The Sacramento Bee
"Gertrude Jekyll" stretches her deep pink flowers skyward, scenting the air with the intoxicating fragrance perfume makers have found irresistible.
"Over here are the parents of 'Gertrude Jekyll' -- 'Comte de Chambord' and 'Wife of Bath,'" says Eleanore Wootton, introducing members of her old rose family while pausing often to inhale their heady fragrance.
Wootton's garden in Sacramento is planted with about 200 roses, and 90 percent of those are either old roses or David Austin's new English roses. Hybrid tea roses, some of the hottest sellers, are noticeably scarce.
"Hybrid teas just don't have the fragrance or the delicacy of color," says Wootton, who teaches humanities at American River College when not tending her rose garden. "Old roses just seem more beautiful to me."
Each rose in the garden has an interesting story, and Wootton, who is also a cultural historian, knows all the tales -- from the dedicated work of English rosarian Graham Stuart Thomas to the Empress Josephine's passion for roses.
Wootton planted her first rose, the David Austin English rose called "Mary Rose," seven years ago in memory of her late mother-in-law. Since then, the tomatoes, peppers and fruit trees that once flourished in the back yard have been replaced by roses. Roses now spread color combinations that Wootton describes as, "Dark mauves to raspberries to pale pinks and then back again to pinker tones."
Inspiration for planting old roses came through her love of French art. In a flea market in Paris, she spotted a small painting of Marie Antoinette holding a rose. Wootton was fascinated by the rose's beauty.
A couple hundred roses later, her garden has personal favorites such as "Rose du Roi" and "Rose de Rescht" sharing soil with a dozen varieties of lavender, foxglove, yarrow, feverfew, nasturtium, Japanese maples, birch and other plantings. All are enclosed by towering stands of bamboo and eucalyptus trees.
With three grown children, Wootton says her roses and her children "fill my heart."
A granddaughter also has a special place in her heart.
"My little granddaughter adores roses," she says.
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