Most garden folks, particularly as the frost begins to gather, like to consider old plants and trees.
And in my case, I suppose, it is only natural that I should like to consider old roses.
Of course, there is bound to be a great deal of interest in the succession of new roses brought to one’s attention every year.
And it is quite evident that to some people who love roses, or say they do, the major appeal is that of novelty.
But as for myself, I have come to feel that the channel worn through my old head needs to be allowed to settle upon some memories.
And much more upon some evidence that the roses that stay with one can be looked at right in the face of the newest candidate for public favor.
New Rose Varieties Planting
Before mentioning some of the older varieties, I must emphasize that it’s good to plant new things, particularly roses, because the adventure would lose much of its enjoyment if one did not try to keep pace with the fundamental advances that are recorded as the new catalogs come out each year.
And here, I will say that the American plant patent law has greatly improved conditions in the new rose field.
The man who has worked for years to produce a new variety can now have his accomplishment guarded for 17 years, so he doesn’t have to depend on what he can get out of it by violent selling efforts over one or two seasons.
As a result, although I know of some mighty high-priced iris, dahlias, peonies, gladiolus, and other popular favorites, I know of no new roses offered at anything like their high prices.
The plant patent act, that is to say, has materially steadied rose production and rose pricing.
Related: What Is The Sweetbriar Rose?
First Real Knowledge Of Roses
Within the first decade of my lifetime, my parents acquired an old and considerably neglected place along the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg.
The original occupant, the man who had built the place, had been an ardent plant collector.
He had planted the best cherries of the time, many fine pears and plums, and a cherished vineyard that included many of the newer grapes hybridized in America just before the Civil War.
And there were also some roses. Here, my first real knowledge of a rose came from the color and fragrance of the old General Jacqueminot, which literally entranced me.
It didn’t last long in bloom, to be sure, but it was indeed a precious possession.
My Distinct Memory Of The Baltimore Belle
Then there was the famous old Baltimore Belle, which “Modern Roses III” calls a Hybrid Setigera and credits to the old Baltimore firm of S. & J. Feast.
My memory of this rose is quite distinct.
The flowers were not large, but they were double, mildly fragrant, pale blush to rose-white, and borne in clusters.
This very vigorous rose bloomed tremendously in June, and since I was the only youngster available, I was given the job of picking off the rose bugs that descended upon it in thousands.
I remember how I wished I could get the blooms all at once, with the plant and with the bugs, and dispose of that variety on the trash fire!
My father soon became a nurseryman, and as he studied roses and their propagation, the new varieties assumed significant importance.
However, it is not about these that I wish to write now, but rather about the long-time roses such as the couple I have already mentioned.
And through my lifetime, I have enjoyed them so much that they seem just as important to me now as the very new variety Peace.
The Delicate China Rose “Hermosa”
No old rose lover can ever forget that distinct little pink China rose called Hermosa attributed to the French grower Marcheseau.
Still a delightful and persistent blooming, light blush-pink rose with peculiar bluish-green foliage.
I honestly would not know how to do without this rose, which is still in active commerce after almost 110 years of holding its place.
I think this liking for permanence, or perhaps relative permanence in roses began when I became acquainted with the hardy climbers that came to adorn the many arches made during the past 30 years at Breeze Hill.
Hundred Rose Varieties
Today there are several hundred such varieties, each of which, as it opens every May and June, is an old friend come to life again in sweetness and brightness and persistence.
And it’s fortunate, I think, that these old friends do not bloom the whole season, for they do really make June the month of roses.
American Pillar Rose
I am particularly reminded of American Pillar, one of Dr. Van Fleet’s finest productions in this connection. He combined the best blood of the native roses of Japan with the best native blood of America.
I remember when, before it was named and had not been distributed at all, I saw a great plant of it at Mr. Pyle’s rose treasure house at West Grove and urged him to consider it worth his best promotional efforts.
Then as I came to know Dr. Van Fleet himself during his all too few years, I found that he put into his new roses a thoroughly scientific background and the intimate rose love that distinguished him.
Silver Moon was one of his and is yet a treasure.
Daybreak Rose
Then the rose, which he wanted to call Daybreak, but the Peter Henderson firm changed to Dr. W. Van Fleet, moved into the permanent field, where it stays for those who know enough to give it the right kind of attention.
As I look at the great plant which protects against all weather the west exposure of my garage, and remember the doctor’s insistence to me that it should not be pruned like other roses but only to the extent of removing the dead or incapable wood, I record again my thanks to a very great man whose untimely death deprived the world of an amazing rosarian and general hybridist.
Then I remember when I drove to Washington to receive at the hands of the Department of Agriculture’s bug watchdog, Peter Bisset, a shipment of roses that had just broken through the red tape from Australia.
Mr. Bisset was the model combination of a conscientious government official and genuine plant lover, and through his sympathetic handling of these roses, they were all saved.
They were actually deceived into beginning a new season without their usual winter rest (except for a month on shipboard), and they all prospered with a few defections during the succeeding years.
Among these Australian treasures in climbing roses were the following:
- Daydream
- Fancy Free
- Kitty Kininmonth
- Miss Marion Manifold
- Nora Cuningham
- Scorcher and Sunny South
Rose Varieties Shipment
And there was also Mrs. R. M. Finch, a truly extraordinary Polyantha that grows to more than 3’ feet and has been found very useful by many of the rose forcers, though it has never been in the novelty class.
Then in a subsequent Australian shipment, the delightful Sunday Best came, a climber I almost revere because it is always at its best on some Sunday in the active rose season.
At the same time came Warrawee, a beautiful light pink Hybrid Tea that became even better after its originator, Mrs. Fitzhardinge, visited Breeze Hill and exchanged rose confidences with me.
Comparing Rose Varieties
Our attempt at Breeze Hill to look at roses objectively requires that old standard varieties be available for comparison.
Harison’s Yellow, for example, is one such treasured standard because there is nothing else quite like it.
The same might be said of the much more difficult Austrian Brier, from which were bred by the magic skill of Pernet-Ducher the beginnings of the modern Hybrid Tea stream of richly tinted roses.
Then I must have and do have plants of all the American native roses that will live with me, and each season I spend much time enjoying their relatively scant bloom, which results from my not being able to give them the natural conditions they ought to have.
I do manage to retain such distinctive sorts as the following:
- Rosa stellate
- Rosa soulieana
- the interesting Rosa canine inermis
- Rosa centifolia
- the type Rosa chinensis
- the fiercely thorned Rosa ferox, and a dozen or more others.
Among these species, I want to mention one that came into prominence just after we were all excited over E. H. Wilson’s sending in Rosa hugonis, which is still a superbly effective, very early blooming light yellow rose.
The Great Rosa Primula
I want to mention as an object of great admiration is Rosa primula, which came through after a name dispute between England and America as to the right name for what was then called Rosa ecae (the “ecae” having been added entirely out of compliment to Mrs. E. C. Aitchison and referring to an entirely different rose).
This great rose, to which Dr. Charles Sprague Sargent introduced me, has the disposition to make a tremendous shrub covered in late April, from the earliest time it can produce flowers, with light primrose blooms of peculiar elegance and wonderful fragrance.
Wide Range Of New Roses
A successful banker who lived near Philadelphia until roses drew him to southern California raised many new roses, two of which are yet among the permanent beauties at Breeze Hill.
One is Bloomfield Courage, the red flowers which became almost a standard of continuance in California.
Bloomfield Plante, the other, is the most persistent rose I know at Breeze Hill, and its lovely buds are to be found both early and late.
The Rosa rugosa hybrids are as permanent as an old apple tree.
They have the richest rose blood within them, and to me, the favorite is the one that Dr. Van Fleet named for his wife.
My solid old plant of Sarah Van Fleet is a point of early and late pilgrimage.
Conventional Hybrid Tea Roses
You will have noticed that I have not mentioned many of the conventional Hybrid Tea roses so far.
Well, I’ll begin with the most universal rose America has ever had—Radiance, the story I had from the lips of its originator, John Cook.
This rose is still unmatched for persistence and beauty. Some other less upstanding roses are growing along with it that continue right along.
One of them, ‘Madame Jules Bouche, never fails to have a flower for me all through a long season.
Another persistent rose, which is best as a climber, is the old French variety Zephirine Drouhin, remarkable for beauty and thornlessness.
For 20 years, it has made its June show on what we call the “Rose House” at the eastern edge of the main garden at Breeze Hill.
Then I must mention a neglected beauty, Borderer, which never gets above a foot in height and never manages to be without its gorgeous and persistent tiny red blooms!
I cannot understand why a thing as good as this does not get into the novelty lists for border purposes. Perhaps it is because it cannot be patented.
Permanent Inclusion Of Roses In One’s Garden
Now I have been saying these things about long-time roses hoping that I might induce others to consider and record those they count as precious similarly.
As I have emphasized, it would not be desirable for anyone to neglect the novelties.
I certainly would be the last to advocate anything like that.
Still, I do think, though, that I’ve argued fairly convincingly for the desirability of good roses as permanent furniture in one’s garden.