"The Flores Street House Eater"

What would you think if  I told you that I found a rose that was actually "eating" a house?

Well it is true and pictures don't lie!

 

I first heard about this rose from a "friend of a friend", who had been known to snip a bit here and there while wandering around San Antonio. She found this rose on the near west side, and just north of the downtown area on Flores Street. It apparently had been planted in front of the house in better days, and as the house declined, the rose prospered and expanded.  Now the house is all but fallen down (the back wall is entirely gone), and the roof is on the verge of collapse, but the rose is happily eating what remains of the structure.

It is a truly astonishing sight. The rose is about 20 feet wide and more than 15 feet high, and it is draping over the entire roof area and into the back yard. I have no idea how old this specimen is, but I must admit that I left skid marks on the street from panic braking when I first saw it.

WOW! WHAT A ROSE!

 

Best of all, it is beautiful as well as huge. The buds are a light buttery yellow and they open to pale creamy, very double blooms. In late March and early April of 2001, the entire plant was covered with flowers, and scattered blooms persisted until well into the late summer. When I last checked it in January of 2002, it was still blooming!

 

The flowers occur in large clusters, and it is almost certainly a Noisette. In talking it over with Marion Brandes, we decided that it is probably a very large specimen of "San Felipe Noisette" (A.K.A "Brightside Cream"), but we will address its identity and the reasons for our tentative certainty in an upcoming issue.

Suffice it to say, if you want to see an amazing sight, visit the "Flores Street House Eater". But do not delay too long because someday it could gone and forgotten. Fortunately it is easy to propagate.

 

For more information, contact -

Joe Cooper
E-Mail