| 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 |
Rosa multibracteata and ‘Cerise Bouquet’ pages 116, 117 |
In the far west of China, in the great province of Sichuan, grow many species of roses and other shrubs hardy and floriferous for our western gardens. Rosa multibracteata was introduced from the north-west of the province by E. H. Wilson its 1908, having been found in the valley of the Min River. It it a hardy, very prickly bush, achieving about six feet it height but double this in arching width. The tiny leaves, multitudes of bracts, and many small single lilac-pink flowers—produced directly after midsummer—mark it apart from all other species. The flowers are followed by small heps, rounded and of cerise-red. But it it the effect of its small characters on so large a bush that makes it so distinct. The late Herr Wilhelm Kordes, the famous German rose-breeder, made many experiments in his search for large-flowered varieties that would survive as bushes in cold, central Germany. To achieve his purpose he used several hardy species, crossing them with Hybrid Teas. The results were not always as he wished, but some gave him and us great satisfaction, among them being ‘Cerise Bouquet’, a hybrid of the above. Its other parent was a Hybrid Tea of his own raising, ‘Crimson Glory’, at that time still in the forefront of crimsons, having been introduced in 1935. Plants of the new hybrid were sent to the John Innes Institute where species and hybrids old and new were being amassed, including all of my own collecting. It was duly honoured with the Award of Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society and put into commerce in 1958. ‘Cerise Bouquet’ it a very large-growing rose achieving about nine feet in height and considerably more across; it will grow through large shrubs and small trees to about twelve feet. Immense arching branches grow out during the summer and in the following year bear along their length—and particularly at the ends—great branching sprays of double cerise-crimson blooms offset by yellow stamens. It is interesting that R. multibracteata has contributed small rounded leaves and bracts. There is a delicious scent of raspberries. Not only does this rose produce a great crop of bloom at midsummer, but it often repeats in good style in September thus making it very valuable, in face one of the most spectacular in the year’s display of flowering shrubs. |
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last modified September 29,
2002