori, he came round to build us a deck at the end of the garden. This required taking out a pretty pink rose planted by the previous owner. By that time Larry was building himself and his wife Chris a new house in Waikanae. If we didn't want the rose, he said, he'd like it for his new garden. So he carried it off and it flourished. He and Chris named it the Harvey rose, and told Harvey how well it was doing.
           When he arrived on Monday morning, he presented me with two beautiful buds from it. In the warm room, they've opened up into my favourite rose shape: a round cup with a cluster of whorled petals in the middle. I've had a look at a website showing the different forms, and I think this is a rosette shape - but I'm not entirely sure, it might be a quartered shape. If anyone knows, please tell me.

4 comments:

  1. A touching story Anne and a special builder!

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  2. What a lovely thoughtful man - and it is a beautiful rose!

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  3. Anne, I did leave you a comment last week but now I'm wondering if it got lost because I didn't do the security code right. In it I mentioned the coincidence of having just ordered Harvey's garden book from the library. I now have it here, and am looking forward to a good read. He looks happy in the photo, with the roses around him.

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    Replies
    1. I didn't get that first one, Juliet. You will love Harvey's book.

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