My Goldfinch rose the real star of Dirt's profile shot.
How have I not posted on this marvelous rose until now? My apologies to Goldfinches everywhere.


Goldfinch is an easy and enthusiastic rambler, with a once-a-year performance so happy, so glad-to-greet-the-world.


All it wants is plenty of sun and any decent well-drained soil. The canes are almost thorn-free—flexible too—so it's just as easy to swerve them back and forth between the top teeth of a picket fence as it would be to fan them out onto a South or West-facing wall.
The flowers are small but plentiful; I just love how the buttery color intensifies at the base of the petals.
But for reasons of their own they are not satisfied with this performance. When you're a Goldfinch, you have higher standards. By the next day the petals have become pure white...

...with only a faint reminder of yesterday's yellow at the base.


Because the flowers continue to open for several weeks, you can enjoy flowers in all stages of the transition at the same time.  Goldfinch is a happy-to-share rose indeed. And did I say easy too? Right after the bloom is, literally, of the rose, cut back any canes, all or in part, that are somehow not what you want where you want. Cut out a couple of the oldest canes too, right to the bottom. This makes it easier to encourage and control the new canes that you'll find are now springing up right from the base. As with all ramblers, these new kids-on-the-bush are the most glad-to-see-you. Do right by them the first season, and they'll return the favor by blooming like hell the next.