I put ‘ Agnes ’ in the ground today . If I attend out the front door I can see her now , occupying a place of honor in my front border . Her roots are soundly water in and the surrounding ground has been tidily mulch . In the days to fall , she will be treated like royalty – waited on , watered and fed . With all this attention , you might believe that ‘ Agnes ’ is a rare yellow Clivia or at least an exotic abutilon . She is n’t . She is a intercrossed rugosa , one of the toughest rosiness around .
Anyone who has been to the seashore and noticed the works life has belike seen a rugosa rose . Though native to Asia , they expand in arenaceous American beach soil , impervious to salt spray . With pink individual flowers and golden stamen , rugosas liven things up in the summertime . Come twilight , they sport brightred hips the size of big cherry tomatoes . Rugosas gag at Maine winters and chortle through New Jersey summertime . They are so admirable , you would believe garden everywhere would be full of them . You would be wrong . you’re able to journey for statute mile in suburbia or even in inland towns and rural country and not find a species or hybrid rugosa .
There is only one reason for this rugosa shortfall — thorns . Most rosiness have thorny stems , but rugosas and rugosa hybrids have stems that are nothing but sticker . Unless your fingers are made of Kevlar , you may not pick rugosas without gloves . People with immaculate manicures avoid rugosas , even though the blossoms are generally beautiful and ofttimes fragrant .
Still , garden glove are comparatively inexpensive , and sources of peach are often concentrated to come by . Rugosas are worth the minimum expense for gloves and the nuisance of the occasional prick from a thorn . I made a dedication to rugosas as a source of beauty when I bought ‘ Agnes ’ .
When ‘ Agnes ’ pushes out her first few blossom later this bound they will be yellowed , single and fragrant . Since the bush is in the scandalmongering , white and peach delimitation , the color will be sodding . The flush may be pretty smaller than those on the neighboring Austin English rose , but finally there should be more of them . The foliage is dark green and crease , characteristic of all the rugosa and rugosa loanblend . When the bush is mature it will be between 4 - 6 - feet tall , which is also typical of the family .
If I go further into the rugosa realm , I will probably try an old understudy , ‘ Blanc Double de Coubert ’ . This rose , put in by the French rose breeder Cochet - Cochet in 1892 , is , as the name suggest , a white-hot double . Its blossoms are in particular enceinte with delicate snowy petals . The aroma is entrancing . For a smaller gardens , Jackson & Perkins has recently introduced a cultivar called ‘ Snow Owl ’ , that was bred in Germany , and has white single or semi - double prime .
Pink is always a stylish color for roses , and right now it is fashionable for entire garden as well . lover of pink will take great delight in ‘ Rosarie de l’Hay ’ , a cerise twice - flowered form , introduce in 1901 . ‘ Frau Dagmar Hastrup ’ , introduce in 1914 , has light pinkish single blooms and super large showy hips . ‘ Pierette ’ and the unimaginatively key out ‘ Purple Pavement ’ are two small pink cultivar that retain the desirable rugosa traits . English rise stock breeder David Austin has also produced ‘ Mrs. Doreen Pike ’ , a fluffy , medium pink rose with a heavyset habit .
apart from their other virtues , rugosas are drought broad , a valuable trait in this day and age . The coxa are full of vitamin ascorbic acid and are loved by bird and human jam Lord likewise . A few summers ago I was in a coastal town in Maine look up to the vast hips on some strapping rugosas . A few feet away a man was saying to a companion , “ Last fall we had so many rose hip that I made twenty bottles of rose hip hole . ” When his acquaintance praise the accomplishment , the human beings replied , “ I only wish that I did n’t hate rose rose hip hole . ”
by Elizabeth Ginsburg
