Anyone ever plant buff roses?
 

If so, what variety did you use?

I'm trying to work out a landscape plan. I was thinking about adding some roses to the design, so I thought "why not red and buff roses?" :D

Have found a few varieties of buff roses online, but most of the nurseries seem to be sold out of them. :mad: Was just curious to see if any of you ladies had any recommendations - of course, they'd have to be a variety of rose suitable for Zone 5/Ohio weather.

Sorry, I'm not even good with silk buff roses.;)

I swear greeklawgirl mentioned over the weekend that she was planning on planting some. She may have some info for you. Or, I could be completely making that up.

mu_agd didn't make that up. :) One of the landscape designers we met with recommended planting "Tombstone Roses," which are also known as Lady Banks Roses. Keep in mind Lady Banks Roses are climbers, so they would be good up against columns or trellises.

They do well under the blazing Arizona sun, so I don't see why they wouldn't thrive in Ohio. Hope this helps!

It's dangerous time wise when you are trying to clean up/pack to move, and you find old Quarterly'ies that you have to read (okay, scan) everyone.

I found a very interesting article in the Spring 1977 Quarterly, "What is a Buff Rose" by Jane McLane Reid, EA.

Editor's note before the article, "Early Fraternity history speaks of red and buff roses, but the record is not clear as to what color was actually meant by "buff". Founder Emily Butterfield's song says, "Here's to the Rose, the fair buff rose, in all it's purity...When Tau Chapter was installed in 1919, Ophelia roses were reportedly brought to Toronto b Louise Leonard, A, then Grand President, to be used with crimson ones. Varieties of roses "run out", however and new ones have to be bred; no particular rose is endorsed as Alpha Gamma Delta's "buff rose". The author summaries here what information is available about yellow and buff roses at the time the Fraternity was founded and throughout the years. "

"What did the Founders of Alpha Gamma Delta mean when, in 1905, they chose "crimson and buff roses" as Fraternity flowers?


Crimson roses have grown in gardens for thousands of year...

But a buff rose? True, the American Rose Society describes very few roses as "buff" - but what's buff? Even the dictionaries don't agree.

Webster's Third International Dictionary offers "4a; a moderate orange yellow" and "4b: a light to moderate yellow". The Random House Dictionary of the English Lanquage says "4. yellowish-brown, medium, or dark tan"...

My pledge class was told, informally and unofficially that in roses, "buff" meant "yellow". Yellow and red roses graced our teas, luncheons, and banquets. in Fraternity context, this makes sense. Clear, light-to-medium yellow roses make a pleasing partner to red roses..

Admitting yellow, however, does not unsnarl the puzzle. For good yellow roses are still far fewer than good red ones. And in Syracuse, New York, must have been very rare indeed. the color came to garden roses late. ...

Before 1900, wild yellow roses grew in a few gardens. And hybrid yellow roses, based on the tender Asian ones, flourished near the Gulf Coast - but not in the bitter winters of New York state.

Maybe the Founders' "buff" rose was based, not on a real flower, but on an ideal. Roses, after all, have been the focus of symbolism, sacred and secular, since the beginning of written records.

Regardless of the shade of color they happen to be, it's the association of buff and red roses together that has meaning for Alpha Gamma deltas.

(In the short bio about the author, it says, "Once a dedicated rose grower, she says she now finally gave up the struggle in New Jersey...and her former hybrid tea bed now grows tomatoes.".)

Wonder what she grows 10 years later.:)