I had the great fortune of making this rose’s acquaintance last June at the Rose and Fragrance garden. ‘Ispahan’, a Damask from sometime prior to 1832 (breeder unknown) is so beautiful I actually gasped when I saw it. This is one of those roses that makes me feel a bit pervy: “Hey pretty thing, don’t I know you from someplace? How’d you like to come home with me sometime?”
But let’s get down to brass tacks: ‘Ispahan’ (also referred to as ‘Isfahan’, ‘Arspahan’ and ‘Rose d’Isfahan’) has healthy foliage (according to HMF showed a 0% to 5% infection rate at Le Jardin Botanique de Montreal trials) and lush pink blossoms (to me reminiscent of the roses Comte de Chambord/Gertrude Jekyll–just not as deep pink.) This winter I have made several visits to the garden and always pop by ‘Ispahan’ to say hello. Without the presence of the leaves this time of year it’s easy to see how her canes have formed a dense thicket about 3′ around with canes stretching upwards of about 6′– so mental note to self to give this rose room to grow as I try to finagle one into my spring order. ‘Ispahan’ is listed as hardy to zones 3b-9b. That’s right, cold climate gardeners, 3b! More can be found HERE.
Hee hee, I completely understand “pervy” when it comes to a flower or whole garden. (some of us have no boundaraies ahem)You are not alone! 🙂 Perhaps we should create a support group? At the very least leer at flowers in pairs, one person can be the look out and one person can be the perv, no, wait, I mean casual observer.
Haha! I feel that you and I would be a bad influence on each other. 😉
When I opened this page, I could almost smell the roses. Remember the rose garden outside the SD Zoo? Remember what I used to do there? Don’t tell!
For some reason this rose made me think of that!
Yes I remember! Naughty! (that garden sure was beautiful though, wasn’t it?)
Oooh! Cold hardy and as gorgeous as that! I will have to add it to my list. 🙂 And as it’s a damask, it smells good, too, right?
As for being pervy in the garden… hahaha, I’d have to say I’m quite guilty of that, too. 😉
Smells divine! This is one of those roses that I was thinking why don’t have this? But I have a band on order now for spring–Rogue still has some if you want one, too! 🙂
I love roses. How can I get the aispahan?
Hi there! Looks like Ispahan is currently still available for purchase from High Country Roses. Have fun!