As the holiday season looms, some of the rosebushes in my garden are still producing a few flowers. They are all beautiful in the late autumn light, but perhaps the most striking is the rose-pink rugosa rose. It has grown large, thanks to the abundance of fall rain, but now its leaves have turned bright yellow, their last hurrah before falling to the ground. A single bright pink bud has raised its head among those leaves, and it is starkly beautiful. I can’t wait until it opens so that I can inhale the unmistakable spicy-sweet rugosa fragrance one last time before winter sets in.
The adjective “rugose” comes from the Latin word meaning “wrinkled,” a reference to the heavily veined, wrinkly leaves that mark the species. For my money, the phrase “rugosa rose” means “tougher than nails.”
Rosa rugosa, an eastern Asian native, bears incredibly prickly stems that are as notable as the crinkly leaves. The flowers, like those of many species roses, are simple, with five petals apiece surrounding a center filled with golden stamens.
In their natural state, rugosas are either red or white, with large, showy flowers that appear once a season. Brilliant red-orange hips follow, which can be the size of cherry tomatoes. If you have ever noticed large-hipped roses growing on dunes near the seashore, they are probably rugosas or rugosa relatives.
Toughness, beauty and fragrance have made rugosas a favorite of hybridizers. Since the late nineteenth century, rose breeders in England, France, Norway, the Netherlands, Canada and the United States have made a habit of crossing rugosas with other desirable species and varieties. The resulting hybrids are available in single, semi-double and double forms. Most are just as prickly as the species, but have also retained their irresistible fragrance. The color range has expanded to include many shades of pink and red, including some very dark purple-reds. There are even a couple of good yellow rugosa hybrids—the Canadian bred ‘Agnes’ and the thirty-six year-old American ‘Topaz Jewel’.
Several years ago I bought a hybrid rugosa for the little garden at the rear of our summer cottage in Central New York. The location is somewhat protected, but the soil is sticky clay and the USDA Zone 5 winters can be fierce, especially when cold winds prevail. I figured that since rugosas and their kin have survived sand dunes, salt spray and all manner of natural and manmade insults in many locations, they could survive in my cottage garden. It was worth a try.
The gamble paid off. My cottage rose is now high, wide and handsome, bearing an increasing crop of fragrant blooms and colorful hips each year. It has not only survived the local elements, but has withstood the neglect of the gardener who installed it.
I have long coveted ‘Blanc Double de Coubert’, a French rugosa hybrid from the eighteen nineties. It has big, semi-double white flowers, a divine scent and the ability to rebloom after its first flush in the spring. Though empty space is at a premium in my home garden, next spring may be the time when I find a corner for it. In the past I have also grown ‘Agnes’ and the double white ‘Sir Thomas Lipton’, bred by fabled American hybridizer, Dr. Walter Van Fleet and introduced in 1900. I loved them both, but had to leave them behind in a previous garden. My life story might be summarized as “too many roses and far too little sunny space.” This is why I have long coveted my neighbor’s large sunny lot.
I fail to see why anyone would opt for a privacy hedge of prickly, invasive barberry when it is so easy to create one of rugosa roses, which are just as prickly but exponentially more beautiful. Many of the hybrids rebloom, including the lovely pink ‘Frau Dagmar Hastrup’, a single form bred in Denmark. Whether you grow rugosas as a privacy hedge, or as specimen plants, or as part of a mixed border, they are generally untroubled by pests or diseases.
In addition to coveting ‘Blanc Double de Coubert’, I would also love to take another crack at ‘Topaz Jewel’, not to mention ‘Mrs. Doreen Pike’, a fragrant hybrid rugosa bred by revered English hybridizer David Austin. It is compact, at about three feet tall, and boasts frilly pink double flowers.
Annexing my neighbor’s yard looks more and more desirable.
For a good selection of rugosas, try Rogue Valley Roses, 2368 Terri Dr., Medford, OR 97504; (541) 535-1307; www.roguevalleyroses.com.