NATIVE ROSES AND NINEBARK ARE IN BLOOM

ROSA BLANDA SHRUB...

...ROSA BLANDA FLOWER

NINEBARK SHRUB...

...UMBEL OF FLOWERS

Friday, 7:15 AM.  57 degrees F at the ferry dock, 52 on the back porch.  Wind calm to very light,  The sky is cloudy with a high overcast and there is fog over the channel.  The humidity is 92% and the barometer is steady, now at 30.12".  Yesterday morning started the same way but it was beautiful by noon.
   Wisconsin has a number of wild rose species, all with single petaled flowers  in shades of pale pink to red.  Most horticultural roses are hybrids of various European and Asian rose species, so our North American native roses are often overlooked.  I have to admit I have never taken the interest in them they deserve, and I don't know them well, although most of the Wisconsin natives are easy enough to identify using available botanical keys.   I haven't done much of that, either.
   The native rose pictured is Rosa blanda, a medium sized shrub native to dry, sandy loam soils of sunny prairies and dunes. Its fruits, or hips, are smooth, red and berry-like.  It is easy to identify because it is virtually thornless, the other native roses having varying degrees and kinds of thorns.  We are quite spoiled by the many types of hybrid roses and their progenitors that are available in the nursery trade, but the native roses are worth paying more attention to.
   Ninebark, Physocarpus opulifolious, is a large, mounded shrub in the Rose Family that is native to much of the eastern half of North America.  Its habitat is rocky stream sides and moist thickets.  It will grow in partial shade and on a wide variety of soils.  It is quite floriferous and has good fall color and interesting orange colored, papery fruit. Larger, more tree-like individuals have an interesting exfoliating bark reminiscent of paper birch bark. It is used to a degree in landscaping, and there are some very interesting hybrids with dark maroon leaves.  I have to admit I have not seen it growing in the wild, although it is often used extensively in naturalized landscapes.  Ninebark is something of an oddity, but it is tough, interesting and useful.