An Overview of Roses
No cottage garden can be considered complete without its complement of roses. Not the roses of the modern day with their iridescent colours and feeble scents, but the bold old fashioned shrub roses that were all the rage just before the turn of the century. Although many suffered a decline in popularity after the First World War, in recent years they have made a come-back and are now more readily available.
One of the oldest roses and the one with which I associate cottage gardens is the moss rose, Rosa centifolia ‘Muscosa’, named for the reddish-green moss on the flower buds. The blossoms are soft delicate pink, fully double and possess a spicy fragrance that announces ‘cottage garden’ to the world. Like all the old roses it prefers a soil that is on the heavy side, but is not fussy as to whether this is of acid or alkaline persuasion. A sunny position is essential well away from the drip of overhanging trees which can cause the balling and browning of blossoms. A vigorous grower, I can remember this particular rose invading the elderly hawthorn hedge in my grandmother’s cottage garden. In mid-summer it cheekily waved fresh wands of foliage above its support, each garlanded in pink cabbagy blossoms. Despite attempts to curb its activities, it became inextricably bound up with the hawthorn and there it remains to this day.
The gallica roses are the parents of the modern rose and had a big part to play in the development of the moss rose. Rosa gallica itself is known as the French rose, and more importantly its cultivar the old red damask, R. gallica ‘Officinalis’ as the apothecary’s rose. It was this latter that was thought during the Middle Ages to be able to provide a cure for almost every known human ailment. Rosa gallica is a rather lax shrub, scarcely ever more than T5 m (5 ft) high with saucer-like pink blossoms which are followed by bold, rounded, brick-red hips. Its partner, ‘Officinalis’ is of similar habit, but with fragrant, semi-double, rosy-crimson flowers. There is also an old cottage garden rose popularly referred to as ‘Rosa mundi’, but really R. gallica ‘Versicolor’, which occurred as a branch sport from the apothecary’s rose and has semi-double flowers that are striped with red and white.
Damask roses are derived from R. damas-cena, a short shrubby character with large clusters of red, pink or white richly fragrant flowers and vicious thorny stems. They are ancient roses of mixed parentage, believed to be old hybrids rather than true species, but so old that their origins are lost in the mists of time. There are innumerable named cultivars in modern catalogues, but for interest and cottage garden authenticity I would select the double soft pink ‘Trigin-tipetala’, an old kind that is used in the production of attar of roses.
Climbing and rambling roses find no place here, but the diversity that remains is still overwhelming. Those just mentioned would be a must in my cottage garden, but there are others that are worthy contenders and to which I must introduce you. Relatives of the moss rose, like its progenitor, the cabbage rose, R. centifolia; with both fragrant flowers and foliage it is an absolute delight. There is the dainty China rose, R. chinensis, the forerunner of the delightful fairy roses typified by R. chinensis ‘Minima’. We have sweet briars, R. rubiginosa, that can be utilized as a hedge and the ramanas rose, R. rugosa, which is equally at home in a difficult corner. This boisterous fellow has yielded many fine cultivars, amongst which the pale rose-pink ‘Frau Dagmar Hastrup’ reigns supreme. Not only are the blossoms lovely, but so too are the rich crimson hips. And there are dwarf burnet roses derived from R. pintpinellifolia, which make low thickets of thorny branches thronged during early summer with tiny sweetly scented blossoms.
Roses with cottage garden associations are nearly as many as the pebbles on the beach. If you are unsure about what you require, then visit one of the very many good collections that are growing in gardens open to the public and judge for yourself. Mid-summer is the time to check out the flowers, but many have useful and decorative fruits too and these should be looked at again during early autumn.
