Выражение встречается в следующем контексте:
There's a rough bench, a fallen trunk with its top hewn flat enough to sit on, and on either side there are flowerbeds planted with rose bushes. Most of them a bare, the stalks pruned down with only a pale circlet of wood at the stump showing where the flowers grew, green stems and arched, maroon thorns, but there are a few blooms left, deep, blown roses. From the distance I think they're white, but closer up I see they're a pale lavender, a fine, fragile colour, somehow old-fashioned.

Заранее спасибо