The first wave of roses have bloomed at the Botanic Gardens here in Dunedin – they’re also starting to bloom around the city, which is making for some lovely sights and smells on my daily commute!

There’s about 4 or 5 rose beds at the gardens and they’re incredibly gorgeous now that they’re starting to bloom.  Most of the rose bushes hadn’t bloomed fully and some hadn’t bloomed at all yet, so I’m sure it’s only going to get better over the next few weeks.

My favorite rose color so far is purple (sometimes they call it blue but it’s purple!) but I don’t think anything can match the elegance of a white rose just starting to bloom.  The left had no sign but the rose on the right is called “Abraham Darby.”

This pink-tinged beauty is “Many Happy Returns.”  It was one of the more soft and elegant roses; very subtle but very beautiful.

And this ostentatious one is “Othello.”  It’s so showy and dramatic! I laughed when I saw the name – no need to puzzle out over which bush it was referring to.

“Leander” here was also a more elaborate rose.  At this point, I was standing right in the middle of the rose beds and the air was just suffused with the smell.  It was an incredibly wonderful experience.

Another purple one! The faded colors always make me think of Levis and I begin imagining jeans made of rose petals.

The patterning of the petals on this one is fantastic. It looks like it opens in 3 different spots – I couldn’t find any other buds on the plant to see how it happens but I’ll be looking when I return.

And a climber rose – I had to climb on a park bench and really contour myself to get this picture. (Not pictured: The white climber rose called “Sir Edmund Hillary.”)

“Brilliant Pink Iceberg” is the last rose I photographed. The pink coloring is amazing.  I do wonder, however, if there’s a rose named the “Titanic” to go along with it?