"Fontaine Street".
Alba?
I took cuttings of this unknown large shrub from a plant in the backyard of an old house my brother-in-law had purchased. It was March of 1997, and the plant was not in leaf or bloom. It was a large rose over 6 feet tall and a dense clump several feet in diameter.
The photo to the right was taken May of 1999 and was one of the first flowers this rose produced for me, none having been produced in its first two years. There was but one small flush last year in the spring, with no repeat. As you can see from the photo the bloom is semidouble and a light lavender-pink on a base of white. There was some scent The leaves are a semi-glossy, medium green.
I am anxious to enjoy this spring's crop of flowers, and will post more photos.
kbk May 1999
* With the help of Rev. Douglas Seidel, and just a little attentiveness on my part, I believe this rose is some form of the widely used rootstock 'Manettii' also known as R. x noisettiana manettii. A year after I took the above photo I noticed that my 'Marie Louise' was blooming, and it's flowers were identical to "Fountaine Street". My first impression was that my found rose was 'Marie Loiuse'. Now, from a conversation with Rev. Seidel who had just viewed the photo above, I believe it is most likely the rootstock 'Manettii' or some form of it. A week or two later I confirmed the identification when I was asked to look at a field planted rose that was supposed to be Rosa mundi: the root stock had sent out canes with blooms identical to "Fontaine Street".
It is interesting to note that descriptions of 'Manetti' in a number of books mention new young growth is reddish. My plant puts forth green new growth, although the edges of the new green leaves are very lightly edged in red. The tops of the new leaf stems is red, but the underside is green, and the center of the stipules are red. "Fontaine Street", now four years in the ground, is a large, sprawling shrub that has thrown out canes as high as nine feet. Very hardy in my garden with little winter dieback, it does suffer moderate defoliation from black spot. The mature canes are quite large in diameter now, perhaps the oldest being one inch. Notice the long irregular coloration on the bark of mature canes in the photo belo. Is this what Gerd Krüssmann refers to as "stems and branches striped" in The Complete Book of Roses?
To date, "Fontaine Street" has is once-blooming, typically starting in late May and lasting into June.
kbk November 2002
"Fontaine Street" on 2001 May 21.
"R. NOISETTIANA MANETII Rehder--A pink, semidouble
form, at one time very popular as an understock. It was raised from seed by Dr.
Manetti of the Botanical Garden at Milan, Italy, about 1837. Thomas Rivers, a
British nurseryman, first used it as an understock in 1850. The Manetti Rose is
very vigorous, comparatively short-lived, and extremely susceptible to
blackspot."
--Roy E. Shepherd in
History of the
Rose, 1954.
'Marie Louise' understock on
2001 May 21.
"(1) The Manetti is an Italian stock propagated as
cuttings, but originally raised from seed by Signor Manetti of the Botanic
Gardens, Monza, and was introduced into England by Signor Crevelli, who
recommended it as a stock to Mr. Rivers about 1835. The Manetti rose is of
vigorous habit, dark red wood, bright, rosy dense prickles, and light green
foliage; flowers pink, single, about 2 inches in diameter. In wood and foliage
it resembles Le Havre and A. K. Williams- both of which love this stock-and
others of a similar type, the result being that suckers coming from the stock
are sometimes mistaken for the shoots of the rose it bears and left on, and,
being of vigorous growth, starve the good rose out of existence. How often one
has heard a complaint that the erstwhile deep-red rose, full and large, has
somehow or other deteriorated into little pink blossoms, or gone blind; and
upon going to ascertain the cause has found bushes of Manetti and nothing else.
Keep a sharp look-out for Manetti growth on established plants. Once more, when
the maidens on this stock are just coming into growth, it is no easy matter to
dis- cern the difference between the shoot of the budded rose and the little
red shoots that come from the Manetti stock, and the only sure way of dealing
with it is to observe whether the shoot comes from the budded eye or
not.
As a stock the Manetti has this advantage over others: the sap is
more abundant and more continuous. So that not only is the union of bud with
stock more readily accomplished, but the stock retains its condition for
budding until late in September, when other stocks, especially briers, have
ceased to run. Owing to this abundance of sap, budding is more successful on
the Manetti than on any other kind. Roses worked on this stock make finer
plants the first year; but it is a general opinion-some varieties excepted-that
the plants do not last so long as those on the brier. There is one class of
roses, however, for which the Manetti is not a lasting stock, and that is Teas;
these should be budded on something else.
Provided the cultivation is
deep, any soil, whether light or heavy, suits the Manetti. It is good for light
soils, since the roots, being short and very fibrous, will readily assimilate
plant food. Being of vigorous growth, the Manetti should not be planted until
later in the season than other stocks, say, about the end of February. If
planted before Christmas, the stem of the stock- wherein the bud is inserted-is
liable to be too strong and the bark too thick for the bud to thrive when
budding time arrives. For a learner in the art of budding the Manetti is the
best stock on which to practise."
--Rev. Joseph H. Pemberton in
Roses: Their History, Development, and
Cultivation, 1908.
"'Manettii' (Crivelli). Shrub to 2 m./6.6 ft. high or
more, stems and branches striped, young growth reddish, prickles many, nearly
black, leaflets 7-9, broadly elliptic; flowers pink, semi-double (= R.
Manettii Crivelli). Originated about 1837 in the Botanic Garden of Milan,
Italy. Widely used as budding understock in S. Carolina, as it can be easily
propagated from wood cuttings."
--Gerd Krüssmann in The Complete
Book of Roses, 1981
Back to A Woodland Rose Garden homepage