Plant of the Month - Roses

After such a wet May it's encouraging that June is forecast to bring better weather. Let's hope the Met Office has it right and we can look forward to an excellent display of roses.

If they are to thrive, roses need much care to minimise the impact of disease. They need regular pruning, and, in most cases, they have thorns to catch the unwary.  Despite this, there can be no denying the special place that the rose still has in the affection of gardeners both here and around the world.

Perhaps it's to do with the beauty and, in most cases, the fragrance of the blooms, or perhaps it’s their history given that roses were probably first planted by the Chinese or the Sumerians around 5000 years ago.

I have enjoyed reading about and growing roses for many years. There is certainly much to learn given the many different species and hybrids of roses and the numbers of each.

Whilst floribundas and hybrid teas continue to be popular it is the English Roses hybridised by David Austin that have, in recent years, become the most successful roses in the UK. They have a number of advantages - the most important of which is a long flowering period and disease resistance. The fact that the majority have the quartered style of old rose blooms combined with strong fragrance justifies their popularity. We grow several in our garden.

For me, however, it is older roses that have stood the test of time and come with some history which are most appealing. I’ve summarised below a number of roses that we grow or have grown and which I particularly like.

Canary Bird

This yellow, single flowered, rose is for me an indication that the rose season is about to begin. One of its parents is the China rose, Rosa Xanthina, and whilst it only flowers once in late spring, it has a graceful arching habit and a strong delightful scent when grown against a warm wall. 

Fantin Latour

The double pink, cup shaped, very fragrant flowers of this rose appear once in summer only. the blooms are those of a centifolia rose and experts say the perfume is that of an Alba so unsurprisingly its history is unclear. It is, however, a beautiful shrub and one of my favourites.

Buff Beauty 

Hybrid musk roses were developed by Rev Joseph Pemberton and his gardener, Mr Bentall, in the early part of the 20th century.  They produced excellent roses the best of which, in my view, is Buff Beauty. It is a medium-sized spreading shrub which flowers throughout summer and has fragrant yellow peach double blooms.

Souvenir de la Malmaison

We grow this rose on a west facing wall as a climber. It has double, fairly large, salmon pink flat flowers which are very fragrant and repeat through the summer. In the right conditions, it is one of the best bourbon roses with fabulous flowers. However, it isn't always happy in wet weather so fingers crossed for this year!

Madam Alfred Carriere

During the 19th century, a series of roses were hybridised by John Champneys and his friend Philippe Noisette. They are known as Noisette roses and Alfred Carriere is one of the best. It is a vigorous rose which flowers continuously through summer. It has just about every other virtue that you could wish for, has a wonderful fragrance and, as a climber, has the particular advantage that it will grow against a north wall - as it does in our garden.

Desprez a Fleurs Jaune

This tall climber with double, small yellow apricot flowers blooms almost continuously through the summer. It’s best planted in a warm spot and is in bloom now on the south facing back wall of our house. With strong disease resistance, this is a delightful rose produced from Blush Noisette and Parks Yellow China in 1835.

Gloire de Dijon

Tea roses are one parent of the hybrid teas are that are so widely planted today but there are a few teas that remain available as climbers and are super roses. Tea roses first appeared in the 1830s through crosses between, on the one hand, two of the old china varieties (Hume’s blush and Parks yellow tea scented china) and on the other, Bourbons and Noisettes. The name ‘Tea Rose’ may be due to the fact that they were first brought to the West in East India tea clippers or that their perfume is redolent of tea.

In any event, Gloire de Dijon is widely regarded as being one of the most beautiful roses in the world. Its flowers are a delightful peachy colour and whilst it needs care and is prone to blackspot, it repeats throughout summer and is very fragrant indeed.

Sombreuil

It is likely that tea roses fell out of favour because most are not completely hardy. Those that have survived, and are available today, are the small number which are reliable, have something special about them and are able to thrive as climbers. Sombreuil is arguably not fully tea rose because of its parentage.  However, it has beautiful double medium-sized white blooms opening flat with the most superb tightly crumpled centres. It has a delightful scent and is repeat flowering. Best of all perhaps, it is relatively disease-free and completely hardy.

Climbing Lady Hillingdon

This rose is probably my all-time favourite. It grows on the south facing back wall of our house, is disease-free and has attractive long pointed buds which open to medium-size, semi-double apricot flowers. The blooms have a strong tea fragrance and it repeat flowers all through summer. A truly wonderful rose.

Madame Hardy

M. Hardy was a distinguished rose grower and curator of the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. He bred and named the rose in 1832 after his wife. Its downside is that it flowers once only in summer. Against that, this medium size shrub produces the most beautiful double, medium-white with green eyed blooms in the summer which have the most wonderful fragrance.

Aloha

This is one of the few modern climbers that we have in the garden. Bred in 1949 in the USA, it produces medium to large double rose pink blooms which have a strong fragrance. It has excellent disease and pest resistance and flowers continuously during the summer. I think it is almost the perfect modern rose and is ideal growing on a pillar.

Leverkusen

We grow this modern climber next to our porch. Bred by Kordes in Germany in 1954, it is a low to medium-size climber with large double cream-yellow flowers and moderate fragrance. Whilst this rose might not tick all the boxes, its advantages are that it is continuous flowering during summer, it grows on a north facing wall and has excellent disease assistance. 

Maigold

This rose is the other modern climber that we grow and has the advantage that it succeeds on a north-facing fence. When it's in flower, I know that spring has truly arrived. It competes with Canary Bird for the privilege of being the earliest flowering rose in most parts of England. Whilst it is a beautiful rose with large semi-double rich golden-yellow blooms with gold stamens, strong fragrance and great disease resistance, its flowering period in short. Although it doesn’t have the repeat flowering characteristics of most modern climbers, that’s a small price to pay for such a beautiful plant.

Alberic Barbier

Over the years, we have grown quite a number of Ramblers but we now only have four in the garden of which this rose is, in my view, the best. The downsides of Ramblers are that, typically, they are more prone to mildew and, in virtually all cases, flower only once during summer. Alberic Barbier has medium to large double cream blooms in small clusters which are very fragrant. It also has excellent disease resistance.

I hope you found this brief summary of roses I enjoy useful. It has certainly made me focus on the coming summer in the garden. Let’s hope the rose display will be as good as I imagined whilst writing it!