My first Black Friday purchase was an order of four roses from Heirloom Roses, which arrived on my doorstep this week. I ordered two ‘Belinda’s Dream’ roses, one of the most carefree everblooming roses to grow, for two planting beds I am creating in my back yard now. I also ordered ‘Quietness’ because it looked like it would play well with pink or orange flowers in a vase and sounded like one tough cookie.

But the rose that is my new darling is ‘New Dawn’, a climbing, blush, fragrant, repeat blooming rose I first remember on a tour of Dora’s garden. Dora grew tons of roses, told me the story of ‘New Dawn’, and was the woman that marched into the Rogers Morning News office with my one-page newsletter, declaring “You need a garden column and you need her to write it!” That was the beginning of my writing career. 
‘New Dawn’ rose, a sport of the 'Dr. W. Van Fleet' rose, was the first patented plant. “Plant Pat. 1” was issued in 1931 to Mr. Henry F. Bosenbery, a landscape gardener and owner of Somerset Rose Nursery in New Brunwick, New Jersey. 

See the guy in the photo above? That was my grandfather, an estate gardener in New Brunswick about the same time. The woman is my grandmother, cutting flowers in their home garden. I am sure most of their plants are from gathered and shared seeds and cuttings – they were thrifty folks with 5 children during the Depression. Still, I can’t imagine they did not visit Somerset Rose Nursery. My father, who turned 14 years old in 1931, had fond memories of visits to Rutgers Gardens and campus in New Brunswick with his father to look at plants. My grandfather must have chatted with Henry Bosenbery at some time, probably at some length. That makes 'New Dawn' all the more special to me. 
 
All those people are gone now, but ‘New Dawn’ is still easy to find. In 1997 it was voted the most popular rose in the world, It has proven itself in countless gardens for almost a century. And now, it is moving onto the arbor that is the center of my garden.