May Roses

With so many flowers to choose from, I used to think that roses were a cop-out. Particularly the stiff-stemmed pointy-petaled almost scentless hybrid tea roses. Over the years, I met the rest of the rose family: untidy antique varieties that scramble up walls, David Austin-style roses shaped like teacups packed with petals, wafting heavenly perfume, and hardy neighborhood roses in neglected yards on broken fences, still determined to bloom. Five-petal roses like these pink ones often fall into the family known as dog roses. They are considered invasive in some parts of the world. This type of rose is what you see in heraldry. It represented both families involved in the Wars of the Roses; red for Lancaster and white for York. I'll take the pink ones and enjoy them while they are blooming.