No garden is complete without roses. There are all kinds of roses; one could have a garden of roses alone. There is a rose for almost every location.
Roses have personalities other flowers do not possess. Few people cannot recall happy memories of roses, either from childhood or in the present.
Lingering Perfume Of Roses
The perfume of roses lingers longer in mind than other odors, and all roses do not have the same fragrance. My earliest recollections are of roses—a little pink rose miniature that was my very own.
It grew among the johnny-jump-ups, the heart’s-ease of Shakespeare’s time. Now, there is a whole new race of miniature roses, so if you have only a sunny window sill with a few pots, some of these roses can be yours.
Outdoors are beautiful in a raised bed, best built of brick or stone, and 3′ feet high. Here. one could have a whole elfin rose garden that would enchant children and grown-ups. They are perfect in their smallness, and the flowers have a full-color range.
Candy Cane and Papoose
A small climber called ‘Candy Cane’ has striped petals. ‘Papoose’ makes an awesome ground cover.
It has clusters of one-inch single white flowers. These tiny blooms are delightfully arranged in old inkwells or other small containers. Most are fragrant.
The Fairy
‘The Fairy’ (a polyantha rose) is a frivolous rose. Much like a carefree moppet, she frivolously puts forth huge bunches of small, double, pink roses that sometimes smother the bush so that the small boxwood-like foliage is hidden. It grows to 3’ feet high and as large across.
In my garden, ‘The Fairy’ starts blooming a little later than other roses, but here in Shreveport, it is very cold indeed when I do not have these blooms for Christmas.
Start your favorite little girl gardening with some bushes of ‘The Fairy’ rose.
Margo Koster
`Margo Koster’ is a petite rose of a lovely coral color. It is low growing and wonderful for edgings. It makes a good potted rose, and the globular, ranunculus-shaped blooms make exquisite corsages.
Belle Poitevine
‘Belle Poitevine’ (a hybrid rugosa rose dating from 1894) is as pretty and useful as the beloved maiden aunts who used to visit among the kin in the past.
The blooms are semi-double, the buds long and pointed, and usually in clusters of five to seven, colored soft pink with a whisper of lavender.
As the aunts were clothed in voluminous skirts, so too ‘Belle’ is clothed in beautiful, deeply veined, emerald-green foliage.
The bush reaches a height of 5’ feet, making it ideal for the shrubbery border. When other plants are resting from blooming, ‘Belle’ is busy, so one always has bloomed for a vase. In the South, this rose is almost evergreen.
Beall de Paul Fontaine
‘Beall de Paul Fontaine’ (a moss rose dating from 1873) I tried to grow in the shade, and he was unhappy.
My sister planted six in a bed in full sun and had blooms all season. This moss rose is truly unusual—a rose you will cut and look at long, trying to name the shades in its cupped, fragrant beauty.
It is dark crimson-black, but there are shades of purple and mahogany-brown in the bloom too. It grows to four feet and has soft small thorns and a mossy calyx. Breath-taking in old satin-glass vases.
Renae
‘Renae’ (a climbing floribunda rose) is almost lost because I do not find it listed in any catalog I have. Mine grows tied to a stout iron pipe five feet high.
The glossy, pointed, thornless foliage and long trusses of double 2 1/2-inch pink roses, each with a small button-button of petaloid, fling a wild rose perfume to the winds and me.
There is a need for these not-so-rampant climbers, and I have ascertained from the originator that budwood may still be obtained. ‘Renae’ never fails to elicit the question from garden visitors “What is that dear rose?” I feel that way, as I am sure all who grow ‘Renae’ also do.
Black Velvet
Nostalgia is the feeling I get from a brand new dark red hybrid tea, ‘Black Velvet.’ It reminds me of an old dark red and velvety rose that grew in the chimney corner in the garden of my childhood.
It is a classic, high-pointed rose that will, of course, outperform the rose of my remembrance. So you men who think ALL roses should be red—’ Black Velvet’ will please you. It smells good, as a rose should, too.
Mermaid
‘Mermaid’ (a hybrid bracteata rose) is a dangerous beauty, for she has curved wicked thorns. The shining foliage sets off clusters of six-inch, single, ivory blooms, with great poufs of amber stamens that are attractive after the petals are wind-borne away.
The buds are yellow. The smell is like some rare tropical fruit.
‘Mermaid’ is a lusty rose growing yards in a season. If planted on a tall fence, you may be sure no robbers will climb there. It makes a superb covering on a steep bank, or she will climb a tree and bloom.
I have seen it used to good advantage as a ground cover near the seashore. Unless you have plenty of room for her to roam, don’t plant ‘Mermaid.’ To be lovely, she must have room.
Green Fire
As modern as tomorrow, ‘Green Fire’ planted in trios will give a brilliant yellow color in a low bed or as an accent.
The clusters of semi-double blooms have a luminescent quality that is eye-catching from afar.
Masquerade
‘Masquerade’ is a fancy, capricious floribunda whose human counterpart we all know and love. If you cannot decide on the color rose you want, then ‘Masquerade’ is for you. The buds are bright yellow, opening into 2 1/4-inch blooms.
These turn pink and dark red so that you may have clusters of all these colors in a bouquet. It grows 3′ to 4′ feet tall and, for good measure, has dark green leathery foliage. It makes a stunning hedge.
White Queen
A long-stemmed white rosebud is romantic and glamorous. The bush blooming in the moonlight is “such stuff as dreams are made of.” ‘White Queen’ is a rose that will give you all this.
Perle d’Or
By your back doorstep, do plant dainty ‘Perle d’Or,’ which grows to a bushy, thick four feet, has few thorns, and is always loaded with large clusters of small, perfumed, salmon-pink buds that open into fluffy roses adding color to the garden. The buds are for your gentleman’s coat lapel.
Columbia
Amiable describes climbing ‘Columbia’ for it has not a thorn on its long canes. All season it has long-stemmed, large deep pink, double, high point blooms that are intensely fragrant. To have them long-stemmed, train the canes laterally on a fence or over an arbor.
Reine des Violettes
‘Reine des Violettes’ is another thornless rose that should be grown more for it is charming in form and color and blooms spring till frost. The flower is flat, double, and smells like an altar of roses.
The color is baffling. It starts a velvety violet-red, aging to rich purple, but there are pink, blue, and magenta tones too. It grows to six feet with glossy leaves. I like three of these blooms in an old milk glass bottle.
Souvenir de la Malmaison
`Souvenir de la Malmaison’ (a bourbon rose dating from 1843) is still a great rose. It grows to four feet and will bloom well in part shade. The five-inch flat, many-petaled roses bloom steadily, in clusters, all season.
It is pearly, pale pink, with a deeper heart. Most of the blooms have a quartered appearance. The odor is haunting. Richard Thomson calls it ambrosial. The late Will Tillotson called it an “old world rose which speaks of history, romance, and nineteenth-century Paris in spring.”
Planting Roses
Roses should be planted in a well-drained location, in holes sufficiently large to take care of the roots. We spray for diseases and insects.
We water and feed the roses. They repay us in blooms, sweet smells, and bright colors.
44659 by Kitty M. Simpson