SWINGING SINGLES
A few years ago a windstorm blew through my garden and tore a large branch off ‘Sally Holmes’, one of my favorite roses. The branch was covered with fat yellowish-ivory buds and big, white five-petaled flowers with prominent golden stamens. I took the branch inside, cut it into manageable stems and arranged them in a vase. They obliged me by lasting for an entire week in fragrant glory. Every since then I have had a new appreciation for the beauty of single roses.
As roses go, ‘Sally Holmes’ is a peach. Introduced in 1976 in England, Sally has made lots of friends around the world. I saw one lovely specimen growing up the side of a barn at Hortulus Farm, the garden-bedecked Pennsylvania home of plantsmen Renny Reynolds and Jack Staub. In my yard, Sally grows about six feet tall and four feet wide. I keep it at that size because it grows near a path that must be kept clear. Sally Holmes also reblooms regularly. If I had to choose just one single-flowered variety, it would be Sally.
One of the most vigorous and interesting singles is Rosa mutabilis, a species rose that originated in China. R. mutabilis buds are yellowish pink, opening to a slightly darker shade and then darkening to deep rose as they age. A bush in full bloom bears flowers of many shades. Each one is somewhat short-lived, but the shrub is extremely floriferous. Mine tops out at about four feet tall and sprawls all over the place. It could be contained, but I love the flowers and choose not to do so. The exotic display of blooms makes up for the fact that R. mutabilis is not especially fragrant.
Flutterbyeâ„¢, a modern rose, bred by American Tom Carruth and introduced in 1996, is another color changing single rose, similar to R. mutabilis. The flower colors area bit more delicate and it reblooms more reliably.
The Knock Outâ„¢ series of roses are as ubiquitous these days as ‘Stella de Oro’ daylilies. Every big box store has ten million of them. Once I get past my old-fashioned aversion to trademarked names and my rose snob attitude about plant varieties that sell even faster than fast food, I have to admit that I am quite taken with one of Knock Out’s offspring, Home Runâ„¢. Bred by the same Tom Carruth who gave us Flutterbyeâ„¢, and introduced in 2006, Home Runâ„¢ has single, bright red flowers. It also has all of Knock Out’s stellar qualities–disease resistance, hardiness and a floriferous disposition. All in all, it is a very worthy red rose.
I rarely meet yellow roses that I don’t like. Of course they annoy me by getting perpetual blackspot or betray my slavish devotion by sprouting root suckers that have the red blossoms of ‘Dr. Huey’, that ever-so-common rootstock, but I always forgive and forget. I also avoid the plague of ‘Dr. Huey’ by buying own-root roses when possible.
The yellow-flowered single that I love best is ‘Golden Wings’, which has flowers almost as big as ‘Sally Holmes’ with amber stamens. ‘Golden Wings’ makes a nice short climber, reaching as high as six-feet tall. Unlike some other singles, it is also fragrant, with a spicy scent. In his book, Classic Roses, English rosarian Peter Beales calls it “an accommodating shrub in all respects.”
I also like ‘Mrs. Oakley Fisher’, which is a deeper yellow–sometimes almost amber, depending on climate and soil. I have killed one in my very own garden, but I have elected to blame rose disease rather than inattention on my part. I’ll try again with a heathier specimen.
Many species roses have single flowers, including Rosa laevigata, sometimes known as “The Cherokee Rose”. This white-flowered species was first discovered in China in the eighteenth century and became a favorite in the American South, hence the nickname. I am especially fond of another species rose descendant, Rosa rugosa Alba. Like many rugosas, it is extremely thorny, and is not the best choice for use as a cut flower. The thorns are more than counterbalanced by the wonderful fragrance, which smells like cloves.
Another of my favorites is Rosa glauca, a once-blooming shrub that bears small, single pink flowers with white central eye zones. While the flowers are pretty, the real beauty of R. glauca is the foliage. The new growth is reddish in color and the leaves have a blue cast. There is nothing more beautiful than rosa glauca on a cloudy day. It isn’t bad in the sunshine either.
To find the single-flowered roses described above and many more, go to Heirloom Roses, 24062 Riverside Drive NE, St. Paul, Oregon 97137, (800) 820-0465, www.heirloomroses.com. The catalog is $5.00. Another good source, especially for the older varieties is Antique Rose Emporium, 9300 Lueckmeyer Road, Brenham, TX 77833, (800) 441-0002, www.antiqueroseemporium.com. Free catalog.