DAILY FLOWER: Not the Yellow Rose of Texas

January 3rd, 2021

By Karen England, The Edgehill Herb Farmer.

Just behind the fountain, growing along the fence, is one of my favorite climbing roses. For those that don’t know this, the rose is a herb. Grown organically they are edible flowers, and rosewater made from roses is both a food flavoring and a body care product. The fruit of the rose, the hip, is also a delicious food and healthful tea.

I call it “Not the Yellow Rose of Texas” since, coincidentally enough, it isn’t “The Yellow Rose of Texas”. I wanted to grow, you guessed it, “The Yellow Rose of Texas” (since I was born in Texas, oh, so many years ago), a rose which, according to Caren White on dengarden.com, “… is most likely a rose called Harison’s Yellow which is a hybrid offshoot of Rosa foetid”, but we purchased another yellow climbing rose instead, one that was readily available 19 years ago when this rose was planted. I think it is actually a rose called ‘Golden Showers’ but am not certain.

According to Ballad Of America (https://balladofamerica.org) the song lyrics of The Yellow Rose of Texas are:

chorus:
She’s the sweetest rose of color this soldier ever knew
Her eyes are bright as diamonds, they sparkle like the dew
You may talk about your dearest May and sing of Rosa Lee
But the yellow rose of Texas beats the belles of Tennessee

verses:
There’s a yellow rose in Texas that I am going to see
No other soldier knows her, no soldier, only me
She cried so when I left her, it like to broke my heart
And if I ever find her, we never more will part

Where the Rio Grande is flowing and the starry skies are bright
She walks along the river in the quiet summer night
She thinks if I remember, when we parted long ago
I promised to come back again and not to leave her so

Oh, now I’m going to find her, for my heart is full of woe
And we’ll sing the song together, that we sung so long ago
We’ll play the banjo gaily, and we’ll sing the songs of yore
And the yellow rose of Texas shall be mine forevermore