William Lindsey :toad:<p>Another birthday gift I offer to readers here: the first rose of the season bloomed in our garden today. This is a fragrant old rose we've had since the 1980s, when a sweet elderly neighbor in New Orleans, a Black gentleman named Mouton Bickham, shared a cutting with us. For years, not knowing that the rose is called Louis Philippe, we called it the Mouton Bickham rose. I love seeing it in this hand-painted vase that my favorite aunt cherished.</p><p><a href="https://toad.social/tags/birthday" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>birthday</span></a> <a href="https://toad.social/tags/roses" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>roses</span></a> <a href="https://toad.social/tags/gifts" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>gifts</span></a> <br>/2</p>