These posts originally appeared on my Facebook blog ‘Rose of the Day’
1st May
The French nursery of Meilland is known worldwide for the roses they have bred over the last century. Today they sell over twelve million rose bushes annually across the world. Possibly their most famous rose is the Hybrid Tea ‘Peace’ bred by Francis Meilland just before WWII. Today’s rose is a more recent introduction, 2006, and carries the exhibition name ‘Francis Meilland’, and the ICRA appellation MELtroni. Several alias names, in France ‘Schloss Ippenburg’ named for a north German castle which hosts several garden events each year. Other names include ‘Alexandre Pouchkine’, ‘Father of Peace’, ‘My Garden’, ‘Pretty Woman’, ‘Prince Jardinier’. One must wonder why one name is not enough!
Whatever the name this is a superb rose. Winner of numerous awards in particular the Royal Horticultural Society ‘Award of Garden Merit’ and the prestigious German ADR (Allgemeine Deutsche Rosenneuheitenprüfung) rose trials. This latter award means this rose has exceptional disease resistance, and hardiness together with being an exceptional garden rose.
Rather old fashioned large blooms of blush pink, he can be pinker than in the photograph, open from pointed creamy pink buds on long stems. Full petalled with a charming central swirl like an ice cone topped with a strong rich fruity fragrance. He cleanly drops his old blooms, white roses sometimes like to cling onto their spent blooms which is not an elegant look! Flushes of bloom throughout the summer.
A tall rose, usually around 1.10m but in a warm climate, she will be taller up to 2m. Narrow though so he will fit into a small space. Large dark glossy foliage and absolutely ideal for the no spray garden. Hardy USDA zone 6b-9b.
I am not a fan of white Hybrid Tea roses as they can be so bright and perfect, they have an artificial feel. The soft blush pink saves ‘Francis Meilland’ from this icy appearance. A beautiful rose in all respects.
Thursday 2nd May
A tale involving several roses today. Back in the dark winter on 25th January, the superb Noisette rose ‘Mme Alfred Carrière’ was featured as Rose of the Day. Bred by the very talented rose breeder Joseph Schwartz in Lyon. He died very young at the age of just 39 in 1885 with 60 or so roses to his name, leaving his widow Marie-Louise to carry on the family rose growing business. She appears to have been an equally talented rose hybridizer introducing 52 roses and two found roses, the unique ‘Roger Lambelin’ and today’s rose ‘Mme Ernest Calvat’. Another rose makes a brief appearance here, the Bourbon ‘Mme Isaac Pereire,’ one of my favourite roses. Early in her career, Mme Isaac produced a ‘sport’, ‘Mme Ernest Calvat’ perhaps discovered but certainly cultivated and introduced by Marie Louise in 1888.
‘Mme Ernest Calva’t, you may also find her listed as ‘Mme Ernst Calvat,’ resembles her parent Mme Isaac in every way except colour. The rich crimson magenta is replaced by a soft pink with paler outer petals. The blooms are equally as large and blowsy and have the same intoxicating scent. Vigorous, almost too vigorous to be honest. I grow Mme Isaac as a pillar type rose, I have wound her long stems around the pillar support of a large square pergola. This method ensures I can see and smell the blooms rather than these growing up so high and only appreciated by the swallows as they swoop into their nests. The opposite corner of the pergola has a Passion Flower Vine, although pretty this is far too strong growing for the position. Tired of removing her tendrils from my chair daily she is doomed for removal, so I am tempted to put Mme Ernest in her place. The mother and daughter side by side, the crimson and the pink would be very pleasing, I think.
Mme Ernest can be plagued with black spot, so she is not ideal for the no spray garden. If you grow her as a climber then you need to be a constant gardener for her, tying in and pulling down her stems. This ensures the buds break along the stem not just at the ends. I don’t know the extent that she suffers from ugly early bloom ‘proliferation’ like her parent. This is where the gene switches in the DNA have a bit of a moment producing a stem and foliage in the centre of the bloom. These blooms can be removed, and later blooms are generally unaffected. Blooms almost continuously through the summer. The foliage has a purple tinge, a perfect foil for the pale pink blooms.
Who was Mme Ernest Calvat? Other than she was the wife of the mayor of Grenoble who owned a glove making company, and was fond of Chrysanthemums I can find no information. Was she pretty and petite or a large flamboyant lady like her rose?
A hardy tough rose, USDA zone 4b-10b. Scoring 8.1 from the American Rose Society -a solid to very good rose, its good features easily outweigh any problems, well above average. I think I agree in principle with this rating. Widely available.
If you have the space together with the time and inclination to tinker with her long stems this is a delicious, outrageous and superb rose that will give you and your garden visitors joy and happiness.
Friday 3rd May
David Austin believed his English Roses had one defining characteristic which was ‘grace.’ Today’s rose is named for this accolade ‘Grace.’
‘Grace’ certainly has this special quality being elegant, and charming with a certain style. Introduced in 2005 she is a medium sized rose, up to 1.20m and around the same width with a good bushy growing habit. Fat pink buds appear in clusters, opening initially to a smallish cupped bloom of a strong apricot hue. As the bloom flattens it gains size revealing more petals with an attractive pointed shape. The colour is the softest creamy peach flushed with pink with paler guard petals, so delicate. She can vary in colour being more intense in the heat, almost tangerine. The blooms have an overall rather shaggy untidy appearance, but this adds rather than detracts to her charm. Strong ‘tea’ fragrance’ and she reliably repeat blooms all summer until the first winter frosts.
David Austin’s catalogue describes her as a ‘florists’ rose which, to me, is puzzling. Florists roses are those grown commercially in greenhouses, characterised by long thornless stems usually with a single bloom on each stem, generally not great on the fragrance front. I recently saw some roses named ‘Florist’s Pink’, also white and red, for sale in a local nursery. These were not the commercial florist varieties being small shrubs with clusters of bloom and reputedly with good fragrance. No idea of their correct variety names, I rather cynically think these roses are ‘renamed’ for marketing purposes. Returning to ‘Grace’ she doesn’t seem to make a good cutting rose as the blooms don’t last when cut.
Foliage is a good light green, typically DA. Good disease resistance reported. Gained an ‘8’ from the American Rose Society – ‘a solid to very good rose, its good features easily outweigh any problems, well above average’. Hardy USDA 6b-9b but I see she grows well in zones 10 and 11. Widely available as both a shrub and as a standard.
Saturday 4th May
Slowly my garden is producing ‘camera ready ’roses but after the hot Easter we now have cold but sunny weather, so my roses are declining to open. Therefore, this morning we revisit the National Collection of Pre-1900 roses at Mottisfont Abbey Gardens in Hampshire and meet ‘Madame Louis Lévêque’.
One of the most beautiful ‘Moss’ roses although she is only slightly ‘mossed’, some authorities consider her to be a ‘Hybrid Perpetual’. Her clusters of plump round buds with long feathery sepals are covered in ‘moss’ but this lacks the strong balsam fragrance usual in this class of roses. These fat pink buds produce very large fat pink blooms. Very full petalled globular blooms with a mid pink centre swirl of crumpled petals surrounded by soft pale silvery guard petals. Can be over 10cm in diameter, very impressive particularly as they stand erect above the foliage on red prickle coated stems. A rose that shouts ‘Look! At! Me!’ across a garden. Draw closer and the rich heavy fragrance will completely capture your senses. Flushes of bloom throughout the summer. A superb rose but she is a dry weather lady as these fabulous blooms will ‘ball’ in the damp weather. Small prickly hips but not as beautiful or as consistent as her bloom production.
Attractive soft green foliage, perfectly complimenting those blooms. Healthy with good disease resistance as well. Hardy USDA zones 4a and warmer. I see that she is a great performer in Australia and can be a large shrub. In Britain she tops out at around 1.2m so would suit a small garden. American Rose Society rating 8.0 – a solid to very good rose, its good features easily outweigh any problems, well above average. Her only issue is that propensity to ‘ball’.
A very smart rose but one should expect this as she was bred in Paris! From the Ivry sur Seine nursery of Louis Lévêque et Fils, I guess this nursery is long buried under houses and offices. René Lévêque, a head gardener at Versailles, established his own nursery in 1840 and was succeeded by his son Louis around 1860. Louis introduced three roses bearing the name ‘Madame Louis Lévêque,’ a pink Hybrid Perpetual in 1873, a yellow Tea in 1892 and this Moss rose in 1898. I wonder if he was so in love with his wife that he just had to dedicate lovely roses to her. Perhaps these naming’s were an attempt to calm troubled waters after some indiscretion? History doesn’t relate and I have a cynical mind.
If you live in a damp humid climate then Mme Louis won’t suit but elsewhere, she is a rose that is well worth including in your garden. Comments and questions as always welcome.
5th May
Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820) was both a planter hunter and a sponsor of other plant hunters sent to newly discovered parts of the world to bring back garden worthy plants. Around eighty species of plants carry his name. He had a wife Dorothea who it is said was a ‘little China mad.’ She collected porcelain, so much so that it was stored in a barn.
Today’s rose carries the Banks name – ‘Rosa banksiae lutea’ or ‘Lady Banks Rose’. A fragile delicate rose that is another herald of spring. Collected in China by John Parks for Royal Horticultural Society and introduced in 1824. Named for Dorothea who was charmed by this rose. Whether it replaced the love of porcelain we don’t know.
If you collect so much porcelain or anything else, you may well have a barn for storage. That’s good as you will need something the size of a barn for ‘Lady Banks’. This is a very large rambling rose, she will reach 7m easily. Slightly tender so a frost free climate or a warm south facing wall is also required. Other than that, this is a rose to be left to do her thing in her own time, and also at her own pace. She only begins to bloom on old wood, that is two to three year old wood continuing for around five years before that wood is too old. This presents a pruning challenge as you will probably need to control the growth but if you are too heavy handed then you won’t have any blooms. The experts recommend the occasional removal of old wood.
Thornless, a boon for pruning, and almost evergreen with shiny small healthy foliage. She may drop her leaves in very wintry weather. In April dozens and dozens of tiny clusters of green balls appear along the stems. Slowly these bud balls swell becoming yellow with the appearance of mimosa buds. As the sun warms these little globes, they pop open revealing a small semi double butter gold bloom. Rather fluffy looking at just 2 or 3cm diameter, beautiful individually but en masse they are stupendous. Hanging stems are covered with these, just amazing and rather un rose like really. She has an ethereal delicate fragrance released only in the warmth of the sun.
Widely available. She holds an RHS AGM (Award of Garden Merit). Disease free, she doesn’t mind poor soil and is drought resistant. Hardy USDA zones 6b and warmer. If you live in 6b and colder you can tuck her into a sheltered sunny corner and cross your fingers. In warm climes she is tremendous, I have seen her romping through trees in the South of France in March.
If you have the space and the climate do consider her. She blooms once only in a glorious buttery yellow flush of bloom, but the small fresh green glossy foliage is attractive in its own way.
Tuesday 7th May
Maintenance of my herbaceous borders is a bit of a time issue, not enough hours in the day for me. I am gradually filling them with roses rather than fickle herbaceous plants that either fail or attempt a takeover of the entire border. I will put a weed suppressant mat around each rose and liberally mulch so that should fix the weeds. There is a space for a white rose and last week at the Peter Beales nursery I spent some time deliberating over two white single roses, ‘Jacqueline du Pré’ or ‘Sally Holmes’. Jacqueline with her crimson stamens won the day so I left the lovely Sally behind. However, being a great rose she is today’s rose of the day.
Bred by an amateur rose breeder Robert Holmes who produced a handful of roses, just nine to his name. ‘Sally Holmes’, named for his wife, is probably the best known. Introduced way back in the hot summer of 1976 Sally is classified as a Hybrid Musk. Her seed parent was a semi double white Floribunda ‘Ivory Fashion’ with the prepotent Hybrid Musk ‘Ballerina’ providing the pollen.
Imagine the large clusters of bloom typical of ‘Ballerina’ but instead of small pink edged white blooms you have the white of ‘Ivory Fashion’ plus her bloom size. That’s ‘Sally Holmes’! The copious clusters of buds are an attractive pale coral pink turning lemon white as they open to a white five petalled bloom with a large golden stamen crown. One for the bees and other pollinating insects. The mature blooms have nicely reflexed petals as in the photograph and last a long time before they drop. Long lasting as a cut flower as well, unusual for a single rose. Her fragrance is light and musky, some reports no fragrance at all, but these light fragrances are enlivened by warmth although the hot sun burns the perfume away. Pick your moment to breathe her scent. An exceptionally reliable repeat flowering rose from early summer through to late autumn.
Here in Britain, she can be around 1.75m high but can easily reach 3m + in a warmer climate where she can be grown as a climber. Good dark glossy foliage but a few reports of black spot susceptibility so watch her carefully. Holder of the Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit. The American Rose Society rating is a stupendous 8.8 – An outstanding rose, one with major positive features and only minor negatives. The top 1%. Praise indeed!
Perhaps I need to find another space for a white rose in those herbaceous borders after all.
Wednesday 8th May
Today a rose who is unsure of her identity, or to be more correct the experts debate her true identity. The name this peerless rose carries is ‘Enfant de France’, child of France.
Clémence Latray introduced a Hybrid Perpetual ‘Enfant de France’ in 1860 on the eve of the birth of the Hybrid Tea. A prolific producer of roses, around 85 including the magnificent ‘Boule des Neige’. The name ‘Enfant de France’ is also attached to a Gallica and an Alba, additionally, there is an ‘Enfant de France Nouveau’. To be honest she isn’t the only rose that has appeared on this blog with queries over her name and origin and I doubt she will be the last. Should you order ‘Enfant de France’ you will receive the rose I am discussing this morning.
She is a rose that really should be more widely grown. Repeat blooms so quickly as to be continuous. Extremely healthy, and tolerant of extreme heat and cold. Responding well to care and good cultivation she will cope with poor soil and some neglect.
Round pink buds with long feather like sepals, I find these more attractive than just plain buds! At first, a pale pink globular bloom quickly opens out to a very full flat bloom stuffed with petals and quills, those small thin central petals, all arranged in a quartered form. Classic silvery pink outer petals with rich rose pink inner petals which often have large splodges of darker pink. These petals reflex well as she matures often revealing her small button eye as the bloom becomes almost pompom like. The most luxurious heavy old rose fragrance, unforgettable as it rises in the heat of a hot June day. I photographed her on such a day at Mottisfont Abbey gardens last summer. She holds her stunning blooms, either singly or in clusters, up above the copious foliage. Truly a fabulous sight.
For a classic Pre-1900s rose she is on the small side, just 1m on her tiptoes here in Britain. Warmer climates encourage her to be somewhat taller but never invasive. Given her accommodating growth habits, she could happily inhabit a large container. She really is one of the roses that I look at and think ‘Why bother with some of the poorer performing modern roses?’ Sticking my neck out I consider she surpasses some of the David Austin roses.
The American Rose Society award her a rather mean 8.0 only, a solid to excellent rose, its good features easily outweigh any problems. I can’t think of a problem with this rose but perhaps some American bug snacks voraciously on her? Comments welcome as always.
You won’t be disappointed if you plant ‘Enfant de France’. She is a worthy addition to any rose garden.
Thursday 9th May
An early David Austin rose today, introduced in 1969 the semi double ‘Canterbury’. One of the very first ‘English Roses’ with repeat blooming, the others being ‘Wife of Bath’, ‘Chaucer’, The Prioress’, and ‘The Knight’. All names taken from the tales of Chaucer, David Austin was a great lover of English poetry. The first rose introduced by David Austin was the shrub/climber ‘Constance Spry’ who is the pollen parent of ‘Canterbury’. The seed parent is a lovely pink Hybrid Tea ‘Monique’. ‘Constance Spry’ blooms just the once so ‘Monique’ ensured that ‘Canterbury’ would repeat bloom through the summer.
I am rather fond of these early DA roses, the more recent ones are of too uniform appearance to appeal to me. ‘Canterbury’ begins her show of bloom with bright pink HT like buds opening to very large peachy pink semi double blooms with large golden glowing stamen coronas. These really do look like small suns. Silky petals with creamy pink backs, and an attractive ruffled appearance. These fade to pale pink; the photo shows her just slightly past her peak. The foliage is rather dark accentuating the pink glow of the blooms. Not over fragranced but a light sweet perfume.
David Austin writes in his book ‘The English Roses’ that this first tranche of ‘English Roses’ had the old rose beauty he desired but were rather weak growers and prone to disease. He reflects that these may have introduced to the public too early, popular but with a certain reputation for being subject to disease. In Britain ‘Canterbury’ was a slow grower taking time to build into a sizeable shrub. I did grow her way back loving the blooms before giving up as she seemed to struggle to grow more than about 40cm high. However, move her to Australia and you have a very different rose. Much more vigorous reaching 1.5m, more bloom both in quantity and repeat and not so much disease, if any at all. At the weekend when researching her I was not able to find a stockist in Britain. A few in Europe, lots in the States and Australia. She no longer appears in the David Austin catalogue though.
I feel in our cooler climate ‘Canterbury’ is more of a collector’s piece but am interested to hear from anyone who still grows her here.
Friday 10 May
I am increasing fond of Tea roses which is difficult living in an area not best suited to them. I do not have quite enough warm sheltered spots here plus it is a windy site. However, driven to clear up the stable yard beside the house, it was fast becoming a dumping ground for bits of garden equipment, a plan germinated. Here is my perfect sunny sheltered spot. True the roses would have to grow in containers but there is enough room for large ones.
This morning’s rose may well be a contender except I cannot yet find a stockist in the UK but my favourite Dutch nursery stocks this and other Tea roses.. Today’s rose is considered to be in the top group of Tea roses, ‘Marie van Houtte’.
Bred by Jean-Claude Ducher, a prolific rose breeder with over 90 roses to his name. ‘Marie van Houtte’, introduced in 1871, is possibly one of his better known varieties. A cross between two Tea roses still in popular cultivation, ‘Mme de Tartas’ x ‘Mme Falcot’
Characteristic Tea buds, that elegant urn shape, which are a creamy colour but stroked with touches of pink. These unfurl into a large cupped loose petalled bloom of deep cream, think of the cream from Jersey cows and you have the colour. The petals attractively reflex, curling backwards, as the bloom opens. The magic then commences, the hot sun touches these creamy blooms a faint wash of pink appears on the petal edges and then suffuses across the petal. Becoming darker pink with the sun’s rays, a phenomena seen in other Tea and China roses. Whether this is heat or ultraviolet has not been established. Whatever the biochemistry here one ends up with a wonderful sight. The creamy buds, the deep cream young blooms scrolling their petals touched with pink and the older blooms of a brighter pink with cream petal bases. Hybrid Tea roses are supposed to be perfection in shape, but the softer petal arrangement of the Tea rose is sublime.
Just when you think she can’t get any better bury your nose into these colour changing blooms. A strong ‘Tea’ fragrance, the ‘Tea’ escapes me more like a woody spicy earthy mysterious perfume. Oh, and nearly forgot she blooms practically continuously! Foliage is large leaved rather matte but very disease resistant. ‘Marie’ declines the secateurs treatment, just let her grow with a light ‘trim’ to keep her tidy. She can reach up to 2.5m in warm climes but will be smaller in chillier areas. One of the hardier of the Teas though and she grows like most of the Teas easily from cuttings. If someone in the UK has her perhaps, I can beg a cutting??
USDA hardy zones 7b and warmer. The Americans clearly love her as she scores an 8.3 – a very good to excellent rose, one recommended without hesitation.
Saturday 11th May
I have a house containing far too many books. Every room including the bathroom has a collection. They overflow the bookcases, getting stacked in piles on top of bookshelves and the floor of the spare bedrooms. Last weekend the weather was vile, wet, and very windy, so I redecorated our bedroom. This involved emptying the overstuffed bookcase, and piling books along the landing with a promise to my husband to reduce the numbers. Some were easy to let go of, others trickier. I picked up the volumes of Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past asking myself ‘Will I ever read this again?’ I probably read it once forty years ago and enjoyed it but one’s taste changes over time. The volumes didn’t go to the charity shop hover in a pile on the floor of my study, a kind of halfway house, before I am hard hearted enough to get rid of them. Pondering on which rose to feature for today I happened upon ‘Souvenir de Marcel Proust’ so here he is.
From the great French nursery of Delbard, this Floribunda rose was introduced in 1992, a rose that has withstood a fair change in rose fashion, and is still a popular choice. Interesting parentage as the famous and prepotent ‘Peace’ features on both the seed and the pollen side providing around 43% of the DNA. I wouldn’t want a horse with that much inbreeding, but this back crossing is fairly common in plant breeding. ‘Peace’ is a very healthy strong rose and passes these attributes to this child ‘‘Souvenir de Marcel Proust’.
Clusters of lemon buds open to globular full petalled blooms of intense lemon yellow. The blooms really look good enough to eat. The attractive swirl of quartered petals with lighter guard petals looks like an exotic dessert. The perfume is wonderful, strong citrus like. Delbard claims that this rose and ‘Chartreuse de Parme’ are their most strongly fragranced roses. Flushes of bloom all summer.
Healthy glossy foliage, excellent disease resistance. Not too large just 80cm to 1m in height so an excellent choice for both the no spray garden and a small garden. Hardy to -15C according to the Delbard website but others have him at USDA zone 7b and warmer. Widely available.
Now those books! The keeper’s shelf or the secondhand book shop box?
Sunday 12th May.
When I married and came to live here on the farm, I found a climbing rose had been planted by the front door as recommended by a local nursery. If ever there was a bad recommendation for a busy entrance with not so much space it was today’s rose, the Bracteata Hybrid ‘Mermaid’.
A stunning rose but one with some health warnings. She has the world’s most vicious red hooked thorns and is planted as a burglar and vandal deterrent. A front door is not an appropriate place for her unless you wish for no visitors. ‘Mermaid’ can be a slow starter but once in her stride little stops her. 5m high and probably wider is a good estimate, she needs to be in a wild area scrambling up a tree or covering an eyesore building. Larger of course in warmer climates. You can train her but only when the stems are young and flexible otherwise, they snap off when handled. She can easily overrun a tree, or a building so think carefully before you plant her. She hates to be pruned. This is a rose you plant and just leave alone.
Bred by the famous Hertfordshire nursery of William Paul and Sons. Her seed parent is the species Rosa Bracteata and the pollen parent is an unnamed yellow Tea rose. From these two unlikely parents, this beautiful rose was born and introduced in 1917.
I think her blooms must be the largest of the single roses, at least 12cm plus in diameter. A soft creamy yellow with a bright golden yellow petal base. The very best stamen crown ever, I think. Long wisps of gold retain their colour for a long time, even after the petals have dropped. The bees adore this rose. She can be a little slow to start blooming but as with her growth habit once she has started then she is practically continuously in bloom until the first frosts. Light sweet fragrance. Just such a magnificent rose.
Dark glossy leaves with light undersides, this foliage is almost evergreen except when she is grown in cold climates. Completely disease resistant, which is good given her size! As I have mentioned she dislikes pruning but you can remove branches that are overtaking the planting site. Wear very strong gloves and watch your eyes!
My mother in law and I had an uneasy relationship, to put it mildly. She told me that ‘Mermaid’ needed pruning as it was all over the place. I told her that this was a semi species rose that resented pruning, but it wasn’t that out of control. One day while I was out my MIL arrived for a couple of days and pruned her hard. I arrived home to a huge mound of prunings and a few hacked about stems. We did not need any ice in that evening’s gins and tonic I can tell you. That was the end of poor ‘Mermaid’ as she quietly died. Looking back on this sorry tale this rose was in the wrong place and would probably have had to be removed at some point, but I could have enjoyed her for a few more years. Madame Alfred Carrière replaced her by the door but I haven’t replanted ‘Mermaid’. We have a belt of ash trees that are slowly dying from the ash dieback fungus so these will be removed within the next few years. When the fungus first arrived in the UK seven or eight years ago, I pinched a section of horse paddock in front of the ash trees and planted a belt of walnut trees. When the ash trees are removed, I plant to fill the space with species roses that can rampage around to their heart’s content. ‘Mermaid’ will be one of them.
Tuesday 14th May
Spring at last after last week’s cold winds, torrential rain, and hail. The sun has been shining here for two days so my roses are beginning to unfurl their buds. A spring rose today with an appropriate name ‘Frühlingsmorgen’- Spring Morning. I am cheered by her simple blooms as summer is not too far behind her.
Her small cream and raspberry pink buds slowly open as the early spring sun warms them. I impatiently checked her yesterday morning, but the buds were sealed shut. First thing this morning they were slightly unfurled but by lunchtime, she had just two open blooms for me to photograph. Medium size blooms of this lovely bright pink fading down the petal to white then a lemon base. A circlet of long crimson stamens with a real glow about them.
Frühlingsmorgen’ is a German bred rose from the Kordes nursery. Introduced in the middle of WWII – 1941, I always find this introduction date surprising but there are a few roses introduced during this period of war even though many rose nurseries stopped rose production, concentrating on growing food instead.
There are seven other roses with the ‘Frühlings’ prefix, I have ‘Frühlingsgold’ who will be appearing shortly, I hope. These are all of the Hybrid Spinnosissima group, the pollen parent being Rosa. spinosissima var. altaica. Extensively used in breeding with 1,219 descendants all with good blooms and quite often her rather unrose like fragrance, somewhere between violet and a rose. ‘Frühlingsmorgen’ has this unusual fragrance which I think smells different each time you lift a bloom to your nose. This ethereal fragrance seems to be a feature of the early spring roses. ‘Maigold’, ‘Canary Bird’ and ‘Rosa banksiae lutea’ have this light but pervasive otherworldly perfume. Only the one early flush of bloom but if you are lucky you can get a small autumn show of bloom, she obliged last year after the hot summer. Purplish hips often follow.
‘Frühlingsmorgen’ is the smallest of the Frühlings at a maximum of 2m in height. She like her siblings are tough and hardy. Tolerant of poor soil, low temperatures, and poor growing conditions. Can be plagued with black spot so you need to keep an eye on her. More of a landscape or wild garden rose really than a prime small garden rose. Certainly, well worth growing if you have an informal garden with space as she will delight you with those early blooms and her exotic fragrance.
Wednesday 15th May
When photographing roses in gardens other than my own I am careful that I record the correct name. This care is extended when I download and file the photos. However, it is always possible to make a mistake and I thought today’s rose ‘Œillet Parfait’ was one married to the wrong name. Originally, I looked up this rose sometime in the winter to find she was a striped Gallica not as in the photo a bright pink. Moseying through Graham Stuart Thomas’s (GST) ‘Old Garden Roses’, I found his description of ‘Œillet Parfait’ matches my photograph taken at Mottisfont Abbey last summer. The roses at Mottisfont were all originally collected by GST, and he remarks it is important to remember that the other rose of this name is a striped Gallica so that’s that mystery solved. Care is needed here when purchasing but most nurseries use the name ‘Œillet Parfait Striped’ to differentiate between the two.
Œillet is French for carnation so this rose is a ‘perfect carnation’, referring to the carnation like appearance of the bloom. Introduced in 1841 from the small nursery of Oscar Foulard. A rather understated rose and one that isn’t widely grown, she appreciates good soil and needs a bit of cossetting to give her best.
Small clusters of feathery sepalled round buds quietly open to petite double blooms, just 4-5cm in diameter just like a carnation. The silky petals reflex as the bloom matures giving a pompom appearance, very attractive and unusual. A sweet perfume but a lot for such a little bloom. Only one summer flush of bloom
Neat twiggy growth habit with small soft green foliage and prickly stems. Only around a metre in height so she does not take up too much space. She may well be a good container rose as one can give her good potting compost and move her around to find her favourite garden position.
A reasonably hardy rose, USDA zone 4-9 but I think she would likely have better performance from 5 upwards. Availability seems reasonable but again one must check if the nursery stocks the ‘plain’ or ‘striped.’ David Austin in the UK stocks this plain pink ‘Œillet Parfait’. Whilst skimming the web I found a few French nurseries with this rose but several with the striped type. I was not able to find her in the States or Australia but if you know of a nursery growing her do please comment. Also, if you grow her yourself it would be great to hear about your experience.
I think more of a collector’s rose, but all collections must start with a single item.
Thursday 16th May
I have recently been looking at roses renowned for their hardiness as I have had a question about suitable roses from a page follower in Dufferin County, Canada, zone 4, elevation 500m and windy. I live in a windy area but in Zone 8 and only 30m elevation, so I have a rather different rose growing experience. In my search for the tough ladies and gentlemen of the rose world, I happened upon this Hybrid Perpetual ‘Archiduchesse Élizabeth d’Autriche’. She is popular in Scandinavia so obviously a hardy soul.
A rose from the productive nursery of Moreau-Robert in Anger, France. The Archiduchesse was introduced in 1881, breeding unknown as was just before hybridising as we know it began to be used widely.
You could be forgiven for thinking she is a David Austin rose as both the bloom form and the fragrance of his roses are very similar to this very beautiful rose. Very fat pink buds, either single or small clusters, open to a large very full petalled bloom. Soft satiny pink wavy edged petals with darker backs, paling as the bloom opens further to reveal a mass of small petaloids in the centre. Strong sweet ‘old rose’ fragrance. Repeat blooms reliably until late autumn. A minus point is her tendency to ‘ball’ in damp weather.
Vigorous in growth and forms a neat shrub of around 1.20m. Very few thorns. Widely available. Hardy USDA zone 4 and warmer. Good strong disease resistance foliage, the leaves are reputed to be particularly tough so this would be a plus on a windy site.
She produced a striped sport early in her career in 1891. This is ‘Vick’s Caprice’, a rose I planted this winter so looking forward to seeing that in bloom. Identical to ‘Archiduchesse Élizabeth d’Autriche’ in every way except the colour. I guess ‘Vick’s Caprice’ is also a tough and hardy lady.
Named for Archiduchesse Élizabeth d’Autriche but which one? Brent Dickerson a renowned rose historian states this is the daughter of Emperor Franz-Joseph of Austria. Franz-Joseph certainly had three daughters Sophie, Gisela, and Marie, but not an Elizabeth. He did have a niece Élizabeth who carried the Archiduchesse title, she was the half sister to Franz-Ferdinand whose assignation precipitated WWI. This niece was only born in 1878 so I wonder if Robert-Moreau would name a rose for a three year old Austrian princess. Élizabeth was a popular name in the Austrian royal family so there are several candidates. Elisabeth Françoise Marie of Habsburg-Lorraine married into the Austrian Royal Family in 1847 becoming another Archiduchesse Élizabeth d’Autriche. Only briefly as she left widowed with a small child within two years. Did this sad story touch the heart of Robert-Moreau? Certainly, this rose naming is a story that needs pursuing.
A worthy rose to add to any garden whoever she is named for. Comments please if you grow her in a cold site.
Friday 17th May
A curiosity of a rose today. There is a condition called ‘proliferation’ which affects some varieties of roses. The bloom opens normally but one or more buds are in the centre. The Bourbon ‘Mme Isaac Pereire’ is bedevilled by this phenomenon, particularly the early spring blooms. The cause is believed to be environmental pressure on the genome causing a mutation in the developing buds. As this appears in the spring it is likely to be weather or temperature related. The following blooms are generally unaffected.
Today’s rose is blighted by proliferation so much so that she is named ‘Prolifera de Redouté’. A French Centifolia rose introduced sometime before 1759, breeder details lost in the mists of time. I photographed her last summer at Mottisfont Abbey gardens and as you can see there is no sign of proliferation at all. Whatever flicks the genetic switches for proliferation was silent last year.
Large feathery sepals enclose typical fat Centifolia buds of pale pink that open to an incredibly beautiful full petalled quartered globular blooms. Pale pink outer petals with slightly darker shell pink centres. Fading to pale pink as the bloom flattens revealing an attractive golden yellow button eye. Strong sumptuous fragrance. Just the single June flush of bloom.
The leaden green foliage provides a good contrast to these attractive blooms. Fair disease resistance. Hardy USDA 4b and warmer. Strong growing and can reach around 1.5m high. Availability? I could find just Peter Beales and a German nursery, http://www.rosenhof-schultheis.de, offering her. Neither mentions the propensity to proliferate although the photo on the German website shows a bloom with those tell tale small buds.
She has a few aliases, the most charming being ‘Childing’ and ‘Childing Provence’. Childing is an old botanical term when a smaller bloom grows out of the centre of a larger bloom, a small child of the parent rose.
Her garden worthiness? I think this depends on your love of the quirky and your available space. A large garden where you can plant her so she isn’t in a prime position, surrounded by other Centifolias would be a perfect position. When she has a ‘proliferation’ attack the other roses will compensate. Does anyone grow her? I would love to hear about your experiences.
Saturday 18th May
Roses do not always have the most stable genomes. Yesterday the Centifolia ‘‘Prolifera de Redouté’ with her desire to produce small ‘children’ from the centres of her magnificent blooms. Today a sport – a genetic mutation causing the rose to produce a stem with different colour blooms – from one of the most prolific ‘sporters’ the famous ‘Peace’ rose we have ‘Chicago Peace’.
When a rose produces a ‘sport’ the stem can be harvested for the budwood and grown on. Occasionally these can revert to the parent. ‘Variegata de Bologna’ a striped Bourbon is a sport of the dark purple ‘Victor Emmanuel’ and often will throw up a branch of this parent. I have a ‘Variegata’ who has done this, so I harvest the ‘Victor’ stem for cuttings. Not only free roses from cuttings but another variety as well, that is my frugal nature!
‘Peace’ has sported around twenty five children, all as good as herself. Well, she may have produced some duds, but they wouldn’t make it into commercial production. ‘Chicago Peace’ was discovered in the late 1950s in the States by Stanley C. Johnson. Stanley was no fool, taking out a plant patent together with the Conard-Pyle nursery for his discovery. He relates in the patent application that in a bed of ‘Peace’ roses in his Illinois garden he noticed a distinct pink bloom with canary yellow petal bases. This sport was propagated by budding and the patent application 2,037 was submitted in March 1961. Conard-Pyle introduced ‘Chicago Peace’ in 1962, named for the principal city of this rose’s home state of Illinois. Said to be one of the best and most popular of the ‘Peace’ sports, I hope the royalties kept the sharp eyed Stanley in comfort for the rest of his life.
Other than the colour ‘Chicago Peace’ is identical to her parent. Large, up to 15cm, full petalled cupped blooms borne singly on the stems. The colour is described on the patent as Phlox Pink and Spirea Red with Canary Yellow petal bases. these are not just any descriptions of colour. The Royal Horticultural Society has a colour chart of 920 colours used worldwide by horticulturists to describe flower colour. It is a pop at £199.99 from the RHS should you need one! Whatever the colour name this is a beautiful mid pink with those yellow bases giving a glow to the bloom centre. The fragrance is not so strong but light and sweet. Repeat blooms reliably all season.
A tall Hybrid Tea around 1.30m to 2m depending on climate and your pruning regime. Dark glossy large leathery leaves typically HT. Reputed to be susceptible to black spot so keep an eye on her. I grow ‘Peace’ who has never had any black spot despite being close to other roses affected. This is the fickle nature of fungal disease!
Widely available. USDA zone 7b and warmer. The American Rose Society only give her a 7.8 – a solid to very good rose, its good features easily outweigh any problems, well above average. This is a rose that is very well above average but that is my humble opinion! I am not such an HT fan but ‘Chicago Peace’ is a very garden worthy rose and will delight all who see her.
Sunday 19th May
Another of the early spring roses today, a Spanish bred rose ‘Nevada’. She does not arrive in a swirl of castanets and flamenco music but just quietly opens her blooms on the odd warm days. A Hybrid Moyessi dating from 1927 from the foremost Spanish rose breeder Pedro Dot. Nevada’ is probably his most well known rose but the stunning climber ‘Madame Grégoire Staechelin’ is another one of his attractive roses.
Named not for the US state but Nevada is the Spanish word for ‘snowy’ and indeed snowy she is. One of the first spring roses and she often blooms in late autumn as well. Large long buds of white streaked with pink with feathery sepals unfurl into large saucers of the palest creamy white, often with a pink streak. Semi double petals surrounding a crown of golden stamens. These attractive blooms appear along the long arching stems, so she does look like a shrub covered in snow. A light sharp sweet fragrance.
Not a small garden rose as she will easily reach 3m and may top 5m in hot climates. The long arches of stems give her considerable breadth as well. Think of a modern shrub rose crossed with a wild rose and you have a good idea of her shape. A real landscape rose for a large or semi wild garden.
The first spring flush of bloom is the most generous, but she will have just a scattering of continuous blooms all summer. Last autumn following the heat of the summer she obliged with a big flush of bloom. Perhaps she thought she was back in Spain! Her minus point is her slight susceptibility to black spot, you can get away with not spraying but she appreciates some fungicide to give her best.
Widely available. Hardy USDA zone 3b and warmer so another cold hardy rose for those who live in chilly climes. The American Rose Society are big fans as she has an 8.8 score putting her into the class of an outstanding rose, one with major positive features and only minor negatives. The top 1%. 9th in the top rated Shrub list. If you have space this rose is a must on your list.
Tuesday 21 May 2019
Dunwich is just seven miles from our farm, so we walk there on the heath and beach with the dogs. Situated on the long Sandlings strip running down the coast it has a very different atmosphere, plants and topography from the inner heavy clay farmlands inside of the Sandlings. I bought this rose at the weekend for my husband who is a National Trust volunteer. He was busy this past weekend at the National Trust property Dunwich Heath presenting his history project to visitors. Known primarily as a nature reserve we both used to ask about the history only to be told there wasn’t any! My husband and another volunteer began to research and of course, there was history, tonnes of it, and I was involved as well. Believe me I know more about German WWI submarines and WWII chain low radar stations than it is healthy!
Today’s rose is the hybrid spinosissima ‘Dunwich.’ Reputed to be a ‘found’ rose discovered on the sand dunes of Dunwich beach in 1950 according to most popular sources. Dunwich has a short fairly sharp shelving shingle beach with a section of cliffs between marshes and a river mouth. The North Sea pounds into these cliffs which are eroding fairly fast. The RSPB heap up great shingle banks to protect the Minsmere reserve, and the Environment Agency used to do the same, but lack of funds means each winter the shingle banks to the north are breached allowing the sea to pour into the marshes. It is a harsh inhospitable environment and just a few saltwater loving plants huddle in the shingle. Not a rose amongst them I can assure you. The acid sandy heath above the beach is today a nature reserve but in WWII was a huge busy radar station and the practice site, Operation Kruschen, for the D Day landings. If any plants survived this onslaught, they were not roses either!
The diminishing village of Dunwich has though been a popular summer retreat for a long time full of small attractive cottages with small gardens. I suspect, and so did Peter Beales himself, that this little Dunwich rose is a spinosissima cultivar with a long forgotten name. These Scots roses were very popular in Victorian England with over a thousand cultivars. I found a secondary reference to Viscount Dunwich describing this rose in 1917 which sounded promising. That is until I worked out that in 1917 the then Viscount Dunwich would have been just a fifteen year old boy. Perhaps this rose grew in the gardens of Henham Hall, the long demolished home of the Earls of Stradbroke, Viscount Dunwich being the title for the heir to the Earldom. Maybe with a forgotten name, it was renamed to honour the young viscount by his father or the head gardener? This is a story for which I am sharpening my pencil to find out more!
This rose produces a lot of bloom, more than most spinosissima. Small pointed creamy buds dot along the length of the low fan like stems and open to jewel like little creamy white single blooms with a perfect bright yellow stamen crown. Lasting just a few days but are quickly being replaced daily by more blooms, and more blooms and then this intense bloom period ends for the summer. In full bloom, she appears to be covered in snow. Large, for this little rose, purply black hips appear in the autumn. The fragrance is fleeting and rather ‘edgy’, not so pleasant. Mind you this is a low growing rose so you will have to get on your hands and knees to get your nose close enough to the blooms!
She makes a neat low dense bush, absolute maximum height of 50cm. The foliage is of small leaflets, 8-10, of dark green borne on prickly stems. These stems fan outwards in an attractive manner. Often used as a ground cover rose as she will happily sucker when grown on her own roots. She is easy to grow from cuttings, so I guess most of the ones offered for sale are own roots. Excellent disease resistance and very hardy, USDA zone 3b-9b. Tolerant of poor soils and drought.
The ‘Dunwich Rose’ is fairly widely available across the world, this surprised me as I thought she would be confined to the UK. A useful rose for the landscape and semi wild garden but she is a small lady she could squeeze into a small cottage garden. Who grows her? Do comment.
NOTE: March 2023 I have now tracked down a little more of the history of this rose. This article will appear soon under ‘The name of the rose’ tab.
Wednesday 22 May
A couple of years ago a local garden centre had an end of season sale where I found a rather scrappy rose at the back of the sale plants. (Hot tip always look at the back of staging, just last week I found a ‘Rosa chinensis sanguinea’ hidden away. Just a single plant, not often seen so this one went straight into the shopping trolley!) Tired of life in a pot, the scrappy rose was a bargain £3.99 so I rescued her. She has taken a bit of time to get going but is now a strong and healthy rose – the Hybrid Rugosa ‘Agnes.’
Yellow is a rare colour in the Rugosa and Hybrid Rugosa groups. ‘Agnes’ has the species Rosa rugosa as her seed parent and the species Rosa foetida ‘Persian Yellow’ providing the pollen. Rosa foetida brings the yellow petal colour but also the susceptibility for blackspot and rust, unfortunately. Luckily, his stinky fragrance reminiscent of cat pee was not included in his gene package for this rose. ‘Agnes’ has an intoxicating fruity fragrance, working in the garden yesterday I had to take a deep breath from her first blooms each time I passed her.
Creamy white buds with rather pinkish sepals appear singly along the stems opening to a rather crumpled full petalled medium size bloom. Creamy lemon tissue thin petals with golden bases give a real glow to the middle of the bloom. Flattening out as she matures and fading to off white. Those tissue petals do mean that she is not a rain lover as the petals just become a soggy mess. Produces just a few blooms at a time but over a long period of a month or more. Hot summers encourage her to show her charms again with a small autumn show. Just a few prickly orange hips.
Foliage is of a Rugosa appearance but a little smaller than usual, shiny wrinkly mid green with toothed edges. Watch her for blackspot and rust in late summer, she had just a sprinkle last summer here with me. Anecdotally it is said that one cannot spray Hybrid Rugosas with fungicide as this is alleged to kill the rose. All I can say is that I have been unable to find any peer reviewed evidence to support this claim. I also grow the Hybrid Rugosa Conrad Ferdinand Meyer who is a complete martyr to rust and a bit of blackspot. I have sprayed him for years and he is a vigorous grower with no sign of death!
‘Agnes’ doesn’t approve of secateurs though, a common trait with Rugosas. Just leave her alone and she will steadily make her 2m height and breadth. This is a very hardy rose, USDA zone 3a-8b, she is a Canadian rose so perhaps that shouldn’t be a surprise.
Bred in 1900 by Dr William Saunders of the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He founded the Agriculture Canada Rose breeding program and ‘Agnes’, introduced in 1922 is one of the first of these tough hardy but attractive roses. Named for William’s wife.
A useful early rose who is easy to care for except that slight fungal infection issue and heavy rain. Tolerant of poor soil and drought though. Rather more of a landscape rose as she is of some size and given her dislike of secateurs a small garden won’t be to her liking.
Thursday 23rd May
In my misspent youth, I went to the Norwich School of Art. In our first year, we spent a lot of time ‘fiddling’ around with colour. This seemed such a waste of time, one exercise had me producing 150 precise size squares graduating in an even manner from white -No1 through to black – No150. We painted colour wheels, equally evenly graduated and learnt the colour differences between zinc white and titanium white. Pigments, their history and how they react chemically with each other were another part of the curriculum. Recognition of colours was deemed to be vital. Presented with the names Dutch Pink, English Pink, and Italian Pink I know that these are not, in fact, pink but yellow. Pink being derived from the German word ‘pinkeln’ -to urinate- hence yellow.
If pink can be yellow is the reverse true, yellow being pink? Not in the world of pigments but it seems to be true of today’s rose – the Noisette climber – ‘Desprez à Fleurs Jaune’. She isn’t Desprez’s Yellow Flower as she is more pink than yellow. I grant though she has some yellow tones along with buff, salmon, cream, off white but overall, she is a pink rose.
‘Desprez à Fleurs Jaune’ was raised by Jean Desprez, (his ‘Baronne Prévost’ featured here 16th February 2019). Parentage is the lovely ‘Blush Noisette’ as the seed parent and the superb ‘Parks’ Yellow Tea Scented China’ providing the pollen. ‘Blush Noisette’ is a pinky, cream rose, and the ‘Parks’ Yellow added the yellow tones to the genetic mix. Introduced in 1830 one of Desprez first roses onto the market.
A large vigorous climber 4 metres or more easily with almost evergreen foliage in warm climates. She blooms continuously all summer into late autumn. Small clusters of buds, around 3-4 of creamy striped pink, unfold into globular cups of mid pink. These flatten to a charmingly untidy quartered bloom stuffed with quills and petaloids in the centre. The bases of these petals have a ‘yellow’ base giving that attractive translucent glow. The blooms continue to flatten and reflex, the petals curling back to allow the bees to harvest the pollen. Highly fragranced and being so tall the perfume travels across the garden.
She has a few minus points, she does not like rain nor cool damp weather. Her blooms spoil and she can be subject to mildew. Grow her on a warm sheltered wall though and she is magnificent.
I was given ‘Desprez à Fleurs Jaune’ as a wedding present and planted her beside the French doors into the garden. She grew vigorously poking her stems into open upstairs windows in the summer. True her dropped petals dried and blew through the open doors across our living room but I did not mind. She had no disease and most winters kept her foliage. Four years ago, she began to fail, a lot of dieback and rather sickly foliage. It looked as though she would have to go. The problem was her large trunk, it would have been a chain saw not loppers to remove it. Instead, I cossetted her, lots of fertiliser and water, plus kind words. After a sulky year, she turned around and is once more climbing up to the eaves. I plan to take cuttings so if she does fail at least I have something of her.
Widely available, you may find her as ‘Jaune Desprez’ particularly in the States. Not a cold climate rose, USDA zone 6b and warmer. If you have a large warm wall, she is a superstar and will not disappoint.
Friday 24th May
Another ‘Frühling’ rose this morning, the sister rose of ‘Frühlingsmorgen’ posted on 14th May, the aptly named Hybrid Spinosissima ‘Frühlingsgold’ – Spring Gold. Indeed, she does spring gold into the Spring days of May.
As with her sister and all the spinosissima roses the blooms are all short stemmed and dotted along arching stems. Long buds of deep orange flashed with orange slowly open to lemon white blooms, initially cupped but before too long they flatten to enormous saucers of pale lemon. The petals have a strong lemon base creating a small ‘sun’ in the bloom centre surrounding the long golden stamens. Often a few streaks of orangey pink on the edges as well. A single rose although she often has up to six petals and a couple of petaloids. I love the way she holds a folded petaloid shyly over her luminous stamen crown. The bees flock to these sunny blooms. Prolific amounts of these ‘saucers’ are produced bending the arching stems practically to the ground over a long period. A light fragrance but it drifts in the warm spring sun perfuming the garden around her. She quietly retires for the summer after this burst of bloom before a small crop of little black hips in the autumn. If you are lucky, she may give a scatter of the odd bloom through the summer.
‘Frühlingsgold’ is a landscape rose really as she can top 2m. She can be pruned after blooming although this will mean no hips, so I leave her alone in the semi wilderness in the rose meadow. Small leaflets, usually nine, of a soft pale green which are rather susceptible to blackspot, unfortunately.
Bred by the German nursery of Kordes and introduced in 1937. I guess that as with any ‘item’ originating from Germany it is likely she would not have been found widely in Britain during WWII and for some time after. She is sometimes sold as ‘Spring Gold’ so that may have been a way around the German name. Lineage is a pale yellow Hybrid Tea ‘Joanna Hill’ with the pollen of Rosa. spinosissima hispida.
Not a small garden rose nor a container one as she needs so much space. I wish these roses could grace the roundabouts and the roadsides to cheer commuters rushing to work. When stuck in traffic they could unroll their car windows and take time to contemplate the blooms and perfume of ‘Frühlingsgold’
Saturday 25th May
Here is the little China rose ‘Sanguinea’ I mentioned on Wednesday found hidden under taller roses on garden centre staging. Unusual to find her as a container rose as normally these rarer China roses are offered as bareroot only.
A lot of China roses were imported into Europe in the eighteenth century losing their Chinese names in the process. Today’s rose has a fair few names, ‘Bengal Beauty’. ‘Bengal Crimson’, ‘Crimson Bengal’ ‘Rosa chinensis sanguinea’, ‘Bengal Cramoisi Double’, ‘Blood-Red China’, ‘Rosa indica cruenta’, Rose de Bangale’ and ‘Miss Lowe’s Rose’ are all names that have been attached to ‘Sanguinea’. There is a belief that these are not all the same rose but closely related Chinas. ‘Sanguinea’ is considered to be the best of the bunch. ‘
‘Sanguinea’ is reputed to have been found in the south of France by the plant hunter Nancy Lindsay. Nancy has a slightly dubious reputation with her record keeping so this rose may well have been found elsewhere. ‘Rose des Rescht’ was another of Nancy’s foundlings from Persia but it is strongly believed that Rose des Rescht is a nineteenth century French rose. Wherever ‘Sanguinea’ was found she is undoubtedly a rose of Chinese descent.
‘Sanguinea’ has smooth stems with a few prickles, reddish brown when young and rather spindly. Three to five pointed leaves which are also a rich red brown when young and have the typical China ‘loose’ arrangement, one could be forgiven for believing she was suffering from a lack of water. Small crimson buds open to these large single roses with petals that reflex untidily or not at all, giving a rather floppy look to the bloom. Rich strong red which fades to crimson, sometimes with a small central white blotch. Large wispy brown stamens that quickly fold up as in the photo. I looked at her an hour earlier when her stamens were all flat and was just a little slow to return with my camera. A light rather mysterious fragrance, the famous ‘Tea’ like perfume. She blooms quietly, just a few blooms then nothing for a few days and then more buds appear all summer into the winter and often all through the winter depending on the weather.
A warm climate rose as she is not too hardy USDA zone 7b-10b, requiring a sheltered warm sunny place where she can reach 1.20m. Tolerant of poor soil and will happily grow on sandy soil. Available throughout Europe and the Southern States of America but you may have to hunt around for her. I can’t find an Australian stockist, but she would like the heat, so I guess she is stocked by someone in the Antipodes.
Perhaps more of a collector’s rose but she would be happy in a small sheltered garden. A container possibly that can be protected against frost by moving into a greenhouse or conservatory. If you grow her do please comment with your thoughts and experiences.
Sunday 26th May
I apologise for yet another China rose this morning. The Chinas and the Rugosas are amongst the earliest roses to bloom and the latest roses with blooms in December. In warm climates they bloom continuously.
This morning’s rose has been known in cultivation for over a thousand years in China, known as ‘Yue Yue Fen’ translates as ‘Monthly Pink’ a name under which you may find her listed. She is more commonly known as ‘Old Blush’. Believed to be of most ‘Rosa chinensis’ lineage, there are a lot of ‘Chinas’ of a ‘Rosa chinensis’ x ‘Rosa gigantea’, ‘gigante’a being the Wild Tea rose. This explains the rather blurred lines between the two groups with China Tea often used to describe these mixed lineage roses.
‘Old Blush’ was originally known as ‘Parson’s Pink China’ as it was discovered in the Hertfordshire garden of Mr Parsons in 1793. Collected in China near Canton by Sir George Staunton and introduced by Sir Joseph Banks into the UK. History is silent on why he didn’t name her and how Mr Parsons acquired her. Quickly becoming very popular and as it roots easily from cuttings it was alleged to be in every garden in England by 1823.
One of the four ‘Stud Chinas’ the other three being ‘Slaters Crimson China’, ‘Hume’s Blush Tea Scented China’ and ‘Park’s Yellow Tea Scented China’. Crossed with the once flowering Damasks, Gallicas, Centifolias a new generation of continuous and repeat roses was born.
‘Old Blush’ is one of the best China roses. Not so large in cool climates at around 1.2m but she can reach 3m in a warm sheltered spot or in warmer climates. A graceful delicate appearance as she is compact, shapely with slender stems with the odd prickle and small glossy foliage. No disease, she doesn’t mind poor soil or shade. Hardly needs to be pruned. A very easy rose for novice rose growers or those who want an easy life.
Small pointed crimson buds unfurl into these highly attractive semi double mid pink blooms. Petals with slightly wavy edges, dark pink veins with the odd pale splash. Instead of fading as the bloom matures, she becomes a darker stronger pink. Produces a lot of bloom. The photographs were taken yesterday, and she is coated in pink. An interesting fragrance said to be ‘sweet pea’ like, ‘floral’ is my best description and although light it is pervasive but only when the sun warms her petals.
Hardy USDA zone 6a and warmer. 8.8 score from the American Rose Society putting her into the Outstanding rose category. Rated 12th in their Old Garden Roses category.
A rose that should be in every garden as in the 1820s. She will never disappoint you.
Tuesday 28th May
I have over the years perfected the art of the rapid browse along the hanging rails of charity shops for designer items. There is a quality that stands out from the ordinary. This attribute seems to have transferred to my rose spotting ability. I visited our local plant fair yesterday which was heaving with people even though I arrived just after the gates opened. Lots of stalls or rather patches of ground with plants in rows so tricky to see what was on offer. A large white climber caught my eye from a distance, so I elbowed in and flipped the label over. ‘Mrs Honey Dyson’ ‘Climber, repeat flowering, rare’ I read. I queried the name, but the owner of the stall assured me it was correct. Parting with £10 she was mine.
Checking the International Cultivar Registration Assoc. list I found no listing for Mrs Honey Dyson but she did pop up on both Find That Rose (www.findthatrose.co.uk) and Helpmefind (www.helpmefind.com). Both sites are useful resources for all roses. I discovered that ‘Mrs Honey Dyson,’ no relation to James Dyson of the vacuum cleaner fame, is named for the owner of a Gloucestershire garden where the rose was found in the 1950s. The rosarian Charles Quest-Ritson believes that this name was given as a ‘temporary’ identification until the real name was found. He believed the correct name was ‘Auguste Gervais’. Well pardon me for disagreeing with so eminent a person but ‘Auguste Gervais’ is too pink and has too many petals to be this rose. Peter Beales mentions in his book ‘Visions of Roses’ that ‘Mrs Honey Dyson’ was a rose he hadn’t seen before, describing her as ‘It is exquisite in both blossom and behaviour. Its flowers are creamy-white and fragrant, loosely cupped in form and produced in drooping clusters’. ‘Auguste Gervais’ is a rose sold by Peter Beales so he would not have made an error in identification.
Peter Beales description exactly fits the rose I bought so I will stick with the name ‘Mrs Honey Dyson’ for the time being. As she is a ‘found’ rose there are no breeder details, date of introduction nor to which group she belongs. Said to reach 3m x 2.5m.
You can see from the photos she is a peachy cream when young, fading to white semi double blooms with a glorious golden stamen crown. Fabulous fragrance as well. Good small leaved glossy foliage. No idea of hardiness or disease status. Two nurseries are offering her for sale in the UK, I do not know if she is available elsewhere in the world though.
I have a place for her to scramble into a hedge beside a garden seat so I will have to see how she progresses.
Does anyone else grow her under the name ‘Mrs Honey Dyson’ or perhaps another name? Please comment
29th May
Surely the glory and purpose of a rose are the blooms in all their shapes, colours and fragrances? Not though today’s rose who is principally grown for her thorns, the species rose ‘Rosa sericea pteracantha’. Lop the ‘Rosa’ off the name and it sounds like a new dinosaur species. Like Pterodactyl, the ‘p’ is silent as the word has a Greek root, so it is ‘teracantha’. This rose even looks rather Jurassic with huge red wing like thorns. Sometimes called the ‘Wing thorn’ rose. The taxonomy discussions over this rose sometimes result in a listing as ‘Rosa sericea ssp. omeiensis f. pteracantha.’ I am unsure as to which is completely correct. Collected in China by the great plant hunter E.H. Wilson in 1900 and introduced into garden cultivation around the same time.
More of a collectors rose, one with a large garden that has semi wild areas. I grow ‘pteracantha’ on a wild bank which does mean I have to walk up the bank to see her thorns though. She should be grown so one gets the sunlight shining through the stems, setting the thorns glowing to a rich ruby red. This spectacular colouring though is only on the young stems. Leave her unpruned for a year and the stems turn to a dreary grey.
The blooms, small single and white dot along the arching stems but to be frank are not a lot to write home about. Their fragrance is fleeting but as an early spring rose the bees and other pollen gatherers are probably her biggest fans. Just the one flush of bloom which is followed in the autumn by decorative round red hips. One has a choice here. One either prunes her back hard after flowering so you get the glowing thorns the spring or you leave her alone and enjoy the lovely hips. I generally compromise by removing some of the oldish stems ensuring some hips and some fiery thorns in the following spring.
Disease free fern like foliage. A tough hardy rose which doesn’t mind poor soil or drought. Can grow to 3m if you don’t prune but much lower around 1.5-2m if you prune after flowering. Not as I have pointed out a rose for everyone, but should you fancy those blood red ‘wings’ and have a landscape garden then consider her.
Thursday 30th May
There are busy people and there are really busy people. I would place the Anglican clergyman Reverend Joseph Pemberton (1852-1926) into the latter category. Although he lived in an age when all in the professional classes or those with wealth had domestic staff, he seems to have been able to achieve so much. Was he an Anglican clergyman who bred roses, or perhaps he was primarily a rose breeder who was a part time clergyman?
Born at the Round House in Havering-atte-Bower, near Romford in Essex in 1852. That middle ‘atte’ is pronounced ‘atty.’ Joseph, together with his sister Florence, lived in the Round House for his entire life. In the large garden, he had a collection of 4000 roses and by 1896 he was raising between five to ten thousand seedlings annually. In his spare time, he was an active member of the National Rose Society. He and Florence showed his roses, rarely missing any rose show. An inspector of schools, he also taught scripture at many schools.
Joseph Pemberton began to breed roses in around 1911, and then more seriously when he retired in 1917. Joseph wished to breed roses that looked ‘old fashioned’ like his grandmother’s roses, with good fragrance and critically the ability to repeat bloom. In this aim he succeeded introducing sixty nine roses during his lifetime, creating the Hybrid Musk group. After his death, Florence continued the breeding programme and following her death the rose business was bequeathed to the Bentall family, long time gardeners for Joseph.
Today’s rose is ‘Francesca’ introduced in 1927. By mid May she is producing large sprays of yellow amber buds streaked with dark pink. Opening to loose semi double apricot yellow blooms with a deep glowing centre. As these flatten the colours fade through peach, cream, buff to parchment white. A light pervasive fragrance drifts around the bush. I grow several ‘Francesca’s’, she is ridiculously easy to grow from cuttings. Two of these are in light dappled shade for some of the day, I notice they are highly coloured and keep their colour longer than the two growing in full sun. Last summer in the high heat rather than a clean petal drop she clutched her dying blooms which frizzled to dirty scrunched tissue balls. I gave the bushes a good shake each morning rather than dead heading as small red hips follow her blooms.
Tough, hardy USDA zone 6b and warmer. No disease at all other than critters that munch. Grows to around 2m high but much wider. Does not mind pruning, a ‘Francesca’ was the subject of the petrol hedge cutter pruning experiment and she is bursting with buds. The American Rose society award her a rather unfair 6.6 – a below average rose which seems a little harsh. If you grow her in the States perhaps you can comment on your experience?
If you want to know more about Joseph and his Hybrid Musk roses visit http://www.pembertonroses.org.uk I am visiting the Pemberton gardens at St Francis Hospice with the Historic Roses Group in July. I will be packing my camera! The gardens are open to the public, but you must book online at the above website.
An easy rose to grow so ideal for those who have a Joseph Pemberton lifestyle!
Friday 31st May
I have a lot of striped shirts and stripey trousers. Several rooms in my house also have rugs and curtains that are boldly striped. This penchant extends to the garden as I love striped roses and grow a fair number. They are, I can appreciate, a love it or leave it rose so scroll on if you are not a fan.
Today a Floribunda was bred by one of the foremost American rose breeders Tom Carruth. #Tom was the chief hybridiser for Weeks Roses from 1988 until he retired in 2012 with a hundred and forty roses to his name. Today’s rose ‘Hanky Panky’ was introduced in 2000. Both parents were also bred by Tom, the seed parent the striped climber ‘Rosy Outlook’ with pollen from the Floribunda ‘Scentimental’. Unsurprising then to get striped offspring!
One of the most charming aspects of striped roses is that no two blooms are ever the same. Some are an almost solid colour with few stripes, whereas others are a crazy mix of colour and stripes, streaks, flicks of varying thicknesses. ‘Hanky Panky’ is predominantly an orangey red that fades gracefully to dark pink. Semi double with a small glowing centre, cupped when young but flattening out to reveal those good stamens for the bees. Her fragrance is said to be apple like but that one escapes me. Fruity and zesty certainly but I detect no apple. I have a young bush only her second year, but she has a lot of buds and will bloom more or less continuously through the summer.
Healthy glossy foliage, I haven’t seen any sign of disease on her. Hardy USDA zone 6b-9b. Maximum predicted height is between 0.80-1.20m so she is suitable for a small garden or a container. I have mine in a large container but come the autumn I will move her into one of the beds. I usually have the container roses in their pots for a maximum of three years before releasing them into the wilds of the garden!
Widely available but take care as there is an orange miniature rose also ‘Hanky Panky’. Today’s rose has the ICRA (International Cultivar Registration Authority) appellation WEKtorcent. This will give you the correct one!
If you like me are fond of the striped roses this is definitely one to think about.
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Rose of the Day 