Unusual roses
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Once upon a time, when nutrition was bread and dripping three times a day and luxury transport was a bike with solid rubber tyres, we all bought our roses in the winter. Sure, they were just bare twigs and if you were lucky the roots were wrapped in shredded newspaper to stop them drying out beyond recovery. But what a sense of anticipation as spring approached, and then the triumph of the first bloom. By then it didn’t really seem to matter that the flower was nothing like the photograph that accompanied the bare stick all those months before.
Now, all that has changed. In my letter box this week I found, as I suspect did every householder throughout the country, a full-colour brochure from a garden centre chain. Among other delights it was touting a large range of roses. Like almost every other plant, roses are now container-grown, so we can buy them at any time. And what better time than when they are in flower and we can see exactly what we are getting?
Well, there certainly are advantages in knowing exactly what the flower looks like; and plants growing in soil in containers definitely transplant more reliably than bare-rooted specimens, but thee are disadvantages too. Buying something in flower always introduces the possibility of impulse buying with its inherent lack of forethought and consideration. When most roses were sold in winter, gardeners had plenty of time to think about their selection; to mull over the possible colour combinations; and above all to consider plants that may have attractions other than colour or fragrance.
There are some roses that deserve to be grown for other reasons, while others grown for their flowers are unlikely to be the stars of a garden centre brochure. When next your eyes are dazzled by the likes of ‘Rock ’n’ Roll’ or ‘El Dorado’, consider too the less brash charms of these comment provoking cultivars.
Rosa sericea subspecies omiensis forma pteracantha. Yes, the name is a handful, but a handful is the last thing you’d want to get of this rose, which is primarily grown for its thorns. And impressive things they are too: broad, bright red when young and with a vicious point. Pteracantha means winged spines and that’s a fair description. Of course, R. sericea does flower. However, the small white blooms are not attention grabber. Plant this for its novelty value, keep it away from paths and driveways and try not to get too worried about having to prune it.
‘Curiosity’. Foliage is an important part of the attraction of any plant and while some gardeners profess to loathe variegation, it is undeniably a break from the norm. ‘Curiosity’ is one of the very few variegated roses that is strong enough to survive in gardens. While the variegation is irregular — cream and grey-green sectors, splashes and flecks — it is clear enough to be readily apparent. ‘Curiosity’ is a Hybrid Tea raised by Cocker of Scotland in 1971 and it has showy light-centred, pinkish-red, double flowers to complement its unusual foliage.
Rose flowers are undeniably beautiful yet their real reason for being is not to captivate us but to ensure the survival of the species. Their colour and scent are simply devices that ensure pollination. For survival's sake, the seed pods — hips, haws or heps, call them what you will — that follow are equally, if not more, important. While few modern roses produce colourful hips, many species and old hybrids do. Few are more colourful or prolific than St. Mark’s rose (R. virginiana), which from late summer smothers itself in sealing wax-red fruits that last well into winter.
For something a little different in flowers consider ‘Mme Grégoire Staechelin’. This climbing Hybrid Tea raised by the Spanish breeder Dot in 1927 has a very unusual, possibly unique, characteristic: its flowers are pendulous. The bush is really a very lax shrub that is trained as a climber and the flowers are soft pastel pink doubles flushed with deeper pink. Although Madam Greg isn’t free enough with her blooms to foot it in the front of the garden with modern Hybrid Teas and Floribundas, she is well worth planting is a secluded place as a secret treasure.
Many other roses offer little extras that lift them out of the ordinary. They may not be the types of things that will immediately attract your attention in the nursery or garden centre, so take the time to plant your rose purchases. Flowers are really what it’s all about, but a few of these more unusual plants help to maintain interest and variety.
Copyright Geoff Bryant
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