What better way to celebrate the Huntington’s centennial: Behold, a new rose

The Huntington Library’s famous rose garden has a new beauty to behold.

Rose garden curator Tom Carruth has bred a fragrant new offering for the garden’s noted rose collection in honor of the Huntington’s 100th birthday.

“The fragrance will knock you down,” Carruth said. “You don’t even have to put your nose to it; you just have to walk by.”

The rose is officially known as “Huntington’s 100th.” Gardeners may also see the rose sold under the pseudonym “Life of the Party,” but if you look closely at the tag, he said, it will mention the official, copyrighted name of “Huntington’s 100th.”

In honor of its centennial, the Huntington has also poured a new circular walkway in the grassy area between the conservatory and the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries, where it is planting 85 Huntington’s 100th roses this week.

The roses should bloom this spring and provide a particularly aromatic experience for gallery visitors.

Carruth will be talking in detail about how he developed this rose, and how to plant and care for roses in general on Thursday.

The free talk starts at 2:30 p.m. and will lead into the garden’s bare-root roses sale from around 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., where the Huntington’s 100th and many other varieties will be on sale for $18 to $25.

You can also buy the rose in a pot, for slightly more money, during the Huntington’s annual spring plant sale the last weekend in April.

Not ready to plant a rose? Never fear. The garden shop has been collecting petals from the rose for the past two years to make soaps and candles “perfumed by Huntington’s 100th.”

The Huntington’s 100th lecture and bare-root rose sale

When: 2:30 p.m. lecture, followed by a sale at 3:30, Thursday

Where: The Huntington Library auditorium, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino

Cost: Admission to the talk and sale is free.

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