0086m
8086Original
In this mode of increasing roses, Nature, rather than the cultivator, may be said to do the work of propagation. Many sorts of roses throw out spontaneously long underground stems, from which roots soon issue, and which soon throw up an abundance of shoots above ground. When these suckers, as they are called, are separated from the parent, and planted apart, they make a strong growth, but rarely form plants so symmetrical as those raised from cuttings or layers.
0087m
RAISING NEW VARIETIES.—A layer, a cutting, a bud, a graft, and a sucker, are detached portions of an individual plant; and the plant resulting from them is of precisely the same character with the parent. But, when the seed germinates, it is not the reproduction of the same individual, but it is the birth of a new one. The offspring will show a family likeness; but it is by no means probable, at least in the case of the rose, that its features will be precisely the same with those of its parent. Plant the seeds of a rose; as, for example, of the Hybrid Perpetual, La Reine, and of the resulting seedlings: all will probably show traces, more or less, of their origin; but the greater part will be far inferior to the parent. Some will be single; many will be half double; and, among a large number of seedlings, we shall be fortunate if we find two or three equal in beauty to La Reine herself. Nor is it at all likely that even these will be her precise counterparts. They may possibly be her equals; but they will not exactly resemble her: and thus we obtain a new and valuable acquisition to the list of roses. Now, if, instead of singly gathering and sowing the seeds of La Reine, we first impregnate its flowers with the pollen of a different variety, such as the Giant of Battles, our chance of a valuable result is increased, because, if we are fortunate, we combine the desirable qualities of two sorts. It is not impossible that we may thus produce a rose combining the vigorous growth and large globular flowers of La Reine with some portion of the vivid coloring of the Giant of Battles. It is by the raising of seedlings with or without hybridization that the innumerable roses that decorate our gardens and fill the catalogues of nursery-men have been produced. M. Laffay, to whom more than to any other single cultivator we are indebted for bringing into existence the splendid family of the Hybrid Perpetual roses, raised in one year more than three hundred thousand seedlings. Of these, all but a small portion were, no doubt, pulled up, and thrown away as worthless, after their first blooming; the rest were allowed to stand for further trial: and if, finally, a score or two of roses really distinct and valuable were obtained, the year's culture may have been regarded as a great success. It requires a long time before the character of a seedling-rose can be thoroughly ascertained. M. Margottin, another eminent rose-grower, says that no conscientious cultivator will permit a seedling to pass out of his hands until lie has given it a six-years' trial.
The raising of roses from seed is an occupation of so much interest, that few who have fairly entered upon it have ever willingly abandoned it. Many choice roses have been raised by amateurs; and those who have the time and means to enter on a large or a small scale upon this pursuit will find it a source of abundant enjoyment. In the next chapter, we shall point out the combinations from which the existing classes of Hybrid roses have sprung; and hereafter, when we come to the description of these classes, we shall add a few suggestions as to other combinations likely to produce good results.
Some roses bear seed freely, while others can hardly be induced to bear it at all. The hybridizer should take note of their peculiarities in this respect, or he will throw away much labor and patience; for it is a thankless task to hybridize a rose, which, after all the labor spent upon it, will not produce a single seed-vessel. Fortunately, many of the best roses bear seed abundantly; and La Reine, General Jacqueminot, Jules Margottin, Madame Laffay, and many others as good as these, may confidently be relied on. It is a good rule, that no seedling-rose is worth preserving, or at least worth propagating, that is not, in some one point, superior to or distinct from any other rose existing.
Roses should be hybridized immediately after they open, or they will become thoroughly fertilized with their own pollen, and the object of the operation will thus be defeated. The best time of the day is about ten o'clock in the morning, as soon as the sun has dried the dew from the centre of the flower. The pollen of the rose whose qualities it is wished to impart may be applied to the pistils of the maternal or seed-bearing flower with a camel's-hair pencil; or one rose may be held over the other, and tapped with the finger till the pollen falls upon the pistils of the seed-bearer. Roses are uncertain as to the production of pollen. In some seasons and some situations it is abundant, while in others it is produced very scantily. The impregnated roses may be marked by strings or labels tied to their stems. The seed should not be gathered till the first frost; and, to insure its ripening, the plant should stand in a warm, sunny exposure. The pods should be laid in the sun to dry, then broken up, and the seed separated by means of a sieve.
We have found the following mode of sowing a successful one: A frame—a shallow hot-bed frame answers perfectly—should be prepared by making within it a bed of loam, old manure, leaf-mould, and sand, at least eighteen inches deep. These materials should be thoroughly mixed, and the surface layer for an inch or two in depth sifted through a moderately coarse sieve, and then levelled and smoothed. The seeds may be sown broadcast; that is to say, scattered over the surface. They may be sown thickly, as not a third part will germinate; and, when sown, they should be pressed firmly into the soil with a board or the back of a spade. Then the same soil should be sifted over them to the depth of half an inch, and pressed down very lightly. Some will prefer to sow them in drills, which should be about six inches apart; the seed in no case being more than half an inch deep. Now leave the frame open, and exposed to rain and frost. Just before the heavy snows begin, and when the whole is hard frozen, cover it with boards and mats, that it may remain frozen till spring. The object of this is to protect the seeds from mice, which are exceedingly fond of them. When the mild weather begins, open the frame, and allow the ground to thaw: keeping, however, a close watch upon them; for, though these depredators like to do their work under cover and in darkness, there is still some little danger of their attacks. As the soil warms, the seeds will begin to come up. Some of the ever-blooming roses may blossom the first season; but the Hardy June kinds will not show bloom before the third, or even the fourth year. If the plants are too crowded, pull up some of them when the ground is softened after a rain, and plant them in a bed by themselves. In the autumn, take them all up, and heel them in a mouse-proof frame for safe keeping through the winter. In the spring, plant them out in rich soil, a foot apart. They might, indeed, be wintered safely in the frame where they originally grew: but this is attended with one disadvantage; for many of the seeds will not germinate till the second year; and, in removing the plants at that time, these infant seedlings would be destroyed; whereas, by leaving them undisturbed, a second crop may be obtained. Care must be taken throughout to keep the frame free from weeds.
The eminent English rose-grower, Mr. Rivers, recommends a method of raising seedlings, which we have not tried, but which we have no doubt is a good one, though not applicable to raising them on a large scale. We give his directions in his own words:—
"The hips of all the varieties of roses will, in general, be fully ripe by the beginning of November: they should then be gathered, and kept entire in a flower-pot filled with dry sand, carefully guarded from mice. In February, or by the first week in March, they must be broken to pieces with the fingers, and sown in flower-pots, such as are generally used for sowing seeds in, called 'seed-pans;' but, for rose-seeds, they should not be too shallow: nine inches in depth will be enough. These should be nearly, but not quite, filled with a rich compost of rotten manure, and sandy loam or peat. The seeds may be covered to the depth of about half an inch with the same compost. A piece of kiln-wire must then be placed over the pot, fitting closely at the rim, so as to prevent the ingress of mice, which are passionately fond of rose-seeds. There must be space enough between the wire and the mould for the young plants to come up: half an inch will probably be found enough. The pots of seed must never be placed under glass, but kept constantly in the open air, in a full sunny exposure, as the wire will shade the mould, and prevent its drying. Water should be given occasionally in dry weather. The young plants will perhaps make their appearance in April or May; but very often the seed will not vegetate till the second spring. When they have made their 'rough leaves,' that is, when they have three or four leaves, exclusive of their seed-leaves, they must be carefully raised with the point of a narrow priming-knife, potted into small pots, and placed in the shade: if the weather be very hot and dry, they may be covered with a hand-glass for a few days. They may remain in those pots a month, and then be planted out into a rich border: by the end of August, those that are robust growers will have made shoots long enough to take buds from. Those that have done so may be cut down, and one or two strong stocks budded with each: these will, the following summer, make vigorous shoots; and the summer following, if left unpruned, to a certainty they will produce flowers. This is the only method to insure seedling roses flowering the third year: many will do so that are not budded; but very often the superior varieties are shy bloomers on their own roots, till age and careful culture give them strength.
"It may be mentioned here, as treatment applicable to all seed-bearing roses, that, when it is desirable the qualities of a favorite rose should preponderate, the petals of the flower to be fertilized must be opened gently with the fingers. * A flower that will expand in the morning should be opened the afternoon or evening previous, and the anthers all removed with a pair of pointed scissors: the following morning, when this flower is fully expanded, it must be fertilized with a flower of some variety, of which it is desired to have seedlings partaking largely of its qualities.
* "It requires some watchfulness to do this at the propertime: if too soon, the petals will be injured in forcingthem open; and in hot weather, in July, if delayed only anhour or two, the anthers will be found to have shed theirpollen. To ascertain precisely when the pollen is in a fitstate for transmission, a few of the anthers should begently pressed with the finger and thumb: if the yellow dustadheres to them, the operation may be performed. It requiresclose examination and some practice to know when the flowerto be operated upon is in a fit state to receive the pollen:as a general rule, the flowers ought to be in the same stateof expansion; or, in other words, about the same age. It isonly in cases where it is wished for the qualities of aparticular rose to predominate that the removal of theanthers of the rose to be fertilized is necessary: thus, ifa yellow climbing rose is desired by the union of the YellowBrier with the Ayrshire, 'every anther should be removedfrom the latter, so that it is fertilized solely with thepollen of the former. In some cases, where it is desirableto have the qualities of both parents in an equal degree,the removal of the anthers need not take place: thus I havefound by removing them from the Luxembourg Moss, andfertilizing that rose with a dark variety of Rosa Galliea,that the features of the Moss Rose are totally lost in itsoffspring, and they become nearly pure varieties of RosaGalliea; but if the anthers of the Moss Rose are leftuntouched, and it is fertilized with Rosa Galliea,interesting hybrids are the result, more or less mossy. Thisseems to make superfetation very probable; yet Dr. Lindley,in 'Theory of Horticulture' p.332, 'thinks it is not verylikely to occur.'"
To exemplify this, we will suppose that a climbing Moss Rose with red or crimson flowers is wished for. The flowers of the Blush Ayrshire, which bears seed abundantly, may be selected, and, before expansion, the anthers removed. The following morning, or as soon after the operation as these flowers open, they should be fertilized with those of the Luxembourg Moss. If the operation succeed, seeds will be procured, from which the probability is that a climbing rose will be produced with the habit and flowers of the Moss Rose, or at least an approximation to them; and as these hybrids often bear seed freely, by repeating the process with them, the at present apparent remote chance of getting a climbing Moss Rose may be brought very near.
"I mention the union of the Moss and Ayrshire roses by way of illustration, and merely to point out to the amateur how extensive and how interesting a field of operations is open in this way. I ought to give a fact that has occurred in my own experience, which will tell better with the sceptical than a thousand anticipations. About four years since, in a pan of seedling Moss roses was one with a most peculiar habit, even when very young: this has since proved a hybrid rose, partaking much more of the Scotch Rose than of any other, and, till the plant arrived at full growth, I thought it a Scotch rose, the seed of which had by accident been mixed with that of the Moss Rose, although I had taken extreme care. To my surprise, it has since proved a perfect hybrid, having the sepals and the fruit of the Provence Rose, with the spiny and dwarf habit of the Scotch Rose: it bears abundance of hips, which are all abortive. * The difference in the fruit of the Moss and Provence roses and that of the Scotch is very remarkable, and this it was which drew my particular attention to the plant in question.
* "It is more than probable, that, if the flowers of thisrose were fertilized with those of the single Moss Hose,they would produce seed from which some curious hybrid Mossroses might be expected."
It was raised from the same seed and in the same seed-pan as the Single Crimson Moss Rose. As this strange hybrid came from a Moss Rose, accidentally fertilized, we may expect that art will do much more for us."
0097m
Some of the more hardy kinds of climbing roses, as, for example, the Queen of the Prairies, may be induced to wear borrowed robes, and assume beauties beyond those with which Nature endowed them. At the proper season, they may be budded here and there with some of the most hardy and vigorous of the June and Hybrid Perpetual roses. As these varieties bloom earlier than the Prairie roses, the period of bloom of the climber will be greatly protracted by this process, while at the same time it will be made to bear flowers incomparably finer in form and color than its own. It will be necessary, however, in our Northern climate, to protect it by nailing mats over it, since otherwise many of the buds will be winter-killed; and, as it is expected to yield more than its natural share of bloom, it should be stimulated with more than the usual manuring, and pruned more closely than the ordinary climbing roses.
0098m
We have before spoken of the difficulty of cultivating standard roses, or roses budded on tall stems, in our climate. It is possible, however, to produce a kind of standard without a resort to budding. We may choose some of the most hardy and vigorous of the June roses,—we may find such especially in the class known as the Hybrid Chinas,—and encourage the growth of a single, strong, upright stem, removing all other shoots from the base of the plant as fast as they appear. The stem should be kept straight by tying it to a stick till it has gained strength enough to hold itself erect. Thus, in a single season, we shall have, with some varieties, a stem five or six feet high. Early in spring, prune it down to the first healthy and plump bud. During the following season, allow no shoots to develop themselves, except at the top; and, in the succeeding spring, prune back these top-shoots to two or three eyes. All of these eyes will, in their turn, develop into shoots; and these, again, are to be pruned back like the first. Thus, in two or three seasons, we obtain a thick bushy head at the top of a tall upright stem; in short, a standard, capable of bearing even a New-England winter.
0099m
It is always better to prepare beds for roses in the autumn, that they may have the benefit of a thorough exposure to the winter frost. With this view, the soil should be thrown up into ridges as roughly as possible. It will then be thoroughly frozen through, and subjected to all the changes of temperature during the season. This will not only tend to destroy worms and noxious insects, but it will separate the particles of the soil, and leave it light and pliable. Soil thrown into ridges can also be worked earlier in the spring than that which is left at its natural level.
The cardinal points of successful rose-culture are a good soil, good pruning, and good cultivation. By cultivation, we mean a repeated digging, hoeing, or forking of the earth around the plants, by which the surface is kept open, and enabled freely to receive the dew, rain, and air, with its fertilizing gases. Plants so treated will suffer far less in a drought than if the soil had been left undisturbed; for not only will it now absorb the dew at night, but it will freely permit the moisture which always exists at certain depths below the surface to rise, and benefit the thirsty roots. For a similar reason, the process of subsoiling, or trenching, by which the earth is loosened and stirred to a great depth, is exceedingly beneficial to roses, since the lower portions of the disturbed soil are a magazine of moisture which the severest drought cannot exhaust.
With newly-planted roses it is well to practise "mulching" with manure; or, in other words, to place manure on the surface around the roots of the plants. This keeps the ground moist and open, while every rain washes down a portion of nutriment to the roots.
0100m
Roses may be planted in clumps, on the lawn, with far better effect than when arranged in formal beds. They may be separated according to their classes, as June roses, Bourbons, Hybrid Perpétuals, Mosses, &c.; and the effect will be vastly better, if, instead of mingling colors indiscriminately, each is placed by itself. Thus the pure white of Madame Plantier will form a rich contrast with the deep crimson of General Jacqueminot, the vivid rose of Jules Margottin, the clear flesh-color of Ville de Bruxelles, and the pale rose of Baronne Prévost, each massed by itself; while all these varied hues are beautifully relieved by the fresh green of a well-kept lawn with its surrounding trees and shrubbery.
0101m
0103m
0105m
LIKE ALL things living, in the world of mind or of matter, the rose is beautified, enlarged, and strengthened by a course of judicious and persevering culture, continued through successive generations. The art of horticulture is no leveller. Its triumphs are achieved by rigid systems of selection and rejection, founded always on the broad basis of intrinsic worth. The good cultivator propagates no plants but the best. He carefully chooses those marked out by conspicuous merit; protects them from the pollen of inferior sorts; intermarries them, perhaps, with other varieties of equal vigor and beauty; saves their seed, and raises from it another generation. From the new plants thus obtained he again chooses the best, and repeats with them the same process. Thus the rose and other plants are brought slowly to their perfect development. It is in vain to look for much improvement by merely cultivating one individual. Culture alone will not make a single rose double, or a dull rose brilliant. We cultivate the parent, and look for our reward in the offspring.
The village maiden has a beauty and a charm of her own; and so has her counterpart in the floral world,—the wild rose that grows by the roadside. Transplanted to the garden, and, with its offspring after it to the fourth and fifth generation, made an object of skilful culture, it reaches at last a wonderful development. The flowers which in the ancestress were single and small become double in the offspring, and expand their countless petals to the sun in all the majesty of the Queen of Flowers. The village maid has risen to regal state. She has lost her native virgin charm; but she sits throned and crowned in imperial beauty.
Now, all the roses of our gardens have some wild ancestress of the woods and meadows, from whom, in the process of successive generations, their beauties have been developed, sometimes by happy accidents, but oftener by design. Thus have arisen families of roses, each marked with traces of its parentage. These are the patricians of the floral commonwealth, gifted at once with fame, beauty, and rank.
The various wild roses differ greatly in their capacity of improvement and development. In some cases, the offspring grow rapidly, in color, fulness, and size, with every successive generation. In other cases, they will not improve at all; and the rose remains a wild rose still, good only for the roadside. With others yet, there seems to be a fixed limit, which is soon reached, and where improvement stops. It requires, even with the best, good culture and selection through several generations before the highest result appears. In horticulture, an element of stability is essential to progress. When the florist sees in any rose a quality which he wishes to develop and perfect, he does not look for success to the plant before him, but to the offspring which he produces from this plant. 'But this production and culture must be conducted 'wisely and skilfully, or the offspring will degenerate instead of improving.
There are different kinds of culture, with different effects. That which is founded in the laws of Nature, and aims at a universal development, produces for its result not only increased beauty, but increased symmetry, strength, and vitality. On the other hand, it is in the power of the skilful florist to develop or to repress whatever quality he may please. By artificial processes of culture, roses have been produced, beautiful in form and color, but so small, that the whole plant, it is said, might be covered with an egg-shell. These are results of the ingenious florists of China and Japan. The culture that refines without invigorating, belongs, it seems, to a partial or perverted civilization.
These several families of roses, resulting from the development of the several species of wild rose, have mingled together; in other words, they have intermarried: for Linnaeus has shown that "the loves of the flowers" are more than a conceit of poetical fancy. From the fertilization of the flowers of a rose of one family with the pollen of a rose of another family arises a mixed offspring, calledhybrids: Seeds—which are vegetable eggs—are first produced; and these seeds germinate, or hatch, into a brood of young plants, combining in some degree the qualities of their parents. As this process of intermixture may be carried on indefinitely, a vast number of new varieties has resulted from it.
The botanical classification of the rose is a perplexity to botanists. Its garden classification—quite another matter—is no less a source of embarrassment to its amateur, not to say professional, cultivator. To many, indeed, its entire nomenclature is a labyrinth of confusion; and some have gone to the length of proposing to abolish distinctions, which, in their eyes, seem arbitrary or fanciful. These distinctions, however, are founded in Nature, though the superstructure built upon her is sometimes flimsy enough to justify the impatience of its assailants. The chief difficulty arises from the extent to which the hybridization of the rose has been carried, and the vast entanglement of combinations which has resulted. Out of a propensity to classify, where, in the nature of things, precise classification is impossible, has arisen the equivocal and shadowy character of many of the nominal distinctions.
Omitting less important divisions, the following are the groups into which cultivated roses are ordinarily divided: The Provence,* the Moss,* the French,* the Hybrid China, the Damask,* the Alba,* the Austrian Brier,* the Sweet-brier,* the Scotch,* the Double Yellow,* the Ayrshire,* the Sempervirens,* the Multiflora,* the Boursault,* the Banksia,* the Prairie.* These bloom once in the season. The following are perpetual orremontant: The China,* the Tea,* the Bourbon, the Hybrid Perpetual, the Perpetual Moss, the Damask Perpetual,* the Noisette, the Musk,* the Macartney,* the Microphylla.*
Some of the above are marked with a star*: these are roses ofpure blood. The rest are roses of mixed or hybrid origin. By the former are meant those which have sprung, without intermixture, from the wild roses which grew naturally in various parts of the world, and which are the only roses of which the botanical classifier takes cognizance. Many of them are of great beauty, and would be highly prized for ornamental uses, were they not eclipsed by the more splendid double varieties, which the industry of the florist has developed from them. Each of these groups of unmixed roses, however modified in form, size, or color, retains, as already mentioned, distinctive features of the native type from which it sprang. Yet it often happens that the name is misapplied. Thus a rose called Damask is not always a Damask, but a hybrid between a Damask and some other variety. The true distinctive features of the group are thus rendered, in some nominal members of it, so faint, that they can scarcely be recognized. Leaving these bastards out of view, we will consider at present only the legitimate offspring of the various families of the rose.
On Mount Caucasus grows a single wild rose, from the seeds of which have sprung the numerous family of the Provence or Cabbage roses, very double, very large, and very fragrant. This race is remarkable for its tendency to sport, from which have resulted some of the most singular and beautiful forms of the rose. For example, a rose-colored variety of the Provence produced a branch bearing striped flowers, and from that branch has been propagated the Striped Provence. The Crested Moss is the product of another of these freaks, being of the pure Provence race. The Common Moss, and all its progeny, have the same origin; being derived, in all probability, from a sporting branch of one of the Provence roses.
The family of the French-Rose, or Rosa Gallica, is of vast extent, and, though including many diverse shades of color,—some pale, some bright, others spotted, striped, or marbled,—is commonly recognized without much difficulty by its family features. It is a native of Southern Europe.
The wild progenitor of the Damask or Damascus roses is a native of Syria. The nameDamask, by the way, is popularly applied to deep-colored roses in general; but its floral signification is very different. In this group, for the first time, we meet with a feature, which, desirable as it is, was not many years since regarded as rare and exceptional. June has always been regarded as the month of the rose; but some of the Damasks have the peculiarity of blooming twice, or more than twice, during the season. These have been placed in a group by themselves, and christened Damask Perpétuais. The remontant character, however, is not confined to them; for individual plants belonging to groups and varieties which usually bloom but once will sometimes display an autumnal bloom. Thus the common wild rose of New England is now and then to be seen covered with flowers in September; and there is little doubt, that, from the seeds of these twice-blooming individuals, a new race of hardyremontantroses might be produced. It should be added, that many of the so-called Damask Perpetuals are not pure Damask, but crossed with the blood of other families.
Of the remaining races of pure blood, the Alba is remarkable for the delicate coloring of its flowers; the greater part being, as the name imports, white, or nearly so. The original variety grows wild in Central Europe.
The Austrian Brier is another family, of features very strongly marked. Yellow and copper are its prevailing colors; and from its habit of growth, and the color of its twigs, it is easily recognized under all its forms. Its original types are natives of the south of Europe, and probably of Persia; to which country we owe its finest development,—the well-known Persian Yellow.
The Double Yellow Rose, Rosa Sulphurea, remarkable for its beauty, and, in our climate, notorious for its intractable and uncertain character, is regarded by some botanists as belonging to a group distinct from the preceding. The Single Yellow, from which it must have sprung, has been found wild in the north of India.
The Sweet-brier, found wild in various parts of the world, is too well known to need further notice. The American variety differs distinctly from the European.
The Scotch roses owe their origin to the dwarf wild rose of Scotland. The Ayrshire is a family of climbing roses, originating from the wild trailing rose, Rosa Arven-sis, common in the British islands. The best of them are said, however, to be hybrids between this rose' and other species. The Boursault roses are descendants of Rosa Alpina, a native of the Alps; and no family is more clearly marked by distinctive features. The Sempervirens and the Multiflora are, with us at least, less familiar. Both are climbers, like the former; the one originating from a wild rose of Italy, the other from a wild rose of Japan. The Banksia, with its smooth, shining leaves, and slender, green stems, is well known in every greenhouse. Its progenitor is a native of China or Tartary, and the improved varieties are chiefly due to the labors of Chinese florists.
There is another race of climbers, held in great scorn by foreign florists, but admirably adapted to our climate, under whose influences they put forth beauties by no means contemptible. These are the progeny of the wild Michigan or Prairie Rose, rampant growers, and generally sturdy enough to outface our hardest winters. The best of them, however, the Baltimore Belle, is evidently the offspring of a foreign marriage, which, while contributing fragrance and beauty to the rugged race of the prairies, has detracted something from its hardihood. The union, probably accidental, seems to have been with the Tea Rose or the Noisette.
Of the foregoing groups, all except the Damask Perpetual are once-blooming. The following have, to a greater or less extent, the desirable character of a continued or successive bloom.
The Macartney Rose is a wild rose of China, from which a few improved varieties have been raised from seed. Its evergreen shining foliage is its most attractive feature. The Microphylla, or Small-leaved Rose, is closely akin to the Macartney, and, like the latter, is a native of the East.
The Musk is a rose much more familiarly known. It descends from a Persian or Syrian progenitor, and its vigorous growth, rich clusters of bloom, and peculiar fragrance, have long made it a favorite. But by far the most interesting and valuable among the unmixed races of ever-blooming roses are the numberless offspring of Rosa Indica, in its several varieties. To it we owe all the China and Tea-scented roses, while to its foreign alliances we are indebted for a vast and increasing host of brilliant hybrids.
Thus, from the families of pure blood, we come at length to those in which is mingled that of two or more distinct races. Convey the pollen of a China rose to the stigmas of a French, Damask, or Provence rose, and from the resulting seed an offspring arises different from either parent. Hence a new group of roses known as the Hybrid Chinas. The parents are both of moderate growth. The offspring is usually of such vigor as to form with readiness a pillar eight feet high. Its foliage is distinct, its bloom often as profuse and brilliant as that of the China, and its constitution as hardy, or nearly so, as that of the French Rose. Unlike the former, it blooms but once in the year, or only in a few exceptional instances shows a straggling autumnal flower. By a vicious system of subdivision, the group has been separated into Hybrid China, Hybrid Bourbon, and Hybrid Noisette. The two latter are the same as the first: except, in the one case, a slight infusion of the Damask Perpetual; and, in the latter, of the Musk Rose. In many cases, no human discernment could detect the effects of the admixture.
Again: convey the pollen of the China or Tea Rose to the flowers of the Musk, orvice versaand for a result we obtain the Noisette, inheriting from the former various striking characteristics of foliage and bloom, and from the latter its vigorous climbing habit and clustering inflorescence. But, by impregnation through several generations, some of the Noisettes retain so little of their Musk parent, that its traits are almost obliterated: they no longer bloom in clusters, and can scarcely be distinguished from the pure Tea Rose.
Again: a union of a Damask Perpetual with a China rose has produced a distinct race, of vigorous habit and peculiar foliage, possessing in a high degree the ever-blooming character of both its parents. It is hardier than the China Rose, though usually unable to bear a New-England winter unprotected. This is the Bourbon Rose, a brilliant and beautiful group, worth all the care which in this latitude its out-door culture requires.
The Moss Rose, impregnated with various ever-blooming varieties, has borne hybrids partially retaining the mossy stem and calyx, with a tendency more or less manifest to bloom in the autumn. Hence the group of the Perpetual Moss, a few only of whose members deserve the name.
It is evident, that, by continuing the process of hybridizing, hybrids may be mixed with hybrids, till the blood of half a score of the original races is mingled in one plant. This, in some cases, is, without doubt, actually the case; and this bastard progeny must, of necessity, be classified rather by its visible characteristics than by its parentage. Thus a host of ever-blooming hybrids, which are neither Noisette nor Bourbon nor Perpetual Moss, have been cast into one grand group, under the comprehensive title of Hybrid Perpetuals. Whence have they sprung? What has been their parentage? The question is easier asked than answered: for as, in a great nation of the West, one may discern the lineaments and hear the accents of diverse commingled races; so here we may trace the features of many and various families of Indian or Siberian, Chinese or European, extraction. The Hybrid Perpetuals, however, inherit theirremontantcharacter chiefly from Rosa Indica,—the China or Tea Rose,—and, in a far less degree, from the Damask Perpetual. An infusion of the former exists, in greater or less degree, in all of them; while the blood of the Damask Perpetual shows its traces in comparatively few. Many of the group are the results of a union between the Hybrid China roses and some variety of the China or Tea. Others owe their origin to the Hybrid China and the Bourbon, both parents being hybrids of Rosa Indica. Others are offspring of the Hybrid China crossed with the Damask Perpetual; while many spring from intermarriages within the group itself,—Hybrid Perpetual with Hybrid Perpetual.
By some over-zealous classifiers, this group has been cut up into various subdivisions, as Bourbon Perpetual, Rose de Rosomène, and the like; a procedure never sufficiently to be deprecated, as tending to produce no results but perplexity and confusion. Where there, can be no definite basis of division, it is well to divide as little as may be; and it is to be hoped that secession from the heterogeneous commonwealth of the Hybrid Perpetuals will be effectually repressed. In regard to roses in general, while a classification founded on evident natural affinities is certainly desirable, yet, in the name of common sense, let us avoid the multiplication of new hybrid groups, founded on flimsy distinctions, and christened with new names, which begin with meaning little, and end with meaning nothing.
In our enumeration of the families and varieties of the rose, we shall make two great divisions,—that of the "Summer," or once-blooming, and that of the "Autumnal," or "ever-blooming" roses. In each of these divisions, we shall place first the roses of unmixed race, and, after them, the hybrids which have sprung from their combinations.
0119m
0120m
THESE ARE roses which bloom but once in the year; hence they have lost favor of late: for superb families of roses, fully equal in beauty, if not in hardiness, and endowed with an enviable power of renewing or perpetuating their charms,—of smiling in October as well as in June, and glowing in full effulgence even on the edge of winter,—have dazzled us into a forgetfulness of our ancient favorites.
Yet all the poetry of the rose belongs to these old roses of summer. It is they that bloomed in white and red in the rival shields of York and Lancaster; and it is they that, time out of mind, have been the no silent interpreters of hearts too full to find a ruder utterance.
For the rest, they are, in the main, very hardy, very easy of culture, and often very beautiful.
0121m
Rosa Centifolia.—This is the family of the old, well-known, and deservedly admired Cabbage Rose. Its ancestors, as we have seen, grew on Mount Caucasus; though some have supposed that it is a native of the south of France: hence the name Provence, by which it is often known in England, though it is never so designated in France. The French, translating its Latin name, Rosa Centifolia, or the Hundred-leaved Rose, commonly call it Rose à Cent Feuilles. It is supposed to have been known to the Romans, and to have been one of their favorite roses; and it was introduced into England before the end of the sixteenth century, where at least, until these latter days, it has been greatly admired and prized. Recently, however, the introduction of the families of hardy, ever-blooming roses, has thrown the Cabbage and all its compeers into the shade. Nevertheless, it is one of the most desirable of flowers; and even those who are disposed to pass it by with slight regard will never deny that some of the progeny which have arisen from it are unsurpassed in beauty and attractiveness. It is remarkable among roses for the singular changes, in horticultural language called "sports," which it has assumed, and which, among other results, have given rise to the entire family of Moss roses, of which we shall speak in the next section.
The prevailing colors in this group are light. The Cabbage Rose is a somewhat weak grower in a heavy soil, though in a light soil it grows vigorously. As a general rule, it needs close pruning. The members of the family are numerous; but, besides the Old Cabbage, the following are the best: The Dutch Provence is remarkable for the size of its flowers, in which respect it even surpasses the Old Cabbage. The Unique Provence is probably a sport from the Old Cabbage; that is to say, an accidental variation of the flowers on some particular branch; which branch being propagated, the accidental features become permanent. The Unique Provence, which is pure white, has, in its turn, produced another sport, called the Striped Unique, the flowers being white, striped with lake; though they are very capricious in their coloring, sometimes opening pure white, and occasionally light rose. But a more remarkable sport of the Provence is the variety called the Crested Provence, Rosa Cristata, or, very commonly among us, the Crested Moss. It is not, however, a true Moss, as its stems are smooth. Its peculiarity consists in a curious and very beautiful mossy growth about the calyx. This growth is developed in proportion to the vigor of the plant: therefore it should be strongly manured and closely pruned, as should the whole race of Provence roses. Adeline, the Duc de Choiseul, the Stadtholder, and, above all, the Reine de Provence, are beautiful varieties of this group. To it also belong a sub-group of Miniature or Pompone roses, well suited for edging beds. They bloom early, and are exceedingly pretty and graceful. Among the best of them are the White Burgundy, the Dwarf Burgundy, De Meaux, and Spong.
The above are all old roses; for it is rarely that a cultivator of the present day will give himself the trouble to raise new varieties of any of the June roses, excepting always the Mosses, which can never be out of favor.