Rose tatoo...

I’m not a big fan of roses, never have been, they are far too showy for my tastes. Too flowery if that makes sense. The petals seem to drop the moment a shower of rain appears and of course they are always full of nasty brown-red earwigs. They scratch, need pruning too often, and attract greenfly, blackfly, rust, and mildew like no other flower I know.

No I don’t like roses and would never plant one.

So I was surprised to see this appear on my rockery in Wales a few weeks ago. A single tiny red rose, perfectly petalled and complete with minute thorns on the stem. I have no idea where it came from or what it thinks it is doing in my rockery, but it’s been there six weeks this single flower and shows no sign of fading yet.

It reminds me of a tattoo. Perhaps I should put a sign beneath it in blue italic serif script. ‘Mother’ it would read, like the tattoo I once saw on a sailors arm in Brighton when I was a boy.

I’ve thought about pulling it up but to be honest I haven’t the heart. It isn’t doing any harm and it does brighten up a corner where nothing else seems to want to grow. I’ll just leave it I think. Leave it to lead its solitary single bloomed life until eventually its petals fall to the rocks beneath.

My single mystery rock rose. I have to admit to a growing affection for it.