My favorite rose in the world, ‘Darcy Bussell,’ is blooming.

The color is a sumptuous, rich wine-red, fading to reddish-violet as the blossoms age.

Its fragrance is clean and sweet, not too heavy. This bloom is about 4 inches wide; it fills my palm.

I am lazy when it comes to managing roses. I spray them with lime-sulfur in late winter to kill black spot spores, and if things get very grim in the summer I spray them with insecticidal soap. I don’t feed or water them as often as I should, so the foliage is not always as full as it might be. But Darcey behaves beautifully nonetheless.