By BECCA LOWRY
Roses! There is a very rich history behind them, as well as a wide variety of the flower. The history of the rose goes back many, many years, so let’s get started!
The rose might just be one of the oldest flowers around. According to the United Kingdom site, Country Garden Roses, there is fossil evidence of the rose that could be about 35 million years old. There are over 30,000 varieties of the rose across the world. But first, let’s dig into more of the history behind the rose.
According to the site University of Illinois Extension, garden cultivations of roses began about 5,000 years ago in China. During the period of the Romans, roses were grown extensively in the Middle East, where they were used as confetti at celebrations, for medical purposes, and as a source of perfume. Noble Romans would also make large public rose gardens in the south of Rome. Moving on to the 15th century, the rose was used as a symbol for the factions fighting to control England. The white rose symbolized York, the red rose symbolized Lancaster, and thus was born the conflict that became known as the “War of the Roses.”
Let’s move on a little further toward the current century. Roses are in a very high demand, so much so that they were used as barter for payments. Napoleon’s wife, Josephine, established an extensive collection of roses at Chateau de Malmaison. This garden actually became the setting for Pierre Joseph Redoute’s work as a botanical illustrator. In 1824 he completed his watercolor collection, “Les Rose,” which is still considered one of the finest records of botanical illustration. What a history!
Now, let’s talk about the vast variety of roses.
Rosa Alba
Going back to the Country Garden Roses site, they write that there are two basic forms of damask rose: the summer damask, which has a well-defined spring and early summer flowering season, and the autumn damask, which continues blooming sporadically into the autumn. These two roses are very important because of their fragrance, a tendency to produce double flowers, and because their flowering season extends into autumn. Another damask rose is the Kazanlik, which was among the very first damasks (damask means 30-petalled). The large rose has a lovely perfume with loose mid-pink double blooms and it has long been grown for the production of attar of roses. Moving on, Rosa Alba is a rose of uncertain origin that may have been introduced to Britain by the Romans. This rose is thought to be the White Rose of York of War of the Roses fame and was crossed with existing gallicas and damasks to produce hybrids with very scented flowers, the alba roses.
Let’s move on to China! In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a new material obtained from China proved to be very popular. Perpetual flowering semi-dwarf bushes were cultivated in China well before the start of the European rose breeding. R.chinenis, the parent of many of these roses, was introduced around 1752 and was followed by many hybrids in 1792. According to English horticulturist Graham Stuart Thomas, China roses were the class upon which modern roses are built. So we owe a lot of credit to China for one of the most-popular flowers around! Apparently, tradition holds that four or five “stud China” roses were brought to Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and this brought about the creation of the first classes of repeat flowering Old Garden roses and later the Modern Garden roses.
Roald Dahl Rose
Moving on further to the United States, Noisette roses were the first hybrid group to originate from the States. Originating in the early 1800s from an Old Blush and R. Moschata cross, they are strong growing bushes or climbers with clusters of small blooms in white or pastel shades of yellow or pink. Among the most-popular of Noisette climbers are Mme. Alfred Carriere, which has large, white-blushed pink double flowers and a lovely perfume. There are also tea roses or tea-scented roses that are another development of R.chinensis. These roses, which flower in shades of white, pink and yellow, are hybrids of R.gigantea and R.chinensis, a cross known as R.odorata. These roses had a lot of popularity in the 1830s but the real significance of the tea rose to modern gardeners is that it was crossed with the other styles to produce the hybrid perpetual roses, which were the direct predecessors of the most-popular modern roses, the hybrid teas.
Let’s discuss the more-“different” types of roses—miniature roses! Miniature roses can be traced back to the small China rose, R. Chinensis “Minima,” particularly the form “Rouletti.” It was only recently that miniatures have become very popular as new colors and styles have been produced by crossing the old forms with some of the smaller floribundas. Not all of the miniatures are small bushes, though. Some may have small flowers. but many of them can reach 24 inches or more. Some are budded into tall stems to produce miniature standards and weeping standards.
Let’s move on to what is easy to grow among roses. According to the site Gardening Know How, some of the easiest roses to grow are the Sally Holmes, a climbing rose that produces creamy white blooms that are blushed with pink. They average about eight to 10 feet. The Little Mischief is also easy to grow; it is a beautiful shrub rose with deep pink blooms having a white eye and fading to hot pink. This rose reaches only 24 inches and it is great not only for beginner gardeners, but also for those who have little space. The Flower Carpet Pink is a fairly low-growing groundcover rose that reaches heights of around 24 to 32 inches with bright pink blooms. The Roald Dahl, a new English rose named in honor of the author Roald Dahl, produces beautiful peach-colored blooms. It is a shrub rose reaching four feet tall. The Fairy— which sounds positively delightful—is great for a fairy garden theme. This smaller shrub rose only reaches about 24 inches and produces soft pink blooms. The Cinco de Mayo is another shrub rose that grows to around four feet with rusty reddish-orange blooms, and the Ebb Tide is known for its ease of care; it produces blooms that are a deep plum purple, and it can reach a whopping six to nine feet tall!
I hope anyone who has a hankering to learn more about roses or who wants to grow roses that are low maintenance and easy to grow, has learned a lot from my article. And I hope that their roses come out absolutely beautiful!