2005 February 6 - Best Performing Species Roses To Date

The followng is part of a recent e-mail correspondence with a gardener I'll call Pauline. Pauline: I will be planting many OGRs plus some species in my own garden this coming spring, and wonder if you'd mind telling me which species roses have worked best for you. I suspect our growing locations are somewhat similar; parts of my property are heavily wooded and I'm including shade-tolerant varieties and those known to be tough growers (winters are fierce on our mountaintop here in Western NC, hence my assumption I'm growing in zone 4B). I think the species will do well placed on the margins of the woods. Kent: These are the species that do best for me:

R. multiflora - Is now indigenous to our area, and many other states. Some consider this a weed. I may also. A large plant of this growing in on the fringes of my property brought rose rosette disease into my garden about 3 years ago. So, I typically remove any I find on my property. But, they grow so well and bloom in much shade. This leads me to look to other multiflora hybrids as good candidates for my shadier situations. This is probably why the hybrid musks typically do better in shade than many other roses: they are more multiflora than musk. 'Ghislaine de Feligonde', a multiflora hybrid does very well for me in an area that gets about half day sun, so I have propagated several plants and planted it in a very shady spot this past fall. We shall see how it does.

R. roxburghii hirtula - I purchased this rose from Herronswood four years ago and it is one of my favorite species...even though it has yet to bloom. It is entirely hardy, has a marvelous and very attractive form and shape to the entire plant, is perfectly healthy, has wonderful fern type foliage, and exfoliating shaggy bark on the larger and older canes. This seven foot tall shrub, when it blooms and produces prickly hips, will be the star of my shady garden. I have R. roxburghii plena from Roses Unlimited, and it is a great disappointment. After seven years, it has struggled to thrive, and has only grown to a height of two feet. It has bloomed and re-bloomed, sparingly however. It may be a hybrid with china blood in it, which could explain its tenderness in my climate. I moved it a year ago in hopes of rejuvenation. Forest Farm is where I purchased R. roxgburghii normalis two years ago, and it shows great promise of doing as well as R. roxburghii hirtula. I don't think there is much difference between the two, perhaps I will detect it as both mature and bloom.

R. x micrugosa - This hybrid between R. rugosa and R. roxburghii does well in shade for me. The bloom is very rugosa like, and the hips are prickly like R. roxburghii. My plant is from Peter Beales in England. Quite healthy. The shape of the plant is more rugosa than roxburghii, and so are the leaves.

R. nitida - I grew this from seeds sent me about 4 years ago. It is planted in a very shady part of the garden, next to a large wild cherry tree, but it is growing, putting out many suckers and is starting to form a small thicket of canes about two to three feet tall. Very healthy foliage, a little mildew at the end of the season, but it blooms and sets hips even though in shade. It would likely bloom more in more sun. The foliage turns red in the fall.

R. sericea pteracantha - I grew this from seed collected at the San Jose Heritage Rose garden about three years ago. So far, it likes it's shady situations quite well and is forming a three to four foot tall shrub with delicate, ferny leaves that are very healthy. The real attraction are the 3/8" to 1/2" wide, thin, translucent thorns. Many books encourage gardeners to plant this in a setting where the sun can backlight the thorns: I have and it is wonderful. Has not bloomed yet.

R. hugonis - From Forest Farm, one of the earliest roses to bloom in my garden, starting about the 2nd or 3rd week of April. Before they open, the swollen, just-about-to-open buds have a bit of a striped appearance to them. When they open they cover the plant with buttery yellow flowers, well scented. Very healthy, ferny foliage.

R. spinosissima - From Forest Farm, another very healthy shrub that gets no disease whatever in my garden. The flowers are creamy white with prominent stamens. Black hips follow. I have a small collection of Burnet or Scotch roses, which are selected varieties of R. spinossima. These are planted in much sun and are some of the healthiest plants I grow. When in bloom, the shrubs are covered and the scent is sweet and strong. I think most of these would do very well in a shadier location, blooming less however. All these spinosissimas start blooming around the last week of April or the first week of May. There bloom period lasts three to four weeks.

R. virginiana - Both this rose and R. carolina came from Forest Farm, and are quite similar. Shiny, dark green leaves are entirely black spot and mildew free. Both produce large pink blooms with prominent stamens, and when in bloom they cover the plant, exude strong scent which attracts many bees. Both produce hips, the R. virginiana hips are a bit more bristley. Both readily send out suckers, although R. virginiana produces more, faster, and farther from the main plant. If I did not routinely pull them from the plant, R. virginiana would in several seasons, take over the border where it is planted. There are several forms of these roses, and also wonder if FF got the identity correct. Very vigorous shrubs up to seven feet tall, R. carolina a bit taller. Photo is R. carolina.

R. carolina - see above comments R. setigiera - This species is the second most common rose found in southwest Ohio. Although nothing near as prevalent as R. multiflora. I have two forms of this very vigorous plant: with (R. setigera from Forest Farm) and without (R. setigera serena from Vintage Gardens) thorns. The long, pointed leaves remind me of blackberry. This rose is quite vigorous, throwing out very long, (8 to 10 feet) canes which arch over and touch the ground. And where they touch the ground they root, quickly forming a dense thicket. My thornless form is not quite as vigourous. I have seen huge thickets growing on steep road banks. It flowers very late, the first part of July. It does very well in the shade, and in the fall its leaves turn a beautiful orange-yellow.

2002 November 24 - The Last Rose of Fall

'Spencer' was the rose I was hoping for this late fall. Holding on to memories earlier in the season, if I could just have one more rose to relish and photograph before the killing freeze arrives. We have had temperatures in the upper twenties on several nights this fall, and most reasonable roses are shutting down till next spring. But high atop the roses planted in my pool garden, waving like a banner at the tip of the highest cane, was this defiant marvel of a bloom on the hybrid perpetual 'Spencer'.  I noticed the fat buds on this rose a couple weeks ago and had little hope they would open after the low temperatures.  But they did. In fact there were a half dozen buds that have opened. It is interesting to note that the literature on 'Spencer', as sparse as it is, complains of balling in wet weather. This fall has been wet, but apparently the tendancy to ball is offset by the cold temperatures. Or maybe not. The bud on this rose is quite an impressive and large ball with obvious reflexed petals. I should have cut this bud to bring inside in hopes of seeing it open before my eyes.

It is quite interesting to note the lineage and history of 'Spencer' since it is a sport or "mutation" of another hybrid perpetual. According to Modern Roses 8, in fact, 'Spencer' is a sport of a sport of a sport. For more about this see 'Spencer'

2002 July 21 - Tall Hemerocallis and Rare Rose Bloom

I have always had tremendous respect for any plant that will grow taller than me in one season. How amazing when, from bare dirt in the spring, the Joe-Pye Weed (Eupatorium fistulosum) thrusts forth and in three months time stands almost eight feet tall! The flowering tobacco Nicotiana sylvestris is a high-reaching annual and has grown up to eighty inches in the more fertile areas of my borders. And now I have a new sky-reaching perennial to admire this summer: the lofty Hemerocallis altissima. Until today, I have always had to kneel down or bend my back far towards the ground to examine and smell daylilies. But now I simply walk up to H. altissima, and without the slightest hint of bowing, sniff away in the throat of its bloom. A very nice, sweet fragrance exudes hence and is also attractive to wasps and bees. If you look again at the ruby-throated, deep yellow bloom in the photograph, you will notice a blurry, black wasp hovering near the stamens.

The buds of some roses are so tightly packed with petals that in damp wet weather, they swell in anticipated opening, but turn brown and refuse to open. My Banshee rose tends to do that, as well as the bourbon 'Mme. Issac Pereire' and the tea rose 'Mme. Berkeley' . But both of these I have seen in full bloom in drier weather. The tea rose 'Perle des Jardins' introduced by Levet in France in 1874, did not open for me last season, and no bloom opened this very rainy spring. I grow this tea rose in a large pot which is placed on our concrete cistern. The combination of full day sun, high heat radiated from the concrete, and an extended dry spell in which it has not rained the past three weeks, has apparently been the right set of conditions conducive to coax a number blooms to fully open.

As I passed by 'Perle des Jardins' today, the buff-yellow, tea scented blooms inspired me to run the house for my camera. I received this rose in a trade a couple years back, and I am a bit suspicious as to it's true identity after reading what Samuel Parsons writes in his 1883 book Parsons on the Rose: "Large to very large, excellent form, with stiff stems; deep canary-yellow; exquisite tea-fragrance; a free grower and bloomer; the foliage is very glaucous, and the five to seven leaflets are strongly serrated. It is largely forced for the New York market, and it is also excellent in the open ground." The leaves of my plant are serrated only slightly and the bloom is not the shade of canary yellow, if the color of the "wild canaries" or Goldfinches at my bird feeder are any indication. I welcome help in correctly naming this rose, which I will continue to call 'Perle des Jardins' [PERL des Zhar-Deen] until corrected. Thank God for the mid-summer blooming plants in my garden.

2002 February 2 - Winter Bloom and Pod

Some denigrate winter as a dismal, dark season in the northern garden. I confess that I welcome winter, if only because I need a rest from the intense garden activities of the previous nine months. After hours and hours spent gathering the leaves, I appreciate the respite winter brings. And yet, in a short while, I get "ancy" and long to get my fingers in the dirt again. Must be my grandfather's farmer blood in my veins. To relieve this fond tension, I don winter coat, hat, and gloves, and meander about, seeking something to satisfy the gardener's soul.

Rarely am I disappointed, albeit it takes little. A favorite plant of mine is the witchhazel I planted nearly ten years back, i.e. hamamelis japonica. I bought it late in the fall when local nurseries reduce the prices on many wonderful shrubs and trees. What tempted me to purchase it was it's colorful leaves, I did not know about it's stringy, bright-yellow, winter bloom until several years later when I walked upon it during one of my winter forays into the frosty garden. Although some sources state that hamamelis japonica has a slight scent, I have never detected any, though I have sniffed the blooms till they tickled my nose.

Hellebores foetidus, on the other hand, lives up to its name, smelling quite musty and weedy when it produces it's green, nodding bells in February. I admire any plant that is hardy enough to bloom in mid-winter, even if its scent is not sweet.

What I delight in greatly are discovering new elements in the garden and/or features of the plants I grow. One such surprise came my way a couple of days ago. During the summer and fall months, the foliage of the Carolina allspice shrub hid it from me, but the winter disrobing of leaves left the fig-shaped seed pods open for clear view. At first glance I thought is was an insect dwelling or swelling of the twig, perhaps similar to the praying mantis egg cases. Upon closer inspection it was clear that these three brown balloons were the dried remains calycanthus floridus fruit. I had completely missed them this fall, though in the spring I carefully noted the wine-brown blooms on this shrub. I picked one and found it quite light as I cracked the crispy pod open to inspect the contents. Which were a dozen or so, round and shiny seeds about the size of coffee beans. I sniffed the remains in my hand, caught a whiff of citrus and then scattered the seeds beneath the shrub.

2001 November 18 - Dew on 'Tamora' and 'Queen Nefertiti'

The Leonid Meteor shower was supposed to have been spectacular this morning. A once in a lifetime show in the Eastern sky peaking at 5am. Hundreds of meteors would be visible in just one hour's time. But, alas, a heavy fog settled in, and the sky was completely obscured. The morning mist covered everything, including the last precious rose blooms of the season. A few minutes before 9:30am, I grabbed my camera and tripod and took several dozen shots of two English roses: 'Queen Nefertiti' and 'Tamora'. After church the sky had cleared and the sun was bright. At 2:00pm I went back to the roses and took a few more photos. The difference in 'Tamora' was striking, in just 4.5 hours the flower had opened and was spectacular. The difference in 'Queen Nefertiti' was barely noticeable.

2001 October 24 - Fall Morning after Three Inch Rain

It rained all last night, blowing and raining something fierce. Checked the rain gauge and it read 2.8 inch. We didn't really need the rain, as the ground was already quite moist. It's been a fairly wet fall. I made the rounds this morning with my camera before I took the girls to school, and found only a few roses in bloom this late in the season. One of the roses I have been watching develope a good number of buds is the tea 'Madame Berkeley' bred in France, 1898. About a dozen and a half buds are forming and I anticipated the delicate, paper thin, very double blooms would open soon. Unfortunately, this rose has the disappointing habit of not opening fully in damp, cool weather.

Rain has a way of either destroying a bloom or enhancing its beauty. It depends upon the rose, and how substantial the petals are. 'Madame Berkeley' has very delicate, and almost translucent petals. As you can see on the left, the partially open bloom has melted into an ugly mass of tissue. And there is no hope of recovery as it dries out. On the other hand, the simple beauty of the mid-pink, polyantha 'La Marne', France, 1915, is heightened by the adornment of the crystal drops of water.

The sugar maples are plentiful in the surrounding woods, so much so, that I have had little guilt cutting a few down here and there to allow more sunlight to reach the roses. I was tempted to cut a couple more down a month or so ago, but hesitated. Now I am glad. Their glory is the fall when they transform the view from green to gold.

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