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CHAPTER I New Garden Roses
One of the most distinct and wholesome effects of
the spread of garden knowledge and love of flowers
that has filled the land of late years is the demand for
good garden Roses. By the term "garden Roses,"
is meant Roses for ordinary garden use, though the
word has a more exclusive use in the schedules of
Rose Societies, where it means any Roses other than
those that are classed as show kinds. In this case
the more rigid distinction is of use, though in the
garden it does not concern us in the least, for it
naturally happens that a grand show Rose is often
a grand garden Rose also.
But in the usual jargon of horticulture the words
"garden Rose" makes one first think of Damask
and Provence or Cabbage Roses, of Moss Roses,
of Sweet Brier and Scotch Brier, of Cinnamon Rose
and Rosa lucida [now known as Rosa virginiana], of China Rose, and of the old climbing cluster kinds ; in short, of all the older favourites
that will grow readily in any garden in answer to
reasonable care and preparation.
It is only of late years, since an increased recognition of the delights of the garden has spread anew throughout Britain, and is rapidly extending through her colonies, that any notable additions have been made to the garden Roses. But our best Rose growers have not been slow to perceive how gladly their good new garden Roses have been welcomed; the success of these has encouraged further effort, and whereas a few years ago lists of new Roses were mostly attractive to specialists, and consisted almost exclusively of Hybrid Perpetuals and Teas, the new Rose lists of to-day include kinds that appeal to every
one who loves a garden.
The reason for the older limitation may be easily understood, for whereas success in growing the show Roses depends, to begin with, either on the possession of a good Rose soil, or on those qualifications of knowledge, determination, and command of money that can create one where it does not exist, the wants of the free and "garden" Roses are so comparatively modest, they are so accommodating and so little fastidid encourous that with very moderate preparation an
agement they can be made to succeed in much poorer soils. Then it is but few that aspire to the honours of the show table, while nearly every one who is master of a rood of land now desires to enjoy it as
a garden.
So it has come about that one after another, more and more garden Roses have come into use and
have come into being. One of the first of the outsiders to be adopted as a garden Rose was the Himalayan R. Brunoni [now known as Rosa brunonii] or moschata, with its rambling habit, its pale bluish leaves, and its clusters of milkwhite bloom. Then we took up the type Rosa multiflora or polyantha, with its vigorous growth and its multitudes of Bramble-like sweet-scented flowers. Then Turner's Crimson Rambler, a plant of Japanese origin, closely related to R. multiflora, took the garden world by storm, for its easy cultivation, great speed of growth, and its masses of showy crimson bloom. Those of us whose eyes are trained to niceties of colour-discrimination wish that the tint of this fine flower had been just a shade different. Brilliant it undoubtedly is, and its noonday brightness gives pleasure to a great number of people; but if it had had just a little less of that rank quality that it possesses slightly in excess, it would have been a still more precious thing in our gardens. The time to see it in perfection is when the sun is nearing the horizon, and when the yellow light, neutralising the purplish taint, gives the flowers of the Rambler just the quality that they unfortunately lack; then and then only they show the glorious red that the critical colour-eye demands, while at the same time their brilliancy is intensified.
From the type multiflora and some of its hybrids as parents on one side have arisen a range of garden Roses of inestimable value, most of them of rambling habit, comprising the rose-coloured Dawson, the charming pink Euphrosyne, the white Thalia and the yellow Aglaia, followed by Leuchtstern, a charming pillar Rose with pink, red-tinted, white-eyed
flowers, Waltham Rambler and Eleanor Berkeley,
and Psyche, rosy-pink slightly tinted yellow. From
the same source on one side there are also Lion and
Wallflower, crimsons, and Electra, canary-yellow; so
that from R. multiflora we have already all the best
colourings of which Roses are capable, while we may
confidently expect many other pretty things.
The name polyantha for this Rose is as often given
as multiflora. It seems needless that the two forms
of the specific name should be almost equally in use,
the more so that they mean exactly the same thing,
polyantha being the Greek and multiflora the Latin
for "many-flowered." Another thing is puzzling to
the amateur, that the name polyantha is also used for
the class of quite dwarf Roses, such as Paquerette,
Mignonette, &c. It would seem more sensible to
keep the two classes quite apart and to use the name
polyantha or multiflora only for the rambling kinds
that retain the free-growing character of the type,
and to have for the smaller bushy kinds some simple
name that has no pretension to the character of a
botanical specific name. A botanical name is in
any case wrongly used for any class of garden flower
that is a hybrid or a still later cross, and that nowhere in nature exists in a single state. These small
so-called polyantha Roses should be simply called
Pompon Roses, then there would be no puzzle or
ambiguity, and every one would know what was meant,
whereas if Roses fifteen inches and fifteen feet high
are both classed as polyantha, unless the popular name
of each kind is known, there is sure to be confusion.
These pretty dwarf Cluster Roses are not nearly
enough used. They have an innocent, childlike
charm of their own, quite distinct from the more
grown-up attractiveness of their larger brethren--
one thinks of such a little bush as Paquerette as
in place in a child's garden or on a child's grave.
They have their uses, too, in the Rose garden, in any
small, dainty spaces, as at the foot of a platform on
which a sundial rests; at some point where some
small beautiful thing could be seen on a level with
the eye; in small beds by themselves, or as an
edging to Roses of slightly larger growth.
The Himalayan free Roses have been mentioned
first because it is from them, and from multiflora
especially, that the most important of our newer
garden Roses of the rambling, cluster-blooming
kinds have been derived. But before coming to
some of the older garden Roses, mention must be
made of the Japanese R. wichuriana and its hybrids.
This species has introduced to our gardens Roses
of quite an unusual way of growth. They grow
fast and are of rambling habit, and though they
may be trained to pillar shape, their favourite way
is to trail upon the ground, downward as often
as not, and to ramble downhill over banks,and
uneven ground; so that in our gardens we may
now have quite a new aspect of Rose beauty. They
hybridise freely, and already we have many beautiful flowers twice the size of the type, more free-blooming, of various tender colourings and charming
fragrance. A well-devised cross with Perle des jardins (T.) has given us two lovely Roses, Jersey
Beauty and Gardenia, of dainty yellow colouring;
while Evergreen Gem, whose pollen parent was
the pale yellow Tea Madame Hoste, is quite a
large flower and deliciously scented. Many a
garden has uninteresting turf banks between two
levels. Here is one of the most obvious places
to use these charming Roses, which are beautiful
not only for their blossom, but for the close growth
of their neat glossy foliage.
Another Japanese Rose, R. rugosa, has also given
some valuable varieties and hybrids. The beautiful
white Blanc double de Coubert--whitest Rose of
any known--has for purity of colour eclipsed the
older, duller white Madame Georges Bruant, though
this is still indispensable. Blanc double de Coubert
is one of the best of Roses, for it blooms the whole
summer through and well into autumn. Its rich,
deep green foliage, highly polished though heavily
reticulated, persisting till late in the year, gives it
that look of perfect health and vigour that the leafage of so many Roses lacks in the later summer. The
danger in rugosa hybrids is the tendency towards a
strong magenta colouring, such as is suggested by
the type. But in some of the seedlings a judicious
choice of pollen parent has amply corrected this,
as in the charming salmon-pink Conrad F. Meyer.
This, with the white Scheelicht and the pretty white
Fimbriata, are among the most charming of the
rugosa varieties.
The great hardiness of the rugosas enables them to be used in exposed places where many kinds
of Roses would be crippled or would perish. Their
strong, bushy growth and somewhat ferocious armature of prickles fits them above all other Roses for
use as hedges, and not hedges of ornament only, but
effective hedges of enclosure and defence.
Among the recent garden Roses of great merit is
the beautiful hybrid Tea Dawn, also Rosa sinica
Anemone, a little tender, but lovely against a wall;
while every year is adding to our garden Roses of
the loose, half-double Tea class such good things
as Sulphurea and Corallina, whose names denote
their colourings.
Several beautiful species, formerly in botanical
collections only, have also been brought into use,
while others have been introduced. Among these
are R. altaica, described in the chapter on Brier
Roses. Then we have R. macrantha, with large
pink blooms, and Andersoni, also with pink flowers;
they both make handsome, rather large, bushes.
Others of the good wild Roses are dealt with in the
chapter on Species as Garden Roses.
The work of the late Lord Penzance among the
Sweet Briers has given us a whole range of garden
Roses of inestimable value. He sought to give colour
and size by means of the pollen parent, and so obtained strong as well as tender colouring and also
increased size, while retaining the scented leaf and
the free character of growth. It seems as though
this eminent lawyer, who in some of the years of
his mature practice had to put the law in effect in decreeing the separation of unhappy human couples,
had sought mental refreshment in the leisure of his
latest days by devoting it to the happy marriages of
Roses. Though his name will ever stand high in the
records of legal practice, it is doubtful whether in
years to come it will not be even more widely known
in connection with the Roses he has left us, the fruits
of the recreation of his last years of failing strength.
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- New Garden Roses
- R. BRUNONI--type, single, milk-white, in clusters.
- Double var., milk-white, in clusters.
- R. MULTIFLORA, syn. polyantha--single, white, in large clusters.
- Double, syn. polyantha--single, white, in large clusters.
Large flowered, single, white, in large clusters.
- HYBRIDS--
- Crimson Rambler; crimson.
Euphrosyne; pink.
Thalia; white.
Dawson; rose.
Psyche; pink, salmon-yellow centre.
Aglaia; yellow-pink.
Eleanor Berkeley; pale pink.
Leuchtstern; white and pink.
Waltham Rambler; white and pink.
Electra; canary-yellow.
Claire jacquier; buff-yellow.
Queen Alexandra; deep rose-pink, pale centre.
Lion; single crimson.
Wallflower; rosy crimson.
- POMPON ROSES--
- Paquerette; white.
Anne Marie de Montravel; white.
Bouquet parfait; light and full rose.
Eugénie Lamesch; orange, rose-tinted.
Léonie Lamesch; copper-red, yellow centre.
Clothilde Soupert; rose.
Georges Pernet; rose.
Gloire des Polyantha; rose and white.
Mignonette; pale pink.
Mosella; white and yellow.
Archduchess Elizabeth Marie; pale yellow.
Clothilde Pfitzer; white.
Clothilde Pfitzer; white.
- R. WICHURIANA--single, white.
HYBRIDS--
- Gardenia; yellow-white.
Jersey Beauty; single, pale yellow.
Alberic Barbier; cream-white.
Manda's Triumph; double, white.
- R. RUGOSA--Vars. and Hybrids.
- Single, white.
Blanc double de Coubert; pure white, double.
Madame Georges Bruant; warm-white.
Fimbriata; white.
Merc6des; rose and white.
Souvenir de Philemon Cochet; white, pink to centre.
Rose Apples; pink.
- SWEET BRIER (R. rubiginosa)--
- Common, pink.
Double, red.
janet's Pride; half-double, striped.
- PENZANCE HYBRIDS OF SWEET BRIER, Selection--
- Green Mantle; pink.
Anne of Geierstein; rose.
Rose Bradwardine; rose.
Meg Merrilees; rose.
Lady Penzance; copper.
- VARIOUS--
- Rosa sinica Anemone; pink (tender).
R. moschata nivea; white.
Others in the chapter on Species as Garden Roses.
Next Chapter: Old Garden Roses
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