Just what is an ‘Heirloom Rose’?

When referring strictly to ‘roses’ an heirloom roses are also known as “antique” or “old garden” roses, which include those that existed before 1867. Why that particular date you ask? “La France” the first hybrid tea rose, was discovered growing in a garden patch and introduced in 1867 which marked the start of a new era. All classes of roses in existence before that time were deemed ‘old garden roses’ or ‘heirlooms’. Hence new classes were called modern roses. The actual heirloom varieties are hard to pinpoint and fall into several categories; Albas, Centifolias, Damasks, Gallicas and Moss roses. These antique varieties are as simple to grow as the modern roses we find today. Admired for their fragrance and large beautiful blooms every garden should have a few.

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At Heirloom Roses, we are always looking at more sustainable methods of producing our roses. One of the most exciting changes we have made at the nursery involves our Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program. IPM takes a more holistic approach to growing, with an increased emphasis on scouting for pests and maintaining healthy plants as ways to minimize the use of chemicals. One of the cornerstones of our IPM program is the use of beneficial predators for pest control.

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By Suzanne Verrier 

Suzanne Verrier, of Portland, Maine, who created, owned and operated Forevergreen Farm in North Yarmouth, Maine(1983-1993) has written a book entitled ROSA GALLICA. Her previous book ROSA RUGOSA has been very popular and the first book to be devoted to a single class of old rose varieties. She has written for various publications and is a lecturer on old roses. She has spoken at both the New York Horticulture Show and the annual New England Area A.R.S. regional meeting.

Having been a rose nursery person, I’ve had the opportunity to become acquainted with a goodly number of roses and from various perspectives. Hundreds grew in my display gardens, thousands reposed in cold storage before being shipped out or potted up. And then these roses were planted throughout this country and even further, whereupon comments and critiques filtered back to the nursery.

But I’ve also come to know all these roses, and most intimately, as an impetuous and enthusiastic gardener. `A gardener of least resistance’ – I call myself. One won’t find any caution, symmetrical schemes, neatly pruned shrubs or even color themes in my gardens but rather roses and complementary flora doing pretty much as they see fit without doting assistance from this gardener. Organic methods are de rigueur: no sprays of any kind, only natural fertilizers, and no winter protection, etc., etc. Obviously the roses I choose to grow must be a hardy, healthy lot. Those that are not – roses with weak constitutions – are unceremoniously discarded. The tenets stand firm.

Not surprisingly the Gallica rose and I found each other early on in my gardening career, and we’ve been contented gardening companions ever since. The Gallicas always living up to my artistic and horticultural expectations and exhibiting great tenacity and tolerance – often enough in sites where many other roses might succumb or at best sulk.

Gallicas are older roses (their heyday being the first half of the 19th century) their genetic background is relatively simple compared to the majority of modern roses. And generally speaking the simpler a rose, or closer to the species, the more tolerant of diverse or less than ideal conditions. The Gallicas abide by this rule of thumb, tolerating fewer hours of sunlight, windy sites, dry sites, dubious soils, frigid temperatures, extreme fluctuations, neglect and a host of other horticultural horrors.

Still other considerations for growing the Gallicas might be longevity, disease-free constitutions, exemplary pest resistance, fine and relatively harmless prickles, attractive foliage and manageable, compatible shrub size, discreet vigor – to name but a portion of Gallica attributes. One plus worth mentioning for gardeners beleaguered with Japanese beetles is that the Gallicas bloom has graced our gardens and retired before the beetles commence their annual rose gluttony.

But if I were asked to reveal the honest to goodness, dear to the heart reason I grow the Gallicas it would be for the glorious profusion of intoxicatingly perfumed blossoms in forms finely and aesthetically fashioned of another era – deeply stained in intense hues, tinted ethereal shades or dusted ephemeral colors of antique silks. From deep reds brushed with ebony to complex pinks, to mauves and lavenders and even greys, to the most delicate translucent blush – the colors of the Gallicas grace my garden, changing like chameleons and always giving this gardener boundless pleasure and reward.

By William A. Grant

Bill Grant and Kleine Lettunich have been gardening friends for many years. Their rose gardens were started about the same time.

If you grow enough roses, you may be the happy gardener who is creating new ones no one else has. With the birds and bees and even wind as helpers, the roses may be producing families that find your garden congenial.

That is what happened to Kleine Lettunich in her hillside garden in Corralitos, California. Twenty years ago, when she first became fascinated with species and old roses, she planted them much as most of us do, for cut flowers and ornaments. But over the years her purpose changed. As a lover of animals (she has a large collection of tortoises, dogs, cats, parrots, goats), she began creating a habitat for the native wild creatures. Now there are skunk, raccoon, dove, hawk, squirrel, possum, salamander, garden snakes as well as many kinds of birds, including resident hummers.

Working in animal rescue for several years taught her that many of our native creatures are at risk with the urban sprawl. She has nursed back to health any number of animals.

But what does all this have to do with roses and seedlings?
When I first saw what she was doing, I said, “Kleine, when are you going to clean up that pile of brush?” There were long piles of twigs, branches, cuttings from her garden strewn along the edge of her property. Looking much like funeral pyres. Her neighbors were less charitable when they saw the mess.

In the fall and winter she started planting species, climbers, ramblers and other roses around the piles. If we fast-forward to this year, you would see huge mounds of greenery, flaunting their blooms. The roses have completely covered the piles, and the ground underneath is now the home of wild animals. Just last week I saw a chipmunk emerge from a new mound and sit atop the rosy bower. Birds’ nests are safe here as their enemies, the worst are the scrub bluejays, are fooled by the camouflage.

Now, as a result of planting so many kinds of roses, and having the birds and bees aid in the birth, Kleine finds and increasing number of seedlings each year. Some parentage is easy to identify. For instance, her `Mutabilis’ seedling has all the earmarks of the parent except that `Mateo’s Silk Butterflies’ (1992) never changes from its medium pink color. One of her favorite roses, `Francis E. Lester’, that marvelous Rambler, is certainly one of the parents of `Lyda Rose’ (1994). Both of these shrubs are named after her son and daughter.

Most of her seedlings are not in commerce. But John and Louise Clements have been in her garden several times and marveled at these roses. So cuttings were taken and now the nursery says the two roses mentioned above are among the top sellers every year.

Mention must be made of the hillside garden. When she first attempted to tame the horrible soil, she almost gave up. There were grasses and native roses that came up everywhere. Water ran off the property, and the soil was like concrete. However, with patience and mountains of mulch (my envy here is deep), she has transformed the soil. Today she can grow vegetables, iris, a large collection of clematis, ornamental grasses, salvias, Australian natives, and plants grown from seed she has collected in the wild.

Robert Florin has built a series of structures that dot the hillside. On these she has trained climbers and clematis. She has had problems with gophers, but now she says there is enough in her garden for everyone. I don’t share this optimism about the horrid gophers.

The climate is very warm in spring, summer, and autumn, and the winters can produce some frosts and infrequently such freezes that set records in California several years ago. The hill is exposed to sunlight most of the day. For new plants, water-drip systems have been used and then abandoned when the plants are established. One of the nicest aspects of the garden is the line of shrub roses that reach their natural size and are not pruned. As Graham Thomas says, shrub roses should be treated this way (if one has the room, which Kleine does).

She rarely fertilizes, though the animals, hers and nature’s, help. In December the display of hips is magnificent. So many people do not realize that some species roses offer not only blooms but hips and wonderful autumn foliage.

The labels on most of the roses are now gone, so it is a guessing game to identify them. When Peter Beales spent a day there recently, he noticed that she had some that only he grows. That is true: until our own heritage rose nurseries started, we had to order the rarer kinds from England. Beales, by the way, is issuing a new book on gardens around the world that he thinks important enough to record their roses and the growers. Kleine’s garden will be one of them.

By John Clements

The most common color found in roses is pink, including the wild roses. Today many blends and shades are available. From the pink, red, yellow, and white basic for colors of the past, in this century through breeding there are such colors as lavender, apricot, peach, orange, and combinations of these. I know that almost everyone has a favorite rose color – but these may vary over time. Nearly forty years ago red was by far the most popular color; in fact, more than 40% of the roses sold by florists were red. About twenty years ago the intensely bright orange-red or vermillion color of ‘Tropicana’ became the rage. Today gardeners’ tastes have mellowed, and pastels, especially apricot and peach (and the colors found in ‘Jude the Obscure’) are very popular.

Many look forward to blue or black roses. The pigment for the color blue does not exist in roses, and the scientists say there will never be a blue rose bred naturally. However, in Australia, through genetic engineering – they are taking the blue pigment from a different flower species and trying to implant that in a rose.

As for black, there are dark red roses today that are very close to black, especially in the bud and in cool weather. The problem with this color is that a black rose would burn under a hot sun as would a person who wears a black shirt.

Within a single variety the color of a rose will vary depending on many factors. The minerals in your soil, the season of the year, your climate, the fertilizer and nutrients you give your rose – all these have a subtle effect on its color.  There is one thing you can do to improve the intensity or deepen the color of roses in your garden wherever you live. At spring pruning time, sprinkle one-half cup of Epsom salts around the dripline of a mature rose bush (use proportionately less for smaller bushes). Those with many roses may find it much cheaper to buy sacks of magnesium sulfate at a farm supply store.

Fragrance in roses is a very interesting and complex subject. Roses have many different fragrances and combination of fragrance, including such varied scents as apple, tea, hyacinth, myrrh and what has become known as damask perfume.  Henri Delbard of France, possibly the world expert on rose fragrance says that when you smell a rose, you should smell it for only four or five seconds. That will implant the scent in our memory. If you wish to get a true essence of the perfume of several roses, you should smell coffee beans between each sniff. The best time to smell your roses is in the morning when the temperature is about 65 – 70 degrees (F). As the day gets warmer, the fragrance oils evaporate somewhat.

Fragrance is one of the most important and lovely benefits of growing roses. In this century, when the hybrid tea rose became the rage, breeders aimed for large, high-centered hybrid tea blooms as well as new and different colors. Fragrance, which is an elusive factor in breeding, was all but forgotten in their quest for the exhibition bloom.

It took David Austin of England to concentrate on breeding fragrance back into the rose, to awaken gardeners to what they had been missing for years. Some people have a much keener sense of smell than others, so a rose may smell strongly scented to one person and not to another.

The subject can get complex. There is one rose breeder who cannot smell any fragrance in yellow roses, yet he enjoys the perfume in roses of other colors.  Each person is subjective when it comes to rose fragrance. While the nose knows, it doesn’t always know the same thing that another nose knows.

” 0 sweet the rose that blossometh on Friendship’s tree! It fills my heart with joy and ecstasy. I seek the rose’s company because her scent recalls the fragrance sweet of ONE belov’d by me — Hafiz, 1300-1388