This year, my humble Gothic Garden balcony has been harvesting beautiful black-red rose blossoms from Hybrid Tea Rose bushes called “Ink Spots” (with frequent obsessive monitoring, pruning, and bug picking from their overly-admiring caretaker, of course). These roses are one of the darkest black rose varieties on the market – grown from Medford Nursery available at a few local distributors here in New England.

The plants produced about 15 impressive roses during their first bloom of the season – one in particular of which stood out from the moment it appeared to unfold countless blood red droplets while awakening as a bud, only to boast 23 rich velvet-textured ink stained, delicately folded petals as a full mature blossom. It’s image has been preserved within a vintage-style greeting card and stationary set surrounded with a tea and ink blot background texture to create a romantic love note, elegant wedding or masquerade invitation, Halloween party invite, or a special letter where everyone will know it’s sent straight from your desk without having to glance at a signature: Vintage Gothic Rose Card.

Although my roses suffer quick death once snipped, I managed to keep a few alive in the refrigerator for over 3 weeks while ignoring my husband at FriedMush when he complained for being too bothered to rearrange their placement in order to reach the water container. Guess what, honey? Here comes second bloom…and they’re back – bigger, more plentiful than ever, and fully willing to take over even the milk gallon’s rightful spot this time around.