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Roses with ancient roots

By Marianne C. Ophardt
Special to the Herald

In the past 10 years, interest in old roses has blossomed.

Were not talking about the dried bud from your senior prom corsage. As enthusiasts will tell you, old roses are cultivated roses that existed before the introduction of the first modern hybrid tea rose in 1867.

Why this new interest in old roses?

The old roses don't necessarily make better garden plants, but they are interesting antiques, especially to gardeners who are forever after that elusive "something different."

Many of the old roses bloom only once during the season, but they are the roses described in literature and reproduced in fine art.

There's also the wonderful fragrance of the old roses. Most modern roses don't come close in comparison with the old roses.

The history of the cultivated rose is long and complicated, often obscured by romantic myths, anecdotal stories and fanciful tales. However, there isn't any other plant that has played a larger role in history, religion, art or literature.

The history is confusing but worth knowing.

Wild roses - called species roses - are native to various climactic areas of the Northern Hemisphere. Two main groups of cultivated roses were developed from these species roses - the European/Mediterranean group and the Oriental group.

European/Mediterranean roses

The European/Mediterranean roses have been part of recorded history since early times. The Greek historian Herodotus (circa 485-425 B.C.) mentioned King Midas took roses with him when he moved to Macedonia after being deposed.

The Greek philosopher Theophrastus (circa 372-286 B.C.) recorded that roses could be propagated by seeds, stem cuttings or buds.

Egyptian artifacts date the use of roses for decoration and ceremony to 1500 B.C. The first written records that mention roses are from the Sumerians of Mesopotamia, about 5000 B.C.

The damasks, the albas and the Gallicas are old roses that come to us from these ancient times in Europe and the Mediterranean. The damask perpetuals are a repeat-blooming variant of the damask rose, dating to the Roman era.

Near the end of the Middle Ages, European gardeners learned how roses could be propagated from seed. It wasn't until the early 19th century that Dutch plant breeders figured out how to cross-pollinate flowers to create new, desirable varieties. The centifolia roses are the result of this early breeding work by the Dutch.

About the same time, the French developed an interest in breeding roses, partly because the Empress Josephine's interest in amateur botany. French rose breeders Dupont and Descement were responsible for developing several hundred new damask, alba, Gallica and centifolia hybrids.

Oriental roses

Roses also were an important flower in Chinese culture. The Chinese philosopher Confucius (551- 479 B.C.) recorded the existence of at least 600 books on roses in the Imperial Museum.

By 1824, four Chinese cultivars of roses had been developed - a pink China rose, a red China rose, a blush tea rose and a yellow tea rose. These roses had the desirable characteristic of continuous or repeat bloom, which most European/Mediterranean types lacked.

Hybrids

In the 1820s, rose breeding was at a fervor with an ever-increasing number of varieties, subvarieties and sports being introduced by breeders.

The moss rose, which was a sport of the centifolia roses, was being used in breeding work. About this same time, the Bourbon roses resulted from a French breeding cross between a China rose and a damask perpetual rose.

With the introduction of the Oriental roses into the "gene pool" of rose breeding in the 1820s, repeat-blooming hybrids began to appear.

The result of this intense period of rose breeding was a new group called the hybrid perpetuals, which had the characteristics of being hardy, somewhat repeat-blooming and diverse in color and form.

With the introduction of the hybrid perpetuals in the 1840s, the strong interest in the older varieties waned. However, breeding work did not stop. The original Oriental tea roses were crossed with Bourbon roses, taking the vigorous characteristics of the Bourbon roses and the repeat bloom of the tea roses.

These new tea roses were then crossed with the hybrid perpetuals. This resulted in the hybrid tea roses. A species rose, Rosa foetida, was introduced in an attempt to obtain deeper yellow colors, and the result was a group called the pernetianas. The pernetianas were crossed with the original hybrid tea roses to finally produce our modern group of hybrid teas.

Whew!

Now let's review the different groups of old roses:

-- Species roses - these are the native roses, ancestors to all old and modern roses. Most have single flowers in colors of pink, yellow, red or white. The plants tend to be vigorous, and some have canes that can grow to 50 feet.

-- Gallicas - Rosa Gallica dates to the 12th and 13th centuries. Most Gallicas produce stocky plants, pale foliage and flat, double flowers blooming only once in the season.

The average plant height is 4 to 5 feet. Colors are interesting purples, mauves and pinks.

Best characteristics: very fragrant, few thorns and amazing purple blooms. They also come in special speckled and striped varieties.

Poor characteristics: tendency to spread by underground suckers if not grafted onto a different understock.

Noteworthy varieties include Charles de Mills, Apothecary's rose, Camaieux, President de Seze, Rosa Mundi, Cardinal de Richelieu, D'Aguesseau, Tuscany and Versicolor.

-- Damasks - This is thought to be a cross between Rosa gallica and Rosa phoenicia that occurred in Asia Minor, spread through the Middle East and later was brought to Europe by the crusaders. However, the breeding lines are disputed, and the roses we call damask may actually be from damask perpetual or alba roses.

Rose bloom colors come in the white to pink range.

Best characteristics: large, delicate looking blooms, some with a heady fragrance, prized by the perfume industry, and long tubular rose hips.

Poor characteristics: rangy, sprawling growth, thorny.

Noteworthy varieties include Ville de Bruxelles, Celsiana, Mme. Hardy, Mme Zoetmans, Kazanlyk and Leda.

-- Albas - Here's another group of old roses with disputed origins. These produce abundant fragrant pink or white blooms in the spring. Plants are tall and shrubby.

Best characteristics: disease resistant, more tolerant of shade than most roses and winter hardy.

Poor characteristics: blooms only once in the spring.

Noteworthy varieties include Celestial, Felicite Parmentier, Great Maiden's Blush, Semi-Plena, Konigin von Danemark, Jean d'Arc, Pompon and Blanc Parfait.

-- Centifolias (also known as cabbage roses) - This rose dates back to 410 B.C., but its genetic history also is debatable. Centifolias have full double flowers, as their name, which means hundred petals," implies.

Fragrant blooms come in the pink, rosy-red and white range. Plants grow 4 to 5 feet tall, making them good climbers.

Best characteristics: double flower with petals that fold over in the center, rich fragrance.

Poor characteristics: blooms only once in the spring, thorny.

Noteworthy varieties include Common Centifolia, Bullata, Des Peintres, La Noblesse, Tour de Malakoff, Unica, Petite de Holland, Village Maid and Fantin-Latour.

-- Moss roses - These are sports of the centifolias. They're called "moss" roses because the flower stems and sepals are covered with downy glands, giving them a reddish-brown to green mossy appearance.

Moss glands have a fragrant, resinous odor. The "moss" is a striking contrast to the delicate flower buds of purple, pink, red or white.

Best characteristics: mossy appearance of stems and sepals.

Poor characteristics: blooms only once in the spring, prone to mildew, lanky growth.

Noteworthy varieties include Common Moss, Gloire des Mousseux, William Lobb, Deuil de Paul Fontaine, Stripped Moss, Mme. de la Roche-Lambert, General Kleber, Salet and White Bath.

-- Damask perpetual roses - These were the only repeat-blooming roses in Europe before the Oriental roses were introduced. The damask perpetuals are broken into three groups. The Portlands are stocky plants with bushy, compact growth, the trianons have tall vigorous growth, and the biferas have tall, arching growth.

The flowers come in a range of whites, pinks and reds.

Best characteristics: repeat, fragrant double blooms.

Noteworthy varieties include Jacques Cartier, Yolande d'Aragon, Portland Rose, Rose du Roi, Joasine Hanet, Marbree, Comte de Chambord.

-- Bourbons - The original Bourbon rose came from a natural cross of a China rose and a damask rose. It produces large, double, globular-shaped blooms in the fall.

Colors include deep reds, pinks and white along with some interesting striped varieties. Plants range from compact to somewhat rangy.

Best characteristics: large, fragrant blooms produced in the fall.

Poor characteristics: possible winter tenderness.

Noteworthy varieties include Mme. Ernest Calvat, Variegata di Bologna, Mme. Pierre Oger, Souvenir de la Malmaison, Reine Victoria, Louise Odier, Gloire des Rosomanes, Mme Isaac Pereire, Acidalie, Boule de Neige, Ferdinand Pichard, Reine des Violettes and Honorinede Brabant.

-- Hybrid perpetuals - These roses originated about 1840 and could be called the first of the almost modern roses with repeat bloom. However, the bloom is repeat, but not "perpetual" as the name states.

Flowering slows after the initial flush. It flowers only in the red, magenta and pink range.

Best characteristics: repeat bloom, large blooms and good, strong damask rose fragrance.

Poor characteristics: susceptible to mildew.

Noteworthy varieties include Heinrich Munch, American Beauty, Ulrich Brunner, Fisher Holmes, Captain Hayward, General Jacqueminot, Elisa Boelle, Her Majesty, Jubilee, Roger Lambelin, Souvenir du Docteur and Jamain.

-- Marianne C. Ophardt is a horticulturist for the Washington State University Cooperative Extension Office in Benton County, 735-3551.