Despite the wide availability of relatively cheap cut flowers, a rose in winter always seems like a small miracle.\u00a0 It seemed perfectly fitting last week that I glimpsed some of those miraculous winter blooms adorning a church Advent wreath.\u00a0 The roses were pale purple, in keeping with the Christian tradition of using that color for vestments, altar hangings and church decorations during the Advent season.\u00a0 The effect of the soft purple blooms against the dark evergreens was dramatic and beautiful.<\/p>\n
The pale, silvery-purple roses available these days to both the cut-flower and nursery trade are different from their purple forbearers.\u00a0 Older varieties, like \u2018Cardinal Richelieu, a Gallica bred before 1847; and the lovely hybrid perpetual, \u2018Reine des Violettes\u2019, introduced France in 1860, feature dark, reddish-purple petals that age gracefully to shades of mauve.\u00a0 \u2018Baby Faurax\u2019, introduced in 1924, and a youngster by comparison, also sports relatively dark red-purple petals.\u00a0 I am not sure what the breeders had in mind in 1847, 1860 or 1924, but the generations of silvery mauve roses developed after World War II were produced by breeders in hot pursuit of the rosarians’ Holy Grail\u2014the blue rose.<\/p>\n
Plant scientists now know that it takes more than selective breeding to turn roses blue.\u00a0 The species\u2019 genetic make-up lacks the genes necessary to produce blue pigmentation.\u00a0 With genetic manipulation, it is possible to change that situation by introducing genes from plants like delphiniums or petunias that naturally produce blue flowers.\u00a0 The Japanese conglomerate, Suntory, has done a great deal of work on the blue rose, introducing \u2018Applause\u2019, a rose with \u201cnearly 100 percent blue pigment in the petals\u201d in 2004.\u00a0 \u2018Applause\u2019 may be a breakthrough, but<\/p>\n
it still looks purplish.\u00a0 Clearly, the blue rose is a work in progress.<\/p>\n
The silvery mauve varieties are certainly not \u201cblue\u201d, but they are very beautiful in their own right.\u00a0 One of the first was the hybrid tea, \u2018Sterling Silver\u2019, bred in 1957 and introduced in 1960.\u00a0 Its parentage included the illustrious and well-loved \u2018Peace\u2019, which probably accounted for \u2018Sterling Silver\u2019s beautiful form, with big, ruffled blooms and high-centered buds.<\/p>\n
\u2018Sterling Silver\u2019 had other qualities that it bequeathed to its mauve offspring\u2014a pronounced citrus or lemon scent and a relative absence of thorns.\u00a0 When I go rose shopping and see an alluring silvery-purple rose, I always give the blooms a good sniff.\u00a0 If the lemon fragrance is present, I know the rose is a \u2018Sterling Silver\u2019 descendant and probably a good grower.<\/p>\n
\u2018Sterling Silver\u2019 helped beget the American-bred \u2018Angel Face\u2019, a floribunda with clusters of large silver-lilac flowers.\u00a0 It has been a best-seller since its introduction and is relatively easy to find in nurseries and garden centers.\u00a0 \u00a0Though it is a modern rose, more than one rose lover has remarked on how well the color blends with older specimens.\u00a0 I think \u2018Angel Face\u2019 has the strongest citrus fragrance, but sometimes intensity depends on temperature, soil and time of day.\u00a0 The blooms also look lovely in arrangements and last fairly well.<\/p>\n
\u2018Angel Face\u2019 was a parent of another silvery-mauve rose, \u2018Lagerfeld\u2019, named after the fashion designer.\u00a0 The characteristic lemon fragrance is very much in evidence in the large-flowered variety, which is either a grandiflora or a hybrid tea, depending on the whim or knowledge of the vendor. \u00a0Like its designer namesake, the rose, introduced in 1986, is still going strong today, ready to do star turns on the horticultural catwalk.<\/p>\n
The great French rose house, Delbard, has also produced a mauve hybrid tea with the same characteristics as \u2018Angel Face\u2019 and \u2018Sterling Silver\u2019.\u00a0 The French \u2018Blue Nile\u2019, is still available in commerce and bears large, multi-petaled flowers on tall stems.\u00a0 The lemon fragrance is pronounced.<\/p>\n
I have never been wild about hybrid tea roses, because I associate them with my father\u2019s garden era, which was defined by a regimen of spraying and cosseting that is incompatible with my lifestyle.\u00a0 However, the major rose producers have gotten wise to modern ways and today\u2019s hybrid teas often grow on their own roots, meaning that if they die back to the ground because of bad weather, they will regrow from the roots and be true to variety.\u00a0 Also, silvery-purple roses like \u2018Angel Face\u2019 and \u2018Lagerfeld\u2019 have stood the test of decades and are still popular with gardeners.\u00a0 That means that they are tough enough to handle differing climate conditions and levels of care.<\/p>\n
When I have trouble sleeping, I design gardens in my mind.\u00a0 I can see a white\/blue\/silver layout with a few judiciously placed \u201cblue\u201d roses like \u2018Lagerfeld.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0 A vision like that is inspiring enough to get me through the winter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Despite the wide availability of relatively cheap cut flowers, a rose in winter always seems like a small miracle.\u00a0 It seemed perfectly fitting last week that I glimpsed some of those miraculous winter blooms adorning a church Advent wreath.\u00a0 The roses were pale purple, in keeping with the Christian tradition of using that color for … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3,5],"tags":[2017,2016,2018,2020,2021,2019,709],"class_list":["post-2603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-winter","tag-angel-face","tag-karl-lagerfeld","tag-sterling-silver","tag-blue-roses","tag-hybrid-tea-roses","tag-mauve-roses","tag-purple-roses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2603"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2604,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603\/revisions\/2604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}