Noisette Roses
By MRS. FREDERICK L. KEAYS, Great Neck, L. I., N. Y.

From the 1943 American Rose Society Annual pgs. 25-28

EDITOR's NOTE.--Continuing her invaluable work, Mrs. Keays here carries on with the far-too-rare Noisette roses. Her studies continue the unique work recorded in her delightful book, "Old Roses," which belongs in every good rose library.

AFTER an exchange of letters, a box of blooming sprays of seven roses came in the mail the last week of August. They were from an old garden on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, every one with a family association-aunt, great-aunt, great-grandmother. Even an old fan can become excited on receiving such long stalks of beautiful blooms with foliage unblemished by black-spot, worm, beetle or aphis. No healthier condition could be imagined.

     Four of the varieties were small-flowered Noisettes, and of these three were total strangers. "Great-grandmother's fragrant," pure white, double, in large clusters, checked in bloom and foliage as Aimée Vibert, and probably is. Aimee Vibert, one of the best-known Noisettes, was raised by the French rose man, J. P. Vibert, and was introduced in 1828. Vibert named it for his daughter, anticipating great popularity for the rose, in which he was truly far-sighted; has long been a favorite.

     The clusters of Aimée Vibert are quite heavy, on long strong stalks; blooms are two to two and a half inches in diameter; fragrance is of musk. Foliage is darker and more shining than usual in Noisettes. Being a continuous bloomer, Aimée Vibert is delightful any month of the rose season, and excellent both in spring and autumn. Being a true Noisette, with no Tea strain, it is hardy. We have had Aimée Vibert from three sources. While it may be a bit difficult to raise from cuttings, we have found own-root plants very satisfactory. Of this rose there are both bush and climbing forms.

     Two pages of good notes came with these roses and were of assistance in an effort to say something about the three unknown varieties. It is with the hope that someone having old Noisettes may be able to take up the story from a digest of these notes and carry us along to a decision as to what varieties they are that we here give the descriptions.

     Number One is a shrub rose of four to six feet. The clusters are composed of many small fragrant pale pink blooms, with petals somewhat imbricated; buds round and bright pink. The bush blooms all summer.

     Number Two grows five to ten feet. The flower cluster is large and crowded like a compounded corymb; blush buds are marked with dashes of deep pink. The double, blush to white, medium-sized blooms are fragrant of musk. A note saying that this rose has been called Seven Sisters would indicate that roses in shades from pink to white occurred in the same cluster at the same time. The foliage on this specimen is dark, somewhat shining, wavy on the margins and a bit crumply on the surface. The plant blooms all summer.

     Number Three grows as a pillar or semi-climber. Canes are slender; joints are quite angular. Foliage is small for a Noisette. The clusters of fragrant, medium-sized double blooms are of the deep pink of the China rose, tending toward carmine; buds of a deep carmine shade. Having long been acquainted with Fellemberg, we rule that out. It is not Fellemberg to us.

     Imbricated petals, small crumply foliage, and angular joints are noted in descriptions of Noisette roses, but every time the description fails to fit these roses. To try to identify specimens without at least one season of observation of flower, foliage, stalks and manner of growing is a bold and dangerous undertaking. So, for the present, these three lovely old roses must go by the names they have borne, with the addition of Noisette, small-flowered variety: they are Great-Aunt Bet's Pale Pink; Great-Aunt Bet's Blush; Great-Aunt Bet's Deep Pink.

     There is a certain amount of unresolved confusion about the origin of the Noisette rose. It has been generally accepted here that John Champneys, of Charleston, S. C., made the first cross of Rosa moschata, the Musk, with R. chinensis, the old Blush China, and that Champneys' Pink Cluster was the original. Philip Noisette, a French florist of Charleston, is credited with having created the Blush Noisette from Champneys.' His brother, Louis Noisette, flowered this second variety in France in 1818 for the first time. From that time on these Musk-China hybrids were called Noisette roses. The French rose-growers created; the English and Americans bought.

     While both ancestors, R. moschata and R. chinensis, are easy to use, the hybrids, except for Champneys,' which seeds easily, were rather reluctant. The probability is that the greater number of small-flowered clustering Noisettes were either first or second crosses. Naturally there would be many white varieties. The pink shades run all the way from blush through pale and bright pink, to the deep carmine which we see often in Old Blush China. This sounds simple. It is not. Unless some outstanding characteristic is noted in a description, we are lost among whites, among pinks and deep pinks.

     Compensations, however, may be noted. By everlastingly keeping at it, several small-flowered Noisettes have been gathered in and are listed in a few nursery catalogues. Some others have been grown here from cuttings sent by kind rose friends, and a few have been identified after years of observation. Among these is one single flesh-pink Noisette, reverse of petals deeper pink; somewhat fragrant. In all the Noisettes listed (93 by Mrs. Gore in 1838) by William Paul through his editions from 1848 to 1888, a rose called The Large Single Noisette rose . is the lone single. In this November it has been blooming here.

     One very pretty stranger, grown from a cutting, may well be Conque de Vénus, that lovely shell in which Venus rode as she washed ashore. It is an old rose; outside petals creamy white, center bright rosy pink, a bit more than double, fragrant and liberal in bloom in clusters.

     From another rose friend came a strong plant of a rose with the good and desirable old name, Adélaide d'Orléans. It soon showed that it was not a hybrid of R. sempervirens, as Adélaide was. However, it did its part, bloomed its beautiful pure white, -very pure white-, almost full, medium-sized fragrant roses in clusters, and seems to be a Noisette, new in 1846, named Isabelle d'Orléans. Fellemberg is of that bright carmine shade we see in Old Blush China and her kin, especially in hot weather. We call it a cupped rose, but it acts irregularly in the way of Old Blush China. The foliage is darker than some.

     A Noisette of a solid pink color, very close to Old Blush China, has been considered and struggled with, over and over. Sometimes we think it is Frazer's old Musk. Sometimes we think it may be a rose named Chloris which is noted as "Partakes intimately of the Chinese. Uncertain." The "uncertain" is sometimes true. This year it has had no autumn bloom.

     There is one more, Belle Vichysoise, a named variety which was discovered at Vichy. This rose is as close to Champneys' Pink Cluster as a rose can be and not be that. The clusters are large and frequent, on a shrubby bush of five to six feet. Buds are pink, pointed, rosy. Blooms are small, cupped, petals incurving, pink with paler, to white center.

     These are the small-flowered Noisettes which have come to light since 1935, when findings were recorded in the chapter on Noisette Roses in "Old Roses," and have had from three to four years of growth under observation.

     To that chapter only two large-flowered Noisettes have been added-Mme. Alfred Carrière, grown from some cuttings which came from Mrs. Davis' lovely garden in Roanoke (indeed, were carried away, cared for, planted here) and from which two grand plants were established. We call these large-flowered Noisettes, Tea-Noisettes, but Mme. Alfred Carrière was made, they say, from a Hybrid Perpetual cross, instead of a Tea.

     As it grows here, Crépuscule is neither large nor small. Probably it has not enough heat. Its foliage and color are of the more tender roses of this group; it is of such an exquisite color, of such daintiness and delicacy, that we pet it along. In "Modern Roses II," Crépuscule is described as being "bittersweet-orange, fading to apricot-yellow" and such it is. The blooms are double, and are, in form and performance, quite a bit like Pemberton's Clytemnestra. No doubt, in a warmer climate Crépuscule would be much happier.

     We tried William Allen Richardson, but it could not take the severity of our winters, although Rêve d'Or, from which it sported, has so far stood the test.

     It was with some feeling of trepidation that we added R. moschata and R. Brunoni to the garden. Moschata is the distinguished ancestor of these Noisettes. It has proved hardy. As the China Rose is hardy here and a strong bloomer, we can conclude that there is much more toughness in the small-flowered old Noisettes than they have been credited with. They make splendid bushes, are clean and healthy, very floriferous, very fragrant of musk, lasting on the plant and in the house.



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