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| I was browing through HMF and a couple of retailers sites, in particular their species rose sections looking at some of the more unique or even "ugly" roses. I remember a thread from a year or so ago that brought up some roses that were generally thought to be ugly (although I would grow these in a second, because they are not your typical rose). A couple of the ones metioned in that thread were R. Watsoniana and R. minutifolia. Of my own roses I grow Viridiflora and R. Omeiensis Pteracantha(Wingthron) not for their beautiful blooms, but for their odd blooms (viridiflora) and large red thorns (Wingthorn).
Then there's the roses that are truly beautiful, but also have something very unique about them. I just purchased Crested Moss recently because of its cresting. I also think my Park Jewel has beautiful blooms, but its numurous hot pink thorns on new growth also make it a conversation piece. What other roses do you know of that are grown more for their foliage, thorns, or unique qualities? I'm sure there's a ton that I'm not even aware of! Tammy |
Here is a link that might be useful: Last Year's Ugly Rose Thread
Follow-Up Postings:
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| I love fragrant foliage so I have an Eglantine & R. Primula. Primula also has the wing-thorns. Lost a R. glutinosa but would like to have it again. The plants of Bermuda 'Spice' & the veridiflora rose also smell strongly to me, as do many OGRs to some extent. Kind of a floral/piney/tea scent. So naturally, I also like the mosses & try to grow them also. Have Mme. Louis Leveque; Rene d'Anjou & Dresden Doll are on order.
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| R. Fedtschenkoana. I've bred with it for many years and have created some rather beautiful hybrids of it. Lavender tinted, "mossy" new growth aging silvery-turquoise, with "ghostly" white flowers. New growth tips, "mossy" sepals and peduncles are scented with Noble Fir and hardwood smoke scent. The single, white flowers smell like Linseed Oil. It reflowers over much of the summer and suckers like the weed it is! Gorgeous rose. R. Stellata mirifica with its purple, over-sized, prickly hips, smallish foliage, dusky purple, scented flowers which can also flower over a long period as long as it's kept watered. This foliage can also have some very lovely shades and tints not usually seen in other rose foliage. Like Hulthemia and Minutifolia, Stellata's hips stink like Valerian root. Most other rose hips, if they are scented as anything other than "green", are very fruit like. Not these three! They stink! Minutifolia is beautiful with its tiny foliage and dense prickles. In my climate, it can flower over much of the summer with irrigation. Kim |
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- Posted by melissa_thefarm NItaly (My Page) on Mon, Nov 26, 12 at 0:55
| I have a couple of plants of Rosa glauca, with glaucous purplish foliage. But in general foliage is valuable to me, beyond whether it's healthy and abundant. I think a lot of modern roses have boring foliage (and canes and thorns), usually smooth and green with blah leaf form, or else large, coarse, gross. I like the soft-textured lettuce green of Damask foliage and the rough dark spoon-shaped Gallica leaves folded along the central nerve; the long elegant pointed leaves that some Multifloras flaunt, the elegantly light growth of the older style of Tea rose. Some roses color well in fall: I was interested to see that 'Margaret Hilling', after flowering this month, has been coloring prior to dropping its deciduous leaves. 'Therese Bugnet' turns a rich scarlet-to-wine, even in our conditions that are so unfavorable to fall color. So does my 'Canary Bird' (which may be R. hugonis). 'Summer Wine's foliage turns a near-black purplish tint and retains its gloss, and some of the Teas do the same, keeping their foliage through the winter before shedding it in March and starting afresh. Hips, buds, thorns, and the colors and textures of canes are all very interesting. Roses are much more than their flowers. Melissa |
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| Kim, I met Rosa fed. for the first time this year and I was mightily impressed. I read a few years ago that D.N.A. testing showed that Alba Semi-Plena' was a descendant of 3 wild roses and Rosa fed. was one of these. It makes me wonder where those 3 wild roses met up and made love. Your hybrid sounds absolutely divine, can you post a photo? Have you named it yet? I've been admiring the R. californica in my garden this month, it sent out a late flowering stem but the real reason I love it in November is that it still has all its healthy, lovely, pretty leaves. The sepals smell like fir needles to me, so I like that too. I wish more people were aware of what great backyard plants wild roses and the summer blooming roses make, when out of bloom the leaves of Alba,summer damasks,Scotch Burnets and many Gallicas are very pretty, and the prickles keep away raccoons and trespassors. Variation within the genus; Rosa Oh, so many gifts have blessed The Rose; If you ever suppose, Lux |
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| I haden't even thought about the hips or the scent of the foliage! I think that R. Moyesii and some of its descendents have beautiful hips; that's the main reason I grow Geranium...I love the unique hips that it produces. I think there's so much more to roses than just the blooms! Tammy |
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- Posted by carol6ma_7ari zones 6 %26 7a (My Page) on Mon, Nov 26, 12 at 8:44
| Let's not pass over r. roxburghii with its giant gold-ochre bumpy hips (no, I'm not describing myself) which I saw at Quarryhill Botanic Garden near Sonoma CA in a recent trip. This is one rose I intend to add to my own small garden, just for those hips. Carol |
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| Hi Lux, yes, all the better Fedtschenkoana seedlings are detailed on HMF. I've finally culled all but a small handful due to room, but I'd offered cuttings and suckers of them all to anyone interested, long enough, that I figured had people found them of interest, they'd had the opportunity to obtain whatever they may have wanted. Those I've maintained are here: http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.39747 http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.63190 mossy seedling. http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.63191 repeat flowering seedling. http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.65225.1 blue foliaged seedlng. All the others are there with the same prefixes, just different seedling numbers. As it's been determined the repeat flowering character of old European OGRs arose from the Fedtschenkoana and Moschata genes, I've begun breeding Secret Garden with Fedtschenkoana and my hybrids I've maintained. I'm particularly excited about my hybrids as they also contain genes from Basye's Legacy, which has amazing health. It also brings beautiful autumn coloring with it to both foliage and canes. You can see examples of that on the pages for both Lynnie and Indian Love Call on HMF. I've long grown many roses simply because they had amazing plants, foliage or unusual coloring to them rather than spectacular flowers. That's one thing which attracted me to Hugonis early on. Its foliage and wood have spectacular coloring throughout the year. I love how ferny the foliage is. It doesn't just "flower", it smothers itself in an enormous orgasm of bloom. Succeeding in raising a hybrid of it and yellow mini without prickles (1-72-1Hugonis http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.62658 ), and now waiting to see what it might accomplish with numerous crosses under soil for spring germination, is rather exciting! I'm eager to see if any double forms of Xanthina result from the Chinese Xanthina seed I currently have planted. The yellow Chinese species have some of the most beautiful foliage and flower combinations and are gorgeous flowering shrubs, much less "roses". Kim |
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| What about the Centifolia 'Bullata'? Its puffy leaves are quite interesting--neither ugly nor beautiful, just interesting, and something to add variety to the rose garden. The leaves start out a thorough russet color (which belies the notion that only roses with China/Tea ancestry have reddish young foliage), which gradually goes to green. The habit of the plant is rather gawky. My own-root plant finally bloomed this year with typical pink Centifolia blossoms. There was also an Alba rose called 'Bullata' once upon a time (or I wonder if the white form of the Centifolia 'Bullata', called 'Bullata Alba', was what the supposed Alba rose 'Bullata' actually was). |
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| "Lavender tinted, "mossy" new growth aging silvery-turquoise, with "ghostly" white flowers. New growth tips, "mossy" sepals and peduncles are scented with Noble Fir and hardwood smoke scent." That sounds wonderful. |
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| Odinthor, that was one I forgot...Bullata! My mouth has been watering for months over the famed "Lettuce Leaved Rose," but I haven't been able to find it without being custom rooted. Such interesting foliage. There's one called the Celery Leaved Rose as well, but I've never seen a picture of it. Kim, those seedlings are stunning! I hate to think of the ones you had to cull. I especially like the first one and the Cherry Parfait hybrid! Really interesting mix of modern & species. |
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| Wingthorn, the Green Rose. I've tried twice to grow sinowilsoni (sp), but the first time I forgot it was there and mowed it down ad the second time it just didn't make it. |
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| Thank you. There are photos of them on HMF. You can find them all by searching for DLFED, 1-72-1DLFED, CPDLFED and NCMDLFED. Even more fun are the germinating seeds from Cal Poly X Fedtschenkoana and Werner von Blon X Fedtschenkoana. Should be interesting! Kim |
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| I'm drooling over Forestfarm's selection of species. But will any survive in the desert hills of zn8 Texas? E.G.: R.nitida pimpinellifolia nutkana villosa woodsii maximowicziana blanda davurica Or will these high desert, mountain, & European roses curl up their toes in the heat like the Gallicas & other old Europeans I've tried? Love to hear your opinions & experiences. |
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| Of your list, I grew woodsii, nutkana, villosa and nitida in zone 9b where over the 18 year span of that garden, the temperature swing from highest to lowest was a full hundred degrees (15 - 115). Neat was never the culprit, nor was cold. It was sun burn due to excessive water transpiration. Kim |
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| Thanks for your advice, Kim. Yeah, I want to do a lot of bed prep, soil improvement & careful study re watering reach before I plant any. We do have R. bracteata up here, to my surprise. Thought it was too tender. A real pest in my old zone. But it is a very pretty flower & forms lots of hips. |
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| I didn't realize until this morning that R Fedschenkoana is on my spring Vintage order. That was a nice surprise :) |
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| I think you'll love Fedtschenkoana, Tammy, but it doesn't "play well with others" in a garden bed. It WILL help itself to any piece of decent ground it can find and potting it will NOT prevent that. Plant it somewhere you can enjoy it up close and personal, but where you can prevent it from appropriating all the decent garden space you have. Good luck! Kim |
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| Thanks for the warning, Kim! I'm thinking of doing it as a specimen plant in the middle of an open area of my yard. I figure that way, my husband can mow around it on all 4 sides and keep the suckers to a minimum. I did that with Nevada, not that it suckers (its grafted on MF), but I just thought it deserved a standout location! Any thoughts on the suckering of these that are still in my pot ghetto? Species roses freak me out a bit with their takeover ability, but I find them really intriguing. Besides growing them out a bit, these are still in pots because I'm too chicken to plant them! :) R. Davidii (Father David�s Rose) Tammy |
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| As far as I know, Tammy, those are all pretty "invasive" in good soil with sufficient resources. You could TRY to contain them by digging deep trenches around the areas you want to maintain them in so you can see any suckers or runners as they exit the soil into the trench. Their only large down side is they're all deciduous and many aren't that pretty when bare. Kim |
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| aha,pleased to see the special beauties of wildlings are being explored. These roses were probably my first love after discovering a whole trove of them by an abandonned railway line in an old squat back in the 70's. Course, I wasn't much of a gardener then (a kind of unpleasant outdoor housework, I used to think) but the robust quality of the shrubs, combined with the fragile and fleeting loveliness of the flowers stayed with me until my own gardening adventures started and remain with me still. Too many to list but I have an especial affinity with the little burnet roses and, by way of contrast, I love the various forms of moyesii. I find, as a rule, I am least enamoured by shiny large leaves(although the tiny wichurana leaves are fine)....and as for heps, I would happily possess a rose for their heps alone (R.pendulina). Always loved r.glauca and crave Louis Riel for the same bronzy glaucous leafage. Lux, you stated the case so well for all of us. |
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| Petite Pink Scotch while not a Scotch is delightful to me in bloom or not. The leaves are smaller than a kernel of corn and the blooms the size of dimes. I would like to see some of these others. |
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- Posted by melissa_thefarm NItaly (My Page) on Sun, Dec 2, 12 at 3:05
| One I have written about before and then forgot about: R. gallica 'Splendens'. This fine rose has odd-shaped noticeable orange-red hips with persistent black sepals, good orange-gold fall color, and then the young canes are silvery purple, with a bloom. I can't even remember what the flowers look like. Definitely a shrub for year-round enjoyment. I just took a look at the photos on HMF. Flowers are that color between pink and red and purple typical of so many old roses, and semidouble. There are photos of the hips, as well as of the flowers and the plant, but none of the fall foliage or the naked canes, noteworthy as both are. |
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- Posted by mendocino_rose z8 N CA. (My Page) on Sun, Dec 2, 12 at 10:08
| I almost didn't respond to this question because my list of roses that I find beautiful without blooms is long. My almost favorite rose of all is Wolley Dod's Rose. I love the grayish matt leaves and beautiful hips. I love how huge it is. I wouldn't be without Rosa Glauca in the garden. The purple looks fabulous. Right now the hips hanging from the purple canes look wonderful. I don't even care if it blooms. I'm growing also a little known hybrid of it called Carmenetta. |
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| Linda, thank you for the picture of Petite Pink Scotch! I bought one last Fall, but I haven't gotten to see it bloom. Pam, from Angel Gardens, said it would "knock my socks off!" lol. I had kept it potted for a few months and it began to suffer, but now that its in the ground (it took the place of a non-performing Tom Brown), it seems to be going nuts!!! Medocino Rose, I remember looking at Wolly Dod's Rose, and now I can't remember why I decided against it...hmm Rosa Glauca is another that I really need to add. I always love the way it looks in pictures; really nice colored foliage. Although, the main one that I'm drooling over is Watsonia...its just sooo funky looking!!!! |
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- Posted by mendocino_rose z8 N CA. (My Page) on Mon, Dec 3, 12 at 18:26
| I should have mentioned Rosa Gentiliana. It looks so pretty right now. The leaves are truning yellow and the hips are orange. It's canes are arching in a most graceful way. |
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| If I had two large enough trees, I would plant another Montecito. A real "Jack and the Beanstalk" rose. Look at the photos of the huge one I posted from The Huntington on HMF. It's the seed parent of my Nessie, which is finally growing out back. Some of the most glorious foliage I've ever seen belongs to R. sinowilsonii. I've had it twice and both times it has thumbed its nose at me and died. But, what spectacular clothes it wears! Highly polished, rich green, enormous leaves with rich bronze reverses. Another "cathedral eater"! Kim |
Here is a link that might be useful: Sinowilsonii foliage
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- Posted by sherryocala 9A Florida (My Page) on Mon, Dec 3, 12 at 20:41
| I just got my first and probably only species rose, R. Rugosa Alba. I saw it in Carolyn Parker's book, "R is for Rose". I loved the look of the leaves and the large pure white single flowers. It's just a baby now. I wonder if it will bloom next spring. I sank a 20-gallon bottomless pot in the bed and planted her in it, hoping to control the suckering. Does anyone think that will work? Funny, I knew about not spraying this rose, but I just saw that I'm not supposed to deadhead it either. Is that so I won't miss the hips or for some life-or-death reason? For fragrant foliage I really like Hermosa. I love the peppery smell that gets on my fingers when I snap deadheads. Louis Philippe does that, too. Melissa, that R. gallica 'Splendens' is one gorgeous rose. I wish, I wish, I wish!! Sherry |
Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...
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| Sherry, R. Rugosa Alba was my first species rose as well; actually one of my first roses, and my very first mail order rose (Spring Valley). Its wonderful here, but does sucker like crazy!!!! I just either pull the suckers and disguard them, or more recently I've been potting some of the larger ones to create new plants. Not a bit of disease though. Mine was purchased ownroot/bareoot and bloomed its first year. It actually always has a few blooms on it after its spring flush. I wouldn't dead head, the way the hips form in clusters is just so pretty! Kim, is that size of 98 FEET correct on HMF for Montecito??? Wowsers!!! The largest I thought roses got to was about 30 feet! wow wow wow!!! |
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| Sherry, Rugosas are some of the few roses which can set copious hips AND continue flowering heavily. Dead heading isn't necessary, particularly if you want the hips. You CAN dead head, it won't hurt it, you just won't have the pretty hips. Good luck with your bottomless pot to control suckering. I hope it works for you, but I'm not holding my breath! Kim |
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| I don't know where that height for Montecito came from, Tammy. The Huntington plant I photographed was forty feet up into that pecan tree when I first saw it in the early 80s. It had made it almost to the top of the tree. The rose is such a monster, I'd expect that the only things which might limit its ability to grow to enormous proportions would be depth of soil, support and water. Kim |
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- Posted by sherryocala 9A Florida (My Page) on Mon, Dec 3, 12 at 22:42
| Have I heard something about pulling suckers rather than cutting them? Sherry |
Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...
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- Posted by kittymoonbeam 10 (My Page) on Mon, Dec 3, 12 at 23:49
| What about the barriers used for running bamboo? I've got a traveler and I thought cutting his water off would stop him. He gets by just fine on the little that nature gives him. Digging out the expanding canes is hard work. One is all I can handle. 2 years ago, I took him back to 5 gallon size and now he's bigger than before. These are roses for people with acres or to grow wild. I thought pruning my rambler was hard work until I got my traveler. He was an oops from Vintage so I don't know his name. |
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- Posted by melissa_thefarm NItaly (My Page) on Tue, Dec 4, 12 at 0:52
| Sherry, I think that refers to rootstock suckers. If you cut them off it's like pruning the rootstock suckering growth, which is invigorated and grows back more enthusiastically than before. I'm glad you like the sound of R. gallica 'Splendens': it is a handsome creature. Mine has started suckering (top growth) in the last year or two, and perhaps I'll be able to get a bit of it and plant it somewhere a bit more accessible than its current position. I have a notion that some of these Asian jungle giants are just not adapted to our garden conditions. I've failed with R. laevigata, and 'Cooper's Burmese' is puny. Both of these could be just poor siting and site preparation, too. I mourn our lack of big trees able to support humongous climbers. Melissa |
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| I think one issue with these monsters is, many of us just can't provide enough as well as deep enough water for them. Kim |
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| Sherry, I was given the suggesstion by Karl earlier this year when I was inquiring about propagating Hansa and other rugosas (on their own roots). He said to just get a good grip and pull until the sucker breaks, and then replant it in some potting soil. I've tried it with Jeremiah Pink and R. Rugosa Alba and almost everyone has taken. When you yank them, you can actually see little roots already forming. I've attached the link below to that post. Tammy |
Here is a link that might be useful: Rooting Rugosas
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| I have Petite Pink Scotch, as well and yes, she is absolutely delightful. Another unique one I forgot to mention is R. Wichurana porterfolia, which is truly a ground cover--o more than 10" high. I have it covering a slope. Its very green, very hardy, with small leaves, long, long branches (not stiff enough to call them canes), and dainty white flowers that continue to pop out up until frost. My Rosa Glauca struggles here, but I had it in Santa Fe and the red canes against the adobe wall in winter was stunning. |
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- Posted by daisyincrete (My Page) on Tue, Dec 4, 12 at 8:30
| Rose Cerise Bouquet. I used to grow it in England. It is the most beautiful, elegant shrub ever. It doesn't have scented foliage, it is only once flowering, but it has such grace and beauty in the way it grows and holds itself, that it takes my breath away. It is the ONLY once flowering rose, I would ever grow again. HMF describes it a a shrub or climber. I only grew it as a shrub. Here is a link to show it. Unfortunately, the photographs cannot capture it's exceptional grace. It looks a lot better than this in real life. Daisy
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Here is a link that might be useful: Rose Cerise Bouquet
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