{"id":3163,"date":"2020-08-25T08:28:56","date_gmt":"2020-08-25T16:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=3163"},"modified":"2020-08-25T08:28:56","modified_gmt":"2020-08-25T16:28:56","slug":"the-fairy-rose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/the-fairy-rose\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fairy Rose"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Fairy<\/a>I love all kinds of roses and have as many in my garden as I can cram into the limited sunny space.\u00a0 My \u201cfavorite\u201d is usually the one in bloom at the moment, though I do have a few that are especially dear to my heart.\u00a0 Rosa \u2018The Fairy\u2019 is one of them.<\/p>\n

You have probably seen \u2018The Fairy\u2019, as it has enjoyed enduring popularity since it was introduced in England back at the height of the Great Depression in 1932.\u00a0 Everything about the shrub is small.\u00a0 It grows about three feet tall and wide, with arching canes that are home to small leaves and perfect, double pink flowers borne in sprays or clusters.\u00a0 Those blooms average about 1.5 inches wide, opening with soft pink petals that age to nearly white.\u00a0 The owner of a historic house in my neighborhood uses \u2018The Fairy\u2019 as a low hedge and it is gorgeous throughout the season, sporting flushes of new blooms regularly from mid-spring through late fall.\u00a0 In my garden, it is untroubled by those two rose maladies, black spot and powdery mildew, which is a bonus, since some of my other roses are not so lucky.<\/p>\n

Every rose variety has a unique story, and \u2018The Fairy\u2019s is fascinating.\u00a0 It is grouped into a class of roses called \u201cpolyanthas\u201d, which comes from Latin and means \u201cmany flowers\u2019.\u00a0 These roses are characterized by a compact growth habit and clusters of the blooms.\u00a0 The polyanthas have a long history.\u00a0 Their most notable ancestor is probably Rosa multiflora, a white-flowered species rose native to Japan.\u00a0 These days, we see it everywhere, because it has become a naturalized invasive pest in American woodlands, untenanted places and even the odd spot in home gardens.\u00a0 I have rooted it out of my own beds twice this year alone.<\/p>\n

The flip side of the multiflora rose\u2019s extremely vigorous nature is that the vigor has carried over to roses like \u2018The Fairy\u2019 that are descended from it.\u00a0 One of \u2018The Fairy\u2019s parent roses was \u2018Paul Crampel\u2019, an orange-flowered polyantha that was discovered in the Netherlands in 1930.\u00a0 \u2018Paul Crampel\u2019, in turn, was a sport, or spontaneous genetic mutation of \u2018Superb\u2019, a red-flowered polyantha of unknown parentage, bred in the Netherlands sometime before 1927.\u00a0 How did the offspring of red and orange-red varieties turn up with pale pink flowers?\u00a0 Blame it on the way the genetic soup responds when stirred vigorously by breeders, or possibly on its other parent, a cluster-flowered rose called \u2018Lady Gay\u2019, which is described as having cherry-red flowers aging to blush.<\/p>\n

The breeder responsible for \u2018The Fairy\u2019 was Anne Bentall, the widow of another breeder, Joseph Bentall.\u00a0 Prior to starting his own nursery, Joseph Bentall had been a gardener for Anglican cleric and prolific rose breeder, Joseph Pemberton.\u00a0 I have several of Pemberton\u2019s best roses, all in the fragrant, hybrid musk category, in my garden.\u00a0 The Pemberton roses also have Rosa multiflora in their family trees.\u00a0 Clearly both Pemberton and Bentall thought highly of Rosa multiflora as a breeding subject.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Fairy\u2019 made its way to America and was introduced here in 1941.\u00a0 Since then it has blazed a trail through gardens here and all over the world, loved for its hardiness, prolific repeat-blooming habit and overall beauty.\u00a0 These days, when smaller landscapes and container gardens have become important, \u2018The Fairy\u2019 continues its hot streak.\u00a0\u00a0 The shrub has won all kinds of awards and accolades, including the Royal Horticultural Society\u2019s \u201cAward of Garden Merit\u201d and the \u201cEarth Kind\u201d designation from the Texas AgriLife Extension Service of Texas A&M University.\u00a0 The Earth Kind roses have undergone extensive trials under all kinds of climate conditions and proven themselves to be of outstanding landscape value.\u00a0 Longwood Gardens, in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, also subjected \u2018The Fairy\u2019 to its own ten-year rose trial.\u00a0 Needless to say, it came out of the Pennsylvania test smelling like a rose.<\/p>\n

Most roses need lots of sun\u2014about six hours of direct sunlight per day.\u00a0 Most gardeners I know wish they had more sunny space for roses, tomatoes and all the other plants that require a good dose of sunshine to flourish.\u00a0 Fortunately for all of us, \u2018The Fairy\u2019 can get by with a little less and can even tolerate very light shade.\u00a0 It is also relatively unfussy about soil and once it is established, can survive some dry periods.\u00a0 Aphids may climb aboard and attempt to suck vital fluids out of the buds, but they are easily dispatched with a spray from the garden hose.<\/p>\n

For economically minded gardeners, \u2018The Fairy\u2019 is an especially good investment.\u00a0 Use it as a low boundary hedge or to flank a walkway.\u00a0 It can also be a mid-border subject, or the star of a large container.\u00a0 In my experience the flowers last very well in cut arrangements and the plant will immediately start the process of replacing the sprays that you clip off.\u00a0 Deadheading also promotes new growth.<\/p>\n

Sometimes good nurseries or garden centers carry \u2018The Fairy\u2019, though right now it is somewhat late in the season and stocks of roses are generally low.\u00a0 Order it for fall delivery from Chamblee\u2019s Roses, 16807 CR 363<\/p>\n

Winona, TX 75792; 903-882-5153<\/a>; www.chambleeroses.com.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love all kinds of roses and have as many in my garden as I can cram into the limited sunny space.\u00a0 My \u201cfavorite\u201d is usually the one in bloom at the moment, though I do have a few that are especially dear to my heart.\u00a0 Rosa \u2018The Fairy\u2019 is one of them. You have … 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],"tags":[2358,2360,2359,2364,2362,858,2361,2363],"class_list":["post-3163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","tag-the-fairy-rose","tag-container-roses","tag-ground-cover-roses","tag-hedge-roses","tag-pink-roses","tag-polyantha-roses","tag-roses-in-pots","tag-small-flowered-roses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3163","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=3163"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3165,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3163\/revisions\/3165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}