Part 25 (1/2)

[5] This rose, which belongs to the group of Damask Perpetual roses, _R.

Damascena_, is still cultivated under the same name. Messrs. Wm. Paul & Son say ”this was formerly a favourite group of autumnal roses.”

[6] See p. 57.

CHAPTER IX

BOURBON, CHINA, AND POLYANTHA ROSES

BESIDES the three great races of perpetual flowering Roses, the Teas, Hybrid Teas, and Hybrid Perpetuals, on which the chief interest of the modern rose-world is centred at the present time, there are other perpetual flowering roses, which are of great importance both for their value in the past and their beauty in the present. For although the modern hybrids have somewhat obscured the fame of their ancestors, many of them owe their origin to the Bourbon and China roses, which, in the early years of the nineteenth century, before the advent of Hybrid Perpetuals, were almost the only autumn flowering roses on which to depend.

THE BOURBON ROSE, _R. Bourboniana_.

According to that invaluable book,[7] to which I owe an untold debt of grat.i.tude since first I began to study rose-growing seriously--the original Bourbon, ”a beautiful semi-double rose, with brilliant rose-coloured flowers, prominent buds, and nearly evergreen foliage,”

was discovered in the Isle of Bourbon.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOURBON.

SOUVENIR DE LA MALMAISON.]

It appears that the land there was--probably is still--enclosed by ”hedges made of two rows of roses, one row of the common China Rose, the other of the Red Four Seasons, the Perpetual Damask.” In planting one of these hedges, a proprietor found a rose quite different in appearance to the rest of his young plants, and transferred it to his garden. Here it flowered, and proved to be a new type, evidently a seedling from the two sorts, which were the only ones known in the island. ”M. Breon arrived at Bourbon in 1817, as botanical traveller for the Government of France, and curator of the Botanical and Naturalization Garden there. He propagated this rose very largely; and sent plants and seeds of it in 1822 to Monsieur Jacques, gardener at the Chateau de Neuilly, near Paris, who distributed it among the rose cultivators of France. M. Breon named it 'Rose de l'Isle Bourbon,' and is convinced that it is a hybrid from one of the above roses, and a native of the island.”

The true Bourbon roses are thoroughly perpetual, with rose, blush, or white flowers, smooth solid stems, and dark, almost evergreen, foliage.

One has only to mention the well-known and well-beloved _Souvenir de la Malmaison_ to recall the type. _Gloire de Rosamenes_[8] is a hybrid, as I have said: but _Hermosa_, or _Armosa_ (1840), and the charming _Mrs. Bosanquet_ (1832), often cla.s.sed among the China roses, are pure Bourbons, and so are _Mme. Isaac Pereire_, _Mrs. Paul_ (1891), _Queen of the Bourbons_, _Boule de Neige_, _Setina_ a climbing form of _Hermosa_, and _Zephirine Drouhin_ (1873), a good climbing rose. _Hermosa_, which is constantly mistaken for a very full, globular pink China, is an excellent rose for ma.s.sing in the garden, as it is in continuous bloom from spring till late autumn, the dwarf, bushy plants being covered with flowers. The charming hybrid Tea rose, _Camoens_, which resembles it in habit, but is a rather larger flower of a rich China pink, may also be used in the same way. A group of small beds arranged in a simple geometrical pattern, and planted with either or both these roses, is an extremely pretty feature in the garden. _Hermosa_ has been for years largely used in this way on the Continent and in England; for instance, 20,000 have been planted in the Sandringham gardens alone. But I was told last year in Luxembourg, that in Holland, where it is most popular, _Camoens_ is almost superseding it; one Dutch lady who had a large portion of her garden planted with nothing but _Hermosa_, is now using hundreds of _Camoens_ in the same way, as it is equally generous in bloom, richer in colour, and as neat and strong in growth.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHINA.

LAURETTE MESSIMY.]

THE CHINA ROSE, _R. Indica_.

THE CRIMSON CHINA ROSE, _R. Semperflorens_.

These old favourites were introduced into England in the eighteenth century. The _Old Blush Monthly_ came first, in 1718; and in 1789 the _Old Crimson_ (_R. Semperflorens_), a much less vigorous plant, arrived.

It is not surprising that both should have found instant popularity; for roses which in warm situations are practically in flower the whole year through, must indeed have been precious adjuncts to the gardens of those days. In England they were popularly known as ”Monthly roses”; while in France they are known as _Rosiers du Bengal_.

THE ”COMMON” CHINA, OR MONTHLY ROSE (1796),

though it has many newer rivals, is one of those which has never gone out of favour, and justly so; for what can be more pure and lovely than it is when well grown. Either as a bedder, or a bush in the herbaceous border, or, still more, when grown as a dwarf hedge, its fresh loveliness is a never-ending delight. Indeed, one wonders why it is not more generally used in England in this last manner; for both in the South of France and Switzerland, hedges of the pink Monthly rose are common, and of exceeding beauty. _Cramoisie Superieure_ (1834), a form of the Crimson China, should be grown in ma.s.ses, as its weak and straggling growth is unsuited to the above purposes. But many of the newer varieties are admirable in whatever way they are used. _Laurette Messimy_ (1887), rose, shaded yellow, and _Madame Eugene Resal_ (1895), copper and bright China-rose, are two of the very best of these, and are brilliantly effective as bedding roses. So are the rosy-apricot _Queen Mab_ (1906), and the yellow-apricot and orange _Arethusa_ (1903).

_Comtesse du Cayla_ (1902) is a fine carmine crimson, with orange on the outer petals, varying to orange-yellow shaded carmine. _Cora_ is a pretty clear yellow, often tinted carmine, a rose of a charming habit.

_Le Vesuve_ bears some flowers rich crimson and some rosy pink. _d.u.c.h.er_ (1869) is the best white; _Frau Syndica Roeloffs_, yellow, shaded coppery-red and peach; _Nabonnand_, a large flower, velvety purple-red, shaded coppery-yellow. _Souvenir d'Aimee Terrel des Chenes_ is a small, beautiful, and well-shaped flower, coppery-pink, shaded carmine, the pointed buds being golden yellow. _Climbing Cramoisie Superieure_ and _Field Marshal_ are both deep crimson climbers, but the last does best under a gla.s.s or in a warm position out of doors.

We now come to a quite modern cla.s.s of perpetual flowering roses, which is as yet too little known, except among those ardent rose-growers who keep closely in touch with the marvels of modern hybridization. And this special race is indeed one of its most extraordinary results. For