Time to smell the roses
The Exton Gardener
It’s been a glorious rose season, rain and wind not withstanding.
We don’t always have time to appreciate how glorious this season of early summer can be in the frantic rush to Christmas, but a wander around the garden in the early morning or at dusk is a feast for the senses.
In my garden it’s the shrub roses, the heritage roses and the species that have the most impact.
Hybrid tea roses don’t do particularly well for me. I have a big garden and their small twiggy growth doesn’t suit the soil or the situation.
But I do have one rose that exceeds all expectations.
Many years ago, inspired by reports of the discovery and protection of historic roses in Sydney’s Rookwood cemetery and by the adventures of Nancy Steen in identifying old roses all over New Zealand, some friends and I set out to explore many of the old graveyards around the district.
We visited Longford, Hagley, Westbury and Sidmouth among others. There is an old cemetery at Longford on the Cressy road.
It was early December and the place was full of blooming roses, spilling out of old railed graves, scrambling around walls and climbing into trees.
It was the most glorious sight and you felt that the slumbering dead would be exulting in the glory.
Some roses we knew: there was Rosa pimpinellifolia (R. spinosissima) and Madame Plantier and several rootstock roses but there were also roses we were not familiar with.
Most glorious of all was a rich pink multi-petalled shrub with a delicious scent.
We were able to take cuttings and some rooted suckers from most to grow on.
We went back the following year to enjoy it again.
Alas, the authorities had been in and everything was cleared away, mown, slashed and poisoned.
It was bare and stark. No protection of heritage here. I’ve never been back.
We found more roses at Westbury, Hagley and Sidmouth Kirk. Some were similar to the Longford roses and there were some new ones.
A low growing, repeat flowering Gallica hybrid at Sidmouth has been suggested as Duchesse de Rohan.
We found Charles de Mills with its rich crimson circular flowers at Hagley’s St Marys church.
And at Westbury general cemetery I found a large shrub similar to the Longford one but slightly darker with hints of purple in its luscious blooms.
It is this rose that is the true glory of my rose collection.
It is a huge shrub towering over two metres, with arching stems laden with garlands of blooms. The colour is complex and the scent intoxicating.
It is once flowering but does not sucker, has few thorns and grows and flowers for weeks in semi shade.
I’ve never been able to identify her. Gertrude Stein said, “A rose is a rose is a rose.”
I somehow suspect that she wasn’t a gardener. Not all roses are equal.
