SPECIES ROSA
‘June brings tulips, lilies, roses,
Fills the children’s hands with posies.’
(Sara Coleridge, 1802-52)
Well, Sara Coleridge isn’t wrong; June does bring that quintessentially British plant, the rose, to the fore. All round Bideford and district, if you peep into people’s gardens, you will usually see a rose or two. Although formal rose gardens are now out of fashion, gardeners still like to have them around in some form. I have a wildlife garden but I still have two or three of the more natural roses for the insects and other fauna.
Roses certainly aren’t unique to Britain. All civilisations of the temperate regions have grown them for at least 5000 years. Records show that roses were growing in ancient Babylon, ancient Egypt, China, and Greece. Although roses have been around a long time in Britain, (think War of the Roses,) highly bred roses only came to the fore in Europe when the Empress Josephine of France encouraged rose breeding on her estate at Malmaison during the early 1800s.
It is truly difficult to classify roses because there is no single system of classification. For ease of use though, they loosely fit into three categories: Old Garden Roses, Modern Garden Roses, and Wild Roses.
Old Garden Roses, sometimes referred to as heritage roses, are roses that existed before 1867 and the introduction of the first Modern Rose. This class of rose covers the old fashion favourite groups, which include among others, Gallica, Damask, Moss, Bourbon (sorry Del, you can’t drink that one,) Noisette, and the Musk rose. For some strange reason this category also lists the popular hedging rose, Rosa rugosa, (see photo.) These roses enhance all the old romantic Victorian watercolour and oil paintings that have roses growing up the side of the house or around the porch.
Generally, though, we are more familiar with the Modern Garden Roses. Who hasn’t heard of the hybrid tea? This rose became the most popular rose of the 20th century. The other big favourite was the floribunda, and along with the hybrid tea, were usually the main constituents of the traditional rose garden. Unfortunately, they developed a reputation for being high maintenance and so as life became busier they fell out of fashion. The final death knell came when Christopher Lloyd destroyed the famous rose garden at Great Dixter and replaced it with hot coloured tropical looking plants.
Wild Roses, often known as species roses, make up the third category. In this group, we have our native briar, the dog rose, Rosa Canina. It used to deck our hedgerows much more commonly than it does now. If you have a large enough garden, with tall enough shrubs and trees, why not get hold of a plant or sow it from seed and grow your own piece of native natural history. Insects and bees will love you for it. Other wild roses are the sweetbriar or Eglantine, Rosa rubiginosa, Lady Banks’ Rose, Rosa banksiae, and Rosa Moyesii.
Although climbing and rambling roses aren’t technically a category, they are worth mentioning separately. Often they are a climbing or rambling cultivar of an established rose type. I have a climbing version of the hybrid tea, ‘Mischief,’ (see photo.) As for repeat flowering climbers, everyone rants on about ‘Rambling Rector,’ but I grow and prefer ‘wedding Day.’ Left to their own devises these roses will grow over thirty feet or more, but they never complain when I give them a good hacking. They still come back for more. We mustn’t forget the climbing rose that featured in an Agatha Christie novel either. Bred by Bizot in 1868, the climbing Bourbon rose, Rosa ‘Zephirine Drouhin’ is unique in that it is thornless. It was a clue that led Poirot to the murderer.
The largest climbing rose in Britain is Rosa filipes, ‘Kiftsgate.’ Named after the house where it was discovered in 1951, it is measured as climbing over fifty feet into a copper beech tree.
Most garden roses in this country thrive in a rich soil that is moist but free draining (plant with plenty of grit and mychorryzal fungi.) They perform best when in full sun for most of the day.
Over the decades of the 19th and 20th centuries, rose pruning become something of an art form. However, like everything else we should keep it simple. Rose pruning is like dealing with clematis. It depends on what you’re group you’re pruning. Old Garden Roses are simple. They flower on two-year-old canes so just remove weak and previously flowered stems, and if necessary give a light trim to restrict size. You can deal with Modern Garden Roses quite severely. They flower on wood made that year so at the end of the season they can be cut back to about 8” – 12” from the ground. This will encourage the plant to produce new canes and therefore more flowers next year. For many years, pruning roses was ‘touchy-feely’ and the pruning cut had to be made just above a bud, and so on. Modern research has shown all that is unnecessary. Roses can be cut back to 8” – 12” with a hedge trimmer and suffer no lasting damage. I do have a feeling that the jagged wounds may make the rose susceptible to disease though.
Deadheading is useful to keep the rose producing flowers. However, for the cultivars or species with glorious and decorous hips, do not deadhead.
As regards pests, fear them not. Do not resort to insecticides or fungicides. Ladybirds and hoverflies will handle greenfly. Any sign of fungal disease, prune it out and burn. So go ahead, stay organic, take it easy, and enjoy your garden in June.
You can contact me on [email protected]
You can visit my website at cherrytrees.weebly.com
Until we meet again next month, happy gardening!
‘June brings tulips, lilies, roses,
Fills the children’s hands with posies.’
(Sara Coleridge, 1802-52)
Well, Sara Coleridge isn’t wrong; June does bring that quintessentially British plant, the rose, to the fore. All round Bideford and district, if you peep into people’s gardens, you will usually see a rose or two. Although formal rose gardens are now out of fashion, gardeners still like to have them around in some form. I have a wildlife garden but I still have two or three of the more natural roses for the insects and other fauna.
Roses certainly aren’t unique to Britain. All civilisations of the temperate regions have grown them for at least 5000 years. Records show that roses were growing in ancient Babylon, ancient Egypt, China, and Greece. Although roses have been around a long time in Britain, (think War of the Roses,) highly bred roses only came to the fore in Europe when the Empress Josephine of France encouraged rose breeding on her estate at Malmaison during the early 1800s.
It is truly difficult to classify roses because there is no single system of classification. For ease of use though, they loosely fit into three categories: Old Garden Roses, Modern Garden Roses, and Wild Roses.
Old Garden Roses, sometimes referred to as heritage roses, are roses that existed before 1867 and the introduction of the first Modern Rose. This class of rose covers the old fashion favourite groups, which include among others, Gallica, Damask, Moss, Bourbon (sorry Del, you can’t drink that one,) Noisette, and the Musk rose. For some strange reason this category also lists the popular hedging rose, Rosa rugosa, (see photo.) These roses enhance all the old romantic Victorian watercolour and oil paintings that have roses growing up the side of the house or around the porch.
Generally, though, we are more familiar with the Modern Garden Roses. Who hasn’t heard of the hybrid tea? This rose became the most popular rose of the 20th century. The other big favourite was the floribunda, and along with the hybrid tea, were usually the main constituents of the traditional rose garden. Unfortunately, they developed a reputation for being high maintenance and so as life became busier they fell out of fashion. The final death knell came when Christopher Lloyd destroyed the famous rose garden at Great Dixter and replaced it with hot coloured tropical looking plants.
Wild Roses, often known as species roses, make up the third category. In this group, we have our native briar, the dog rose, Rosa Canina. It used to deck our hedgerows much more commonly than it does now. If you have a large enough garden, with tall enough shrubs and trees, why not get hold of a plant or sow it from seed and grow your own piece of native natural history. Insects and bees will love you for it. Other wild roses are the sweetbriar or Eglantine, Rosa rubiginosa, Lady Banks’ Rose, Rosa banksiae, and Rosa Moyesii.
Although climbing and rambling roses aren’t technically a category, they are worth mentioning separately. Often they are a climbing or rambling cultivar of an established rose type. I have a climbing version of the hybrid tea, ‘Mischief,’ (see photo.) As for repeat flowering climbers, everyone rants on about ‘Rambling Rector,’ but I grow and prefer ‘wedding Day.’ Left to their own devises these roses will grow over thirty feet or more, but they never complain when I give them a good hacking. They still come back for more. We mustn’t forget the climbing rose that featured in an Agatha Christie novel either. Bred by Bizot in 1868, the climbing Bourbon rose, Rosa ‘Zephirine Drouhin’ is unique in that it is thornless. It was a clue that led Poirot to the murderer.
The largest climbing rose in Britain is Rosa filipes, ‘Kiftsgate.’ Named after the house where it was discovered in 1951, it is measured as climbing over fifty feet into a copper beech tree.
Most garden roses in this country thrive in a rich soil that is moist but free draining (plant with plenty of grit and mychorryzal fungi.) They perform best when in full sun for most of the day.
Over the decades of the 19th and 20th centuries, rose pruning become something of an art form. However, like everything else we should keep it simple. Rose pruning is like dealing with clematis. It depends on what you’re group you’re pruning. Old Garden Roses are simple. They flower on two-year-old canes so just remove weak and previously flowered stems, and if necessary give a light trim to restrict size. You can deal with Modern Garden Roses quite severely. They flower on wood made that year so at the end of the season they can be cut back to about 8” – 12” from the ground. This will encourage the plant to produce new canes and therefore more flowers next year. For many years, pruning roses was ‘touchy-feely’ and the pruning cut had to be made just above a bud, and so on. Modern research has shown all that is unnecessary. Roses can be cut back to 8” – 12” with a hedge trimmer and suffer no lasting damage. I do have a feeling that the jagged wounds may make the rose susceptible to disease though.
Deadheading is useful to keep the rose producing flowers. However, for the cultivars or species with glorious and decorous hips, do not deadhead.
As regards pests, fear them not. Do not resort to insecticides or fungicides. Ladybirds and hoverflies will handle greenfly. Any sign of fungal disease, prune it out and burn. So go ahead, stay organic, take it easy, and enjoy your garden in June.
You can contact me on [email protected]
You can visit my website at cherrytrees.weebly.com
Until we meet again next month, happy gardening!