My "Rose Tree"

My rose tree thrives regardless of the weather. In spite of what it appears to be, it is really a climbing rose called Paul's Himalayan Musk. I saw it in a rose book one day about 10 years ago. Someone had planted it to wind & climb into a dead tree & since we had a nearly dead maple tree that we didn't want to chop down I thought it would be a wonderful way to use it.

It's turned out to be beautiful, but not exactly the way I'd planned it. Mother Nature likes to do things her own way, so once it starting growing the up trunk it found & clung to a healthy maple shoot next door before climbing on up & finally jumping to a couple of other trees that you can't see in this photo.

It's amazing to see it change from year to year. This is the first year, for example, that we've seen rose blossoms growing inexplicably on a nearby sequoia; that is, if you don't see the front of the mother plant & old dead tree first.