{"id":3088,"date":"2020-06-08T04:42:29","date_gmt":"2020-06-08T12:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=3088"},"modified":"2020-06-08T04:43:24","modified_gmt":"2020-06-08T12:43:24","slug":"rosa-glauca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/rosa-glauca\/","title":{"rendered":"Rosa Glauca"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rosa<\/a>I first saw Rosa glauca, sometimes known as Rosa rubrifolia, in a dreamlike setting.\u00a0 The large shrub was growing at Stonecrop in Putnam County, New York, former home of the late Frank Cabot, founder of the Garden Conservancy.\u00a0 The day was overcast and fog shrouded parts of Cabot\u2019s magnificent garden.\u00a0 I came around a corner and saw the rose with wisps of mist clinging to it.\u00a0 The bush was tall, with arching reddish-purple canes and blue-gray-green foliage.\u00a0 It was not in flower, so I hadn\u2019t a clue about the blossoms, but the plant was both majestic and mysteriously beautiful.\u00a0 I was hooked.<\/p>\n

The rose was also unlabelled, so it took some research to find its identity.\u00a0 Thanks to my library of rose references and the enormous bounty of the internet, I was able to identify the mysterious beauty as Rosa glauca. I found a source online and ordered one immediately.<\/p>\n

People, including me, usually fall in love with roses for their flowers.\u00a0 Occasionally they are drawn to unusual or showy hips, like the cherry tomato-esque hips of thorny Rosa rugosa.\u00a0 I have never heard of anyone falling for a rose because of its foliage\u2014except for people who have seen Rosa glauca.<\/p>\n

The old and new Latin names tell the tale.\u00a0 \u201cGlauca\u201d refers to the powdery leaf coating that helps give the leaves their distinctive color, soft appearance and singular aura.\u00a0 \u201cRubrifolia\u201d is a reference to the reddish cast of the stems and leaf veins.<\/p>\n

Rosa glauca is not noted for its flowers.\u00a0 Like many species roses, the plant blooms only once a year, usually in May in my part of the world.\u00a0 The medium pink flowers are single and about an inch wide, with only five petals apiece and centers filled with golden stamens.\u00a0 Every year the blooms appear along the stems like stars\u2014not clustered, but shining individually in a graceful array.\u00a0 Some sources describe the blooms as \u201clightly scented\u201d.\u00a0 I can\u2019t really pick up much scent at all, but that may be because the flowers are spread out on the plant.\u00a0 Sadly, those flowers disappear relatively quickly, replaced by small red hips that remain during the summer months.<\/p>\n

If you were pessimistic, you might say that Rosa glauca has all the traits that make modern gardeners turn away.\u00a0 It is statuesque, with a mature height of six to eight feet, and a spread of five to seven feet.\u00a0 This is not ideal for small space gardening, though you might grow it successfully in a large container.\u00a0 As a once-bloomer, it does not pull its weight in the flower department.\u00a0 The beautiful canes and arching configuration provide great winter interest, but most people seek winter interest from more obvious sources like evergreens or exfoliating bark or masses of bright berries.<\/p>\n

But I am not a pessimistic gardener.\u00a0 My Rosa glauca is taller than I am, but I grow it in standard or tree from, bolstered by an unobtrusive support.\u00a0 That makes it easier for me to use it as part of a mixed border, underplanted with all kinds of perennials.\u00a0 Frank Cabot endorses this treatment in his excellent book, The Greater Perfection, <\/em>saying, \u201cIt\u2019s hard to improve on Rosa glauca as a companion plant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clearly my plant is happy with its companionable situation.\u00a0 Last year I noticed a bit of blue-gray-green foliage opposite my mature Rosa glauca.\u00a0 It was clearly an offspring announcing its arrival in the world with a single, hopeful new cane.\u00a0 Eventually I will have to move it to a different position, but for the moment I just take pleasure in its appearance.<\/p>\n

Rosa glauca is native to northern Europe, which probably explains its exceptional cold tolerance.\u00a0 This may be why it was chosen as one of only a handful of rose species and varieties planted on New York City\u2019s High Line, an elevated public garden that is exposed to wind and weather.<\/p>\n

Like all other roses, Rosa glauca appreciates rich, well-drained soil, consistent moisture and a nice blanket of mulch over its feet.\u00a0 It does not really need pruning, except for the removal of dead or damaged canes.<\/p>\n

If you want to buy Rosa glauca now, you may have to wait a bit.\u00a0 Several of the better mail order nurseries carry it, but are out of stock right now.\u00a0 This may change in the fall.\u00a0 To put your name on the availability notification list, get in touch with Digging Dog Nursery, 31101 Middle Ridge Road, Albion, CA 95410; (707) 937-1130<\/a>; www.diggingdog.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Print catalog $2.00.<\/p>\n

Several years after I first saw Rosa glauca at Stonecrop, I met Frank Cabot, who was one of the grand old men of American horticulture.\u00a0 He and I had a brief conversation about the rose and \"Rosa<\/a>I asked him to inscribe my copy of his book.\u00a0 His inscription reads, \u201cLong life to those who enjoy gardens and grow Roas glauca.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I first saw Rosa glauca, sometimes known as Rosa rubrifolia, in a dreamlike setting.\u00a0 The large shrub was growing at Stonecrop in Putnam County, New York, former home of the late Frank Cabot, founder of the Garden Conservancy.\u00a0 The day was overcast and fog shrouded parts of Cabot\u2019s magnificent garden.\u00a0 I came around a corner … 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":[2314,429,2313,194],"class_list":["post-3088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-winter","tag-old-fashioned-roses-flowering-shrubs","tag-rosa-glauca","tag-rosa-rubrifolia","tag-species-roses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3088","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=3088"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3091,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3088\/revisions\/3091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}