Everyone has a camera (and opinion)

Sometimes there are just too many things to focus our attention on. We became easily distracted. Instead of looking at the prize-winning roses in the International Rose Test Garden, our attention was drawn to all the lovely people there doing what people love to do.

Selfies were the subject, and the roses provided a colorful backdrop.

No matter what the age of the photographer.

Portland, Oregon is known as the City of Roses. Roses are taken seriously in this city, so we thought that we should turn our attention to them. We made our way over to the garden’s central kiosk and discovered a list of prizewinners. We studied the map to find their locations.

With 7,000 rose bushes spread out in a very large garden, the hunt was on to track each down.

Sunshine Daydream won the 2016 Gold Medal Award. Really? We weren’t trying to second-guess the judges, but personally we liked the appearance and scent of several others.

The continuous blooms of Peachy Keen and their pink shell color won us over. It was awarded Best Shrub Rose.

Best hybrid Tea was awarded to Fiji. It’s a large rose with a striking cherry color. Do you think it’s too flashy?

We ricocheted around the garden to track down each and every winner. As we stood staring at one, we heard another visitor tell her friend exactly what we were thinking, “It’s not the most attractive flower, is it?”

Of course, the judges studied the roses over 5 years and took into account a long number of qualities, like length of bloom and pest resistance. So, maybe they had better reasons when they made their awards, looking beyond mere appearance and scent. That got us thinking about these prize-winning roses like so many other things in life: good qualities often take time to see – as well as expertise, while so many of us rush to judgment with no knowledge and only superficial opinions.

Enough said. Enjoy the roses.

 

July 2017