Beloved rose File#_D3992 aka Cesar E. Chavez.

The Hybrid Tea rose Beloved gave me a most welcome surprise this year. Also known as César E. Chávez, it was under that name, honoring the farm labor hero and icon César Estrada Chávez, that this rose was purchased in 2004. It was planted in a 15 gallon pot and placed in an area subject to flooding from my neighbor's trouble prone watering valves. The pot gave partial protection from the difficult conditions, keeping much of the root ball elevated. But César E. Chávez still struggled, producing very few, fast-blowing blooms.

This summer (2009), while deadheading the roses in that area, I encountered the most lovely, perfect, long-stemmed red blooms, the kind one would proudly present to a beloved. They were different from any I had seen before. The flooding had been controlled, finally, when the neighboring property changed owners in 2007, and the César E. Chávez rose had at last been able to send its roots through the drainage holes and down into the soil below.

It is always a special treat when a plant rebounds from near-death to become a happy resident of the garden, and it is even more delightful when this transformation occurs unnoticed. Such is the case here. This once pathetic, dying plant has turned into a beautiful, healthy plant, now approaching five feet tall and producing really lovely blooms. In honor of this transformation, I do find myself sometimes calling this rose by its newer name, Beloved. But Chávez was a man who well deserves to be remembered. He was a survivor, and a true hero, most deserving of a fine and beautiful rose named in his memory

Beloved roses. File#I-1648

~ Photography from Christine, Reno, NV 2009 ~