"HEAVEN-SCENT"

This rose has no fancy pedigree but of all the roses I've grown and killed over the years Color Magic is the one I wait for every summer. The color, the scent! I love it. The petals start out a pale pink and like "magic" change to darker shades of pink and almost red over a few days. This kind of reminds me of those paint books we used to get as kids. They looked like a regular coloring book but you took a wet brush and swiped over the picture and the colors would appear.

Roses are not a good choice for a lazy gardener like me so some years I only get a bloom or two, but it looks like this year I got lucky. This is the first one to open, with many buds following. Sometimes I just pick one and put it face up in a bowl of water in the kitchen so I can watch the color change up close. If it's out in the garden I might miss the show. Or some insect might eat it before the show's over.

It also stands nice and tall. It's really pointless for me to plant short fragrant plants. I'm past the stage where I can gracefully stoop down to get the full benefit of the scent. Or rather, I could do that, but I can't get up again. Anyway, I've seen descriptions of Color Magic that mention a "slight fragrance" and I'm at a loss to understand that as the opposite is true. It's growing next to my front porch so i can sit on the rocker and stop and smell the roses Actually I don't really have time for that but I like the idea.