The adjective \u201crugose\u201d comes from the Latin word meaning \u201cwrinkled.\u201d\u00a0 The phrase \u201crugosa rose\u201d means \u201ctougher than nails\u201d\u2014at least in my personal garden dictionary.<\/p>\n
Rosa rugosa is an eastern Asian species rose, notable for its heavily veined, wrinkly leaves and incredibly prickly stems.\u00a0 The flowers, like those of many rose species, are simple, with five petals apiece surrounding a center filled with golden stamens.<\/p>\n
In their natural state rugosas are either red or white, with large, showy flowers that appear once a season.\u00a0 Brilliant red-orange hips follow, which can be the size of small tomatoes.\u00a0 If you have ever noticed large-hipped roses growing near the seashore, they are probably rugosas or rugosa relatives.<\/p>\n
It stands to reason that hybridizers would get excited about a strong plant with big, great-smelling flowers.\u00a0 Since the late nineteenth century, rose breeders in England, France, Norway, the Netherlands, Canada and the United States have crossed rugosas with other desirable species and varieties.\u00a0 The resulting hybrids are available in single, semi-double and double forms.\u00a0 Most are just as prickly as the species, but have also retained their irresistible, characteristic spicy-sweet fragrance.\u00a0 The color range has expanded to include many shades of pink and red, including some very dark purple-reds.\u00a0 There are even a couple of good yellow rugosa hybrids\u2014the Canadian bred \u2018Agnes\u2019 and the twenty-five year-old American \u2018Topaz Jewel\u2019.<\/p>\n
I bought a hybrid rugosa the other day for the little beach garden in front of our summer cottage in Central New York. \u00a0The beach garden\u2019s exposed location and exceptionally free-draining soil, coupled with the extremes of the local climate, make it a hard place to grow roses.\u00a0 In the last five years I have lost two wonderful plants, planted in two separate spots.\u00a0 One was a pale yellow Griffith Buck variety and the other was \u201cFather Hugo\u2019s Rose\u201d or Rosa xanthina f. hugonis, a small-leafed Chinese species rose, also with yellow blooms.\u00a0 Both were reputed to be tough, but neither measured up.\u00a0 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 beach garden.\u00a0 After all, the spray may be icy from September fifteenth through Memorial Day, but it is never salty. \u00a0It was worth a try.<\/p>\n
I was hoping to find \u2018Blanc Double de Coubert\u2019, a French rugosa hybrid from the eighteen nineties.\u00a0 It has big, semi-double white flowers, a divine scent and the ability to rebloom after its first flush in the spring.\u00a0 What I got from the small independent garden center nearby was a thorny plant labeled \u201cJapanese Species Rose.\u201d\u00a0 Still, the wrinkled leaves bespoke its rugosa heritage and the big, rose-pink blooms exuded the characteristic fragrance.\u00a0 The shrub was exceptionally healthy and the price was fifty percent off, which was seventy-five percent less than I would have paid at home in New Jersey.\u00a0 Clearly the match was meant to be.<\/p>\n
In the past I have grown \u2018Agnes\u2019 and the double white \u2018Sir Thomas Lipton\u2019, bred by fabled American hybridizer, Dr. Walter Van Fleet and introduced in 1900.\u00a0 I love them both, but had to leave them behind in a previous New Jersey garden.\u00a0 My life story is one of too many roses and far too little sunny space.<\/p>\n
I fail to see why anyone would grow 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.\u00a0 Many of the hybrids rebloom, including the lovely pink Fru Dagmar Hastrup, a single form bred in Denmark, and the aforementioned \u2018Blanc Double de Coubert\u2019.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I expect my no-name pink rugosa hybrid will be as strong as its more elegantly monikered relatives.\u00a0 I hope it will bloom repeatedly, but I will be content with long term survival and showy hips.<\/p>\n
In addition to coveting \u2018Blanc Double de Coubert\u2019, I would also love to have \u2018Mrs. Doreen Pike\u2019, a fragrant hybrid rugosa bred by revered English hybridizer David Austin.\u00a0 It is compact, at about three feet tall, and boasts frilly pink double flowers.\u00a0 Even in my perpetually space-challenged state, I know I can fit in something so small and so eminently worthy.<\/p>\n
You can sometimes find rugosas at local garden centers, as I did.\u00a0 For a good selection try Antique Rose Emporium, 9300 Lueckemeyer Road, Brenham, TX 77833, (800) 441-0002; www.antiqueroseemporium.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Free catalog.\u00a0 Another excellent source is Heirloom Roses, 24062 NE Riverside Drive, St. Paul, OR 97137, (800) 820-0465; www.heirloomroses.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Free catalog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The adjective \u201crugose\u201d comes from the Latin word meaning \u201cwrinkled.\u201d\u00a0 The phrase \u201crugosa rose\u201d means \u201ctougher than nails\u201d\u2014at least in my personal garden dictionary. Rosa rugosa is an eastern Asian species rose, notable for its heavily veined, wrinkly leaves and incredibly prickly stems.\u00a0 The flowers, like those of many rose species, are simple, with five … 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":[198,197,192,195,193,196,194],"class_list":["post-491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","tag-beach-roses","tag-hardy-roses","tag-rosa-rugosa","tag-rugosa-hybrids","tag-rugosa-roses","tag-scented-roses","tag-species-roses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491","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=491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":492,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions\/492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}