| Rose Books
Online |
| The Complete Flower Paintings and Drawings of Graham Stuart Thomas by Graham Stuart Thomas, 1987, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. / Sagapress, Inc., New York Rose drawings, paintings, and text from pages 104-149 |
Rugosa Roses 'Fru Dagmar Hastrup' and ‘Roseraie de l'Hay' pages 106, 107 |
Rosa rugosa is one of the hardiest of all rose shrubs It is a native of north-eastern Asia, Russia, China, Korea, and Japan, growing particularly in sandy soils near the sea. It will thrive and persist in sand. This is a valuable asset against which must he balanced its dislike of soils heavily limy. It is of colonizing habit, densely twiggy in full exposure, extremely prickly; its foliage is crisp and green and turns to brilliant yellow in autumn. At this time the very large rounded heps (see page 149) are finely coloured from the later crops of bloom. Its flowering season starts in late May, every shoot being crowned with one or more flowers; each new shoot of the summer produces a cluster of blooms and, in the single- flowered kinds, all are followed by a succession of fruits. R. rugosa was depicted by the Chinese, according to E. A. Bunyard, as far back as AD. 1000. It was first discovered by Carl Thunberg in Japan in 1784 and was in cultivation in Britain by the end of the century. Its repeat-flowering habit was a goal towards which rose growers were increasingly turning, but here R. rugosa was disappointing: it impressed its prickly habit on many of its hybrids and as a general rule these proved sterile. However at the very end of the nineteenth century some worthy hybrids were raised, which were bushy (though prickly) shrubs with good rugosa-style foliage and large double flowers, varying from white to rich crimson-purple. They were raised by French nurserymen, the first on record being the pure cold white hybrid ‘Blanc Double de Coubert’ in 1892. It was left to Jules Gravereaux, the creator of the famous rose garden the Roseraie de l’Haÿ at L’Haÿ les Roses near Paris, to harness the richest colouring of R. rugosa. This he did in his magnificent ‘Roseraie de l’Haÿ' in 1901, arose which surely will go forth into the distant future as all that a rugosa rose could he. So far I have only mentioned double varieties, reputedly hybrids with Tea and other roses; they do not normally produce heps. This is perhaps an advantage, for the production of heps inhibits the later crops of flowers—and being sensitive to colours I should find the tomato-red of the normal heps offensive with the purplish tones of the flowers. The single form R. rugosa ‘Alba’ is perhaps the most acceptable in its colour scheme, the red heps making a splendid contrast with the pure white flowers and luxuriant foliage. About 1914 Hastrup in Denmark raised a single pink without the purplish tinge of most rugosas and called it ‘Fru Dagmar Hastrup’. Its clear pink flowers are followed by copious fruits and these fortunately are of rich crimson, not tomato-red. Today all the vigorous forms and hybrids of R. rugosa are in demand for amenity planting, where their tough hardiness, prickly suckering stems, ability to thrive in poor soils, and their long flowering season are all in their favour It was Carl Thunberg who, in recording his discovery in 1794, first used the term Ramanas rose for R. rugosa. This name has long puzzled me but Desmond Clarke found that the Japanese name for the rose is “Hamanashi” or Shore-pear; it would not be remarkable that this could have been mis-spelt “Hamanas” or even “Ramanas.” |
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last modified September 29,
2002