In ancient days, it was common for home gardeners to plant hardy shrub roses like Harison’s Yellow, eglantine, moss, cabbage, the hundred-leaved rose, and many others in their dooryards where they flourished and bloomed year after year with little attention.
As a result of this practice, these grown roses have come to be known as dooryard roses.
Dooryard Roses
Overall, dooryard roses possess more varied landscape uses than bedding roses, such as hybrid teas, beautiful though the latter is when grown to perfection.
The various kinds may be used in colorful flowering hedges, combined with other types of plant material in foundation plantings, in shrub borders, as specimens, and a few varieties lend themselves for ground cover use.
There are so many sizes, types, and colors from which to choose that at least one, and usually several varieties, may be found to fulfill practically any landscape need.
The Pillar Roses
In addition to shrub roses, like Harison’s Yellow and F. J. Grootendorst, there are tough but handsome climbing and pillar roses, such as the brilliant scarlet Thor and orange-salmon Vanguard, for covering fences or trellises.
Then, too, there are rugged trailers like the Memorial rose (Rosa wichnraiana) with its multiple clusters of small, white blossoms and the pink-blooming Max Graf to blanket steep slopes, old stumps, and ledges.
Few Imported Varieties
Some of the best dooryard roses are long-time favorites, while others are as modern as the latest sports car.
A few varieties imported from Europe in colonial days were old even then. Austrian Copper, for example, dates back to 1596.
On the other hand, some varieties are such recent introductions that they are as yet available from only a few nurseries.
Mabelle Stearns
Of the new varieties, Mabelle Stearns is one of the most useful and practically “everblooming” little plants, shrub-like in growth, averaging 2′ feet or more in height.
Its low, spreading habit, to 3′ or 4′ feet, makes it suitable for use in small gardens or the foundation groupings of present-day low-slung homes.
Like most of the dooryard roses, the foliage of Mabelle Stearns is not afflicted by black spots or mildew.
The only special care I gave to a group of these roses, planted at a corner of our low porch last spring, besides occasional hoeing and watering during a drought, was to spray them twice with nicotine sulfate to kill aphids.
The healthy, bottle-green foliage provides an attractive foil for the numerous, fully double, and sizable flowers of peach-blossom pink shimmering with silver above an orange undertone.
Beginning to bloom about a week later than hybrid teas in June, they continue producing abundant fragrant flowers until hard frost.
This new rose is excellent for use in foreground plantings, at doorways, beneath windows, and to face down such tall, leggy shrubs as lilacs and mock oranges.
Flamingo
Flamingo is even newer and slightly taller, growing to about 3’ feet. A plant of upright habit, it bears large, pink, cup-shaped, single blossoms from late spring until fall.
Flamingo inherits extreme hardiness and disease-free foliage from a rugosa parent. Because of its vigor, it will probably grow well in seaside gardens.
It was introduced so recently that its full range of usefulness is yet to be discovered.
Sir Thomas Lipton
An old favorite that is as useful as it is hardy, floriferous, and fragrant is the white-flowering, rugosa hybrid, Sir Thomas Lipton.
It grows into a medium-sized shrub, ordinarily 4’ to 5’ feet high but, under particularly favorable conditions, 6 feet or more.
One of the first roses to bloom, its fragrant, semi-double, glistening blossoms stand out effectively against dark green foliage all summer long.
This shapely beauty is ideal for planting at the corner of a red brick or field stone house or wall, in front of hemlocks, and in other situations where its white flowers can be displayed to advantage.
Lipstick
Spectacularly brilliant is Lipstick, a recent introduction from Europe.
On a shrub 5 to 6 feet tall, huge clusters of semi-double cerise flowers, slightly tinted with salmon, are displayed throughout the summer.
It fulfills nicely a need for a fairly tall, brightly colored, summer-blooming rose.
Fern-Like Foliage
Another tall variety familiar to most of us is the Golden Rose of China or Father Hugo’s rose (R. hugottis).
Although its floral display is limited to spring, this splendid old shrub from China merits a place in more gardens.
It is especially attractive in shrub borders and fence corners because it grows 6 to 8 feet high, with gracefully arching branches.
Its bright yellow, single flowers, borne profusely in May against dainty, almost fern-like foliage, are followed late in summer by dark red hips.
Fruelding’s Gold
Fruelding’s Gold, so new that it is available from only a few nurseries, is an outstanding cultigen of the bonnie old Scotch rose (R. spinosissima).
Like the species, Fruehling’s Gold suckers freely from the roots, making it a useful subject for covering sandy slopes or for naturalizing in extensive border plantings where its tendency to spread into broad clumps will be an advantage rather than a nuisance.
Its height varies from 3’ to 5’ feet. Being quite prickly, a patch or hedgerow of this rose constitutes an effective barrier to trespassers.
In spring, every cane is thickly studded for about 18” inches from its tip with glorious golden blossoms, creating a bright spot in any garden.
Altai Rose
An older form of Rosa spinosissima, offered by a few nurseries, is the Altai rose (R. s. altaica).
It may be compared to Harison’s Yellow except that, instead of being bright yellow and semi-double, the flowers of Altai are white and single.
Both Altai and Harison’s Yellow are comparatively erect shrubs with arching branches which are generously strewn with blossoms each spring.
Both are so shapely and bloom so freely that they may be planted as specimens.
However, they will also add charm to a shrub border or copse. They are hardy almost everywhere in the United States.
Austrian Copper
The brilliant Austrian Copper is a shrub rose that grows about 3’ to 5’ feet tall, depending on the soil and growing conditions.
Its vivid, single flowers of bright red with a coppery base appear from late May to early June.
Disease In Roses
The only objection to this rose is that, unlike oilier dooryard roses mentioned here, it is susceptible to black spot, a fungus disease that, if not checked, may result in complete defoliation of the plants in late summer.
The black spots may be checked by spraying with Bordeaux mixture before spring growth or controlled by Massey dust during the rose growing season.
Massey dust, an old remedy, is a mixture of nine parts fine-dusting sulfur and one part lead arsenate.
The sulfur controls fungi, while the poison kills chewing insects. Also effective are the various commercial and all-purpose rose sprays and dust.
New Hybrid Musk Rose
A colorful new hybrid musk rose, Will Scarlet, bears liberal quantities of brilliant red flowers in late spring.
It also blossomed again last October, which may have been due to unusually favorable weather.
Plants grow 4’ to 6’ feet high, and their flowers exude the musk scent so highly prized by old-time gardeners.
Sweetbrier Roses
If you enjoy elusive fragrances or if you are addicted to English literature, you’ll probably want some Sweetbrier roses, also known as Eglantine.
Resembling a wild rose in appearance, with its single, soft pink flowers in spring, it is a familiar sight in English hedgerows.
Likewise, in many localities, it has escaped from cultivation to make itself at home in run-down pastures, especially along the stone walls of New England.
Its fragrance, which comes from the leaves, is most noticeable in the early morning or evening when the air is quiet and the dew lies on the foliage.
Healthy Rugosa Hybrids
For dooryard hedges, there are several handsome, hardy, healthy rugosa hybrids, such as the well-known:
- F. J. Grootendorst, with its carnation-like, red flowers
- Agnes with yellow blooms
- Sarah Van Fleet with larger, semi-double, cup-shaped blossoms of wild-rose pink
These three rugosa hybrids are husky growers with disease-free foliage and fragrant flowers.
These are only a few of the easily grown dooryard roses, but enough to allow you to choose a few for a start in new rose enjoyment in your own dooryard.
44659 by E. S. Henderson