I remember well when overly bright colored flowers starting popping up in the vases of my friends homes. There is almost nothing that makes me think Cringe Relationships in the same way that Crazy Daisies do. When my friends started receiving Crazy Daisies from their “boyfriends” in Middle School it was one of the rare moments that made me not feel bad at all for being a late-bloomer when it came to romance. There is just something about the violently bright clashing colors that yells, “I am a boy and I think that girls will like this,” about these flowers. And this is exactly about how I feel about the Pop Art Rose. I don’t know how else to say it, but this flower really just feels like its a 90s Ken to me. Its not bad, its just not ever going to be my favorite.
Its a little sad, because there truly are just so many qualities to appreciate in this flower. It’s highly disease resistent, stays colorful in vase, has beautiful glossy foliage. But I just don’t love it. In fact, the only reason its in my garden is because Glen loved it. Pop Art is a bred by Christian Bérard, and first became available in nurseries in 2020 – so don’t get me wrong I am VERY happy to have this rose in my garden and it does add something fun as well as exceptionally strong genetics that I hope will keep my rose patch healthy. But I don’t think this is one of the roses that we’ll be looking to expand our numbers of in the coming years. That being said, I am really hoping to get my hands on Midnight Fire next year- which is a new rose from Bedard’s 2022 series. Until then, I will just try to enjoy the nostalgia factor of this unique bloom.
