Just outside the quaint New England town of Little Compton, Rhode Island, are the Brownell Rose Research Gardens. For more than 35 years, Mr. and Mrs. Walter D. Brownell have bred better roses for home gardens, emphasizing winter hardiness.
From the start, one factor was regarded as prime importance – a resistance to extremely low temperatures.
Their objective was to produce wild rose plants that would survive where other roses would winterkill while possessing all the fine qualities a good rose should have.
Sub-Zero Roses
These roses have become famous as “sub-zero roses.” Mr. Brownell defines a sub-zero rose plant as “one which can be safely counted on to survive when fully exposed to temperatures of 15° degrees Fahrenheit below zero.
And with some slight winter protection in the form of the earth drawn up around the plant’s crown, temperatures as low as 35° degrees Fahrenheit below.”
The Brownells worked many years to determine which particular species, or known rose type, possessed this hardiness strain to the greatest extent and which would simultaneously combine well with other selected roses.
In other words, in addition to extreme hardiness, the desired plant had to have flowers of fine form and be free-blooming and disease-resistant as well as possible.
Rosa wichuraiana was finally determined as the species to contribute the hardiness strain to their new roses.
Thousands of seedling roses are grown yearly in their Rhode Island trial grounds, hoping that one or more may measure up to the sub-zero ideal.
Those who possess the high qualities desired are discarded. Some few may be retained for breeding, showing one or two valuable characteristics.
Only one plant out of a crop of 20,000 may be considered worthy, in the opinion of the Brownells, for distribution.
Different Types Of Rose Varieties
In their 35 years or more of rose breeding, only about 55 roses have been considered of high enough quality for the introduction.
The Brownells have developed hybrid teas, floribundas, climbers, trailing or creeping roses, and tree or standard roses among the different types of roses.
Here is my selection of outstanding varieties:
Hybrid Teas
Here are examples of hybrid teas:
- RED DUCHESS, large, fragrant red bloom which holds its color well, sturdy plant with good foliage
- DICK WILCOX, large, double, high-centered deep red rose on a strong-growing bush
- CEDRIC ADAMS, large, very double blooms, scarlet to carmine in color, a vigorous plant
- QUEEN O’ THE LAKES, fragrant, deep crimson, with gracefully curling petals in opened blooms, strong spreading plant
- PINK PRINCESS, redbud and deep pink bloom, vigorous, disease-resistant plant
- BREAK 0′ DAY, orange-apricot, large double blooms, vigorous plant
- SHADES OF AUTUMN, orange-copper bicolor, with carmine shadings, free-blooming
- V FOR VICTORY, a fragrant yellow hybrid tea, free-blooming
- LILY PONS, white, with pale yellow center, long, pointed buds, flowers ideal for cutting
Floribundas
Here are examples of floribundas:
- CURLY PINK, two-toned pink, produced in large, loose clusters, free-blooming
- ANNE VANDERBILT, fragrant, semidouble, orange-coppery flowers in informal clusters
- KING BOREAS, fragrant, lemon yet. Low flowers are freely produced
- LATTER, orange, and yellow semidouble flowers in large clusters resistant to black spots
Climbers
For the climbing roses:
- GOLDEN CLIMBER (MRS. ARTHUR CURTISS JAMES), one of the best yellow climbers, extremely vigorous, produces quantities of large, fragrant blooms suitable for cutting, takes two or three years to become well established
- ORANGE EVERGLOW, a vigorous climber, produces myriads of fragrant copper-orange flowers.
- CLIMBING BREAK O’ DAY, a sport of hybrid tea Break O’ Day, vigorous and strong-growing, gives some summer and fall bloom
- WHITE GOLD, a robust-growing climber with light golden blooms which open to white with a golden tint.
Trailing or Creeping Roses
This rose’s long, slender canes can give support or be left to trail at will over the ground. If used for the latter purpose, their attractive, dense foliage will eventually form an ideal ground cover for terraces and dams, or it can be trained over large boulders.
Examples of trailing or creeping roses are the following:
- CORAL CREEPER flowers in the great profusion with blooms in various shades of pink and coral combined
- CARPET OF GOLD, a pure bright yellow, one of the earliest to bloom
- LITTLE COMPTON CREEPER, large single wild-rose pink flowers in clusters
- MAGIC CARPET, large flowers of an Oriental coloring, with orange and yellow shades predominating
Tree or Standard Roses
Tree or standard roses are grown with sub-zero hybrid tea varieties as tops.
They are winter-hardy without protection in latitudes where the thermometer reaches a temperature as low as 15° degrees Fahrenheit below zero.
44659 by Frederic R. Webb