[hand-written notes by Rev. Douglas Seidel]
What
Old Rose is This?
By MRS. FREDERICK L. KEAYS,
Great Neck, L. I., N. Y.
EDITORS' NOTE.-Readers of the American Rose
Society need no introduction to Mrs. Keays, whose kindly persistence has
brought into knowledge very many of the lovely old roses that came with our
ancestors to America, and that have, by their continuance, proved their ability
to persist. Her delightful book, "Old Roses," published in 1935 by The
Macmillan Co., is the real American authority on the subject. In successive
Annuals she has advanced our knowledge. At the Roanoke meeting of the American
Rose Society, her illustrated presentation of her cherished old friends (as
reported in the American Rose Magazine for January-February, 1988) gave great
pleasure.
Now Mrs. Keays adds to our
advantages through the following succinct and accurate condensation of the
botanical characters by which the varieties may be recognized, at least to the
species relation. The illustrations used are adapted from Miss Willmott's
monumental work, "The Genus Rosa."
Dr. L. H.
Bailey, of "Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture fame," writes: "The article is
very interesting. . . I should find it useful!" "Should be of real value,"
writes Dr. E. D. Merrill, of the Arnold Arboretum.
The Secretary will supply "separates" of this
article at 25 cents each, stamps or cash.
EFORE we proceed toward details in the identification of our old
garden roses, we need a few definitions of the terms necessarily used. Such
knowledge will be helpful in referring to the great authorities upon whose
works in roses this scheme of identification is based.
Roses are generally classified as woody shrubs,
and as such are largely deciduous, although a few are evergreen in favorable
climates. We decide, as a first move, whether our rose is a bush or a Climber;
whether, if a bush, it is erect in growth or arching, tall to 5
feet or more, medium, 3 to 5 or low, 1 to 3, when we call it
dwarf; whether, if a Climber, it grows upright without support,
or trails after reaching a foot or two in height, and whether it goes to
10 to 9.0 feet or more, as the Banksia rose does.
We notice, too, where the plant blooms. Roses may
bloom from the tips of basal shoots, as Tea roses do; from
laterals (side shoots from the main stalk) as climbing roses do; or from
a third growth breaking out from the laterals, as the brier roses do. Many
roses will be found blooming from both the tips and the laterals.
Roses are usually armed with thorns, the
largest of which are spoken about as prickles. They may be:
Straight or hooked,
falcate if hooked like a sickle (see illustration neat page); strong
or weak (easily pushed off); placed singly or in pairs;
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