For centuries and perhaps even millennia people have been search for the source of the Gold of Ophir . My own search started last workweek , and I am proud of to say that my shipment of the fabled load should arrive sometime in May .
It all begin when I open up a popular clip and show an essay written by the late M.F.K. Fisher . The piece had been reprinted from the forward to the bookGrowing Good Rosesby prominent California rosarian Rayford Clayton Reddell . Mrs. Fisher , who is well remembered for her inspired food piece of writing , was a friend of Reddell , as well as a fellow get up partisan . In the forward , the generator depict the roses that she retrieve from her childhood in Whittier , California during the first fourth part of the 20th 100 . She enthused over one of my favorites , the large lily-white ‘ Frau Karl Druschki ’ , but she saved her most lavish extolment for a yellow-bellied - blend rose , unknown to me , promise ‘ Gold of Ophir ’ . According to the author , ‘ Gold of Ophir ’ amount to California with Quaker settler from Pennsylvania who arrived in the 1880’s . It apparently flourished . Mrs. Fisher order , “ I remember great heaps of them in every backyard , blazing like Moon on fervour , yellow , gold , pink — and in the shade . ”
What more could anyone want?Catching M.F.K. Fisher ’s passion for ‘ Gold of Ophir ’ , I determine that I would seek to obtain one for my own garden . First , though , I wanted to find out the line of its poetic name . After a bit of searching I found the answer inThe Catholic Encyclopedia . Ophir was a country in the ancient world that was rich in wanted alloy and other resources . It is mentioned several times in the Old Testament , and was supposedly the site of King Solomon ’s Mines . The precise localization of Ophir is unclear from the sacred scripture , but the writer of the cyclopedia clause speculate that it may have been Arabia , India , Sri Lanka or even the Malay Peninsula . adventurer have long judge to chance King Solomon ’s Mines in lodge to get their hand on the rich people they purportedly contain . I am lucky that all I want is a rose .
Armed with the information about ‘ Gold of Ophir ’s ’ name , I survive to the Internet to line up the rose itself . Clicking on to my best-loved rose web site , www.helpmefind.com/sites/rrr/ rosetest.html , I found that ‘ Gold of Ophir ’ has a identification number of aliases , include ‘ Beauty of Glazenwood ’ , ‘ Fortune ’s Five Color ’ , ‘ Rosa Pseudoindica ’ , Rosa x odorata pseudoindica ’ , ‘ San Rafael Rose ’ , ‘ San Raphael Rose ’ and ‘ Wang - Jang - Ve’ . It is most usually known as ‘ Fortune ’s Double Yellow . ’According to the entry for ‘ Fortune ’s Double Yellow ’ , the rose wine was disclose in China , “ in the garden of a rich mandarin at Ningpo ” by 19thcentury plant hunter Robert Fortune . It was infix to westerly commerce in 1845 , and must have become popular both in Europe and the eastern part of America . The Graham Stuart Thomas Rose Book , another indispensable computer address , shows a colour picture of an Irish - grown specimen awash in Salmon River - tinted creamy yellow blossoms . It is promiscuous to see why pioneer char valued it enough to take along on the farseeing trek Occident .
When I explore for a reference for ‘ Gold of Ophir ’ , I found that it was available from several old rose glasshouse in Texas , as well as some growers in California and the southern states . I know that two of the Texas rose vendors , Chamblee ’s and The Antique Rose Emporium , have built their stocktaking almost exclusively on age-old roses that have been rescued from various internet site throughout Texas . It ’s not much of a leap to suppose that settlers sway ‘ Rose of Ophir ’ cuttings with them to Texas as well as California .
Of course , at the moment , no roseate greenhouse will ship anything for planting in the NE , but I can put in my order and have something to look forward to . One of the Texas seller proffer ‘ Gold of Ophir ’ for $ 6.95.This is importantly crummy than the toll of any innovative rosiness , and seems well worth it for a industrial plant that will get in freighted with history and will finally put forth load of sweet - scented blooms .
I glanced at the map to find Whittier , California , where M.F.K. Fisher ( and Richard Nixon ) uprise up . It is right outside Los Angeles and almost certainly no longer rural . I also found San Rafael , which is up the California sea-coast , near San Francisco . I wonder if ‘ Rose of Ophir ’ still grows in the backyard of the senior houses in either place . Perhaps I will stay my research and call up local chambers of commerce and botanical garden to obtain out .
I am a little disturbed that this rose , that has flourished so well in the more temperate areas of the south and west , will sustain from the cold here . That may be the reason why no northern baby’s room trade it . The roseate website did not have a zone hardiness recommendation , but I suspect ‘ amber of Ophir ’ is a moment like the Lady Bank ’s rose , and can thrive here if it is planted in a sheltered spot . I am go to hear it . After all , how often can you hold account in your hand ( or plonk it into a vase in your living room ) for less than seven dollars ?
by E. Ginsburg
