“There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
I was in the garden of friends whose hedge of yellow roses was at its peak, golden against a blue June sky. When I went to cut some branches for a bouquet I was amazed at the masses of prickly thorns. This was Rosa harisonii, Harison’s Yellow, a chance hybrid found in the New York City garden of George Folliot Harison in 1824. It is a hardy, suckering plant tolerant of drought, shade, and poor soil which is laden with clear, double yellow blooms for a few weeks in June. Because it spreads by stolons, or spreading roots, it is easy to remove small shoots for transplanting. Settlers moving across the country have carried Harison’s Yellow throughout the land. It is the Yellow Rose of Texas and it is the Oregon Trail Rose. It has been passed from gardener to gardener and has also escaped cultivation and run wild in some areas.
The rose, with over 100 species, has a long history with humans, associated with romance, religion, nationalism, medicine, culinary and visual arts. Rose species are found throughout the globe, mainly in the Northern Hemisphere.
“But among plants valued for beauty, the rose is unparalleled for its place in myth, symbol, literature, and human affection.” Wayne Winterrowd
Two roses were the symbols of warring sides in the War of the Roses, the forty- year battle for the control of the throne of England. The House of Lancaster was represented by a red rose, Rosa gallica officinalis, and the House of York by a white rose, Rosa alba.
Rosa gallica officinalis, or the Apothecary Rose, is a plant of antiquity. According to Persian legend a nightingale was so in love with a white rose that it clasped it tightly to its breast, which was punctured by a thorn and the shed blood turned the flower red. The rose came to Europe with knights returning from the Crusades and the color signified the blood of Christian martyrs. In the town of Provins, outside Paris, this rose was cultivated for the harvesting of its fragrant petals, which were steeped in wine and used as a medicine to treat hangovers, indigestion, sore throats, rashes, and wrinkles. At some point the petals were rolled into beads and strung, creating the first rosary beads.
A sport, or naturally occurring variation, of Apothecary Rose is the striped Rosa gallica ‘Versicolor’ or Rosa Mundi. The story of this rose involves royal intrigue. King Henry II of England was unhappily married to Eleanor of Aquitaine and had a mistress, Rosamund. After Rosamund died, or was murdered, a striped rose was found growing outside the castle and named Rosa Mundi in her honor.
Rosa alba of the House of York has a single white, extremely fragrant, bloom in its original form. Many cultivars have been developed from alba including a double pink called ‘Cuisse de Nymphe’, ‘La Seduisante’, or ‘Virginale’ in French. A rosier pink variety is ‘Cuisse de Nympe Emue’, or the blush on the thigh of a nymph, a very sexy flower. Vita Sackville-West explained the translation to English: “We, in our puritanical England, acknowledge no truck with the thighs of nymphs, however emotional, so under the name of ‘Maiden’s Blush’ it remains.”
Closer to home, there are two roses that have spread widely, the beach rose, Rosa rugosa, of the Cape and Rosa multiflora of our fields and roadsides. Both are attractive and fragrant but not always welcome.
Rosa rugosa has so established itself along the coast that it seems to be indigenous. But it is native to the shores of Japan, China, and Korea. The Japanese name, Hama-Nasu, means ‘shore pear’ referring to the fruit, the rose hip. Rose hips are high in vitamin C and were carried on ships to help prevent scurvy. In 1849, the ship Franklin was wrecked on Nauset Beach on the Cape. Many believe the cargo of the ship included rose hips which washed ashore and germinated to begin the colonization of beach roses. Rosa rugosa cross breeds readily and has produced many hybrids.
Rosa multiflora, another Asian import, was introduced as an ornamental plant in the 1860s and was later used as rootstock for grafting in breeding programs. In the 1930s the United States Department of Agriculture encouraged its use to control soil erosion and as a natural fencing in fields. The small white blooms produce abundant hips which are eaten and spread by birds and other wildlife. The seeds can lie viable for 10 to 20 years and the multiflora rose has escaped and become a noxious, though beautiful, invader.
Another rose that is used as rootstock in grafting is a hybrid wichurana climber with deep red double blooms called ‘Dr. Huey’. Grafted roses are more profitable to commercial growers but can be problematic in the garden. The bud union is vulnerable to dieback from winter cold and sometimes the rootstock sprouts and overwhelms the desired graft. Many are the times gardeners eagerly await the opening of rosebuds in spring only to be greeted by red, red ‘Dr. Huey’ instead of the desired rose.
I have walked through the gardens of rosarians and listened to them enthuse over their roses, recount the dates and parentage of each, and inhale the intoxicating scents. I admire and appreciate it all. But even though there are roses in my garden, I dislike their prickliness. I have had thorns rip my scalp, imbed in my foot, puncture my vein, and shred my clothes. Their soothing fragrance and delicious color are enticing and a vaseful in the house perfume the air so sweetly that I can forget the bloodletting.
“A rose is an argument. It proclaims the triumph of beauty over brutality, of gentleness over violence, of the ephemeral over the lasting, and of the universal over the particular.”
Alain Meilland
July, 2020