FavoriteRoses

Three Favorite Roses

Two Blossoms of the Rose, 'Madame Isaac Pereire' in Helen Cannon's Garden

Helen Cannon

Joan Shaw

Madame Isaac Pereire

The Bourbon rose, 'Madame Isaac Pereire', shown above in Helen Cannon's garden, is one of the most richly scented of the old garden roses. It's been around for quite awhile, having been introduced by the French breeder, Garçon, in 1881. Helen and I had enough trouble with the pronounciation of this rose that I went to one of Pat Wiley's old Roses of Yesterday catalogs to see what she made of it. I found that, according to Mrs. Wiley, the last name of Madam Isaac's surname is pronunced Par-ee-AIRE. This after years of my pronouncing this rose's name the same as Perrier, as in the mineral water of the same name. Oh, well.

Two newly opened buds of Madame Isaac Pereire

As you might have guessed, I have one of these roses, too. It was given to me by a friend of Helen's son (and my son-in-law), Steven Cannon, a young man from India named Arvind, who had raised it from a rooted cutting. Over the years since I planted it in the bed directly in front of the house, it's become buried in deep shade, with the result that it produces few blooms.

Every year I tell myself I must move it, and this winter, after looking at -- and smelling -- the lovely near-magenta pink blossoms from Helen's bush, I'm determined to do it. To the right is the result of two barely opened buds Helen sent home last night with my daughter, Melanie. These blossoms are the result of not quite a day in a vase full of water on the window sill (while perfuming the entire kitchen).

Both 'Madame Isaac Pereire' and the rose described below, 'Madame Louis LeVeque', are troubled by thrips and other insects, which I describe later on. These two fussy roses do have benefits of both beauty and fragrance, however. They both bloom throughout the growing season, and have the added cachet of prominent places in Rose history.

Madame Louis LeVeque

Madame Louis LaVeque bud

'Madame Louis LeVeque' was introduced a few years earlier than Pereire, in 1873, by the French breeder, LeVeque. The rose is a hybrid moss with a light covering of moss on the sepals and stems. It has a sweet fragrance and very pale pink blossoms (see photo at left).

It was some years after I planted this rose before I actually saw any of these lovely blossoms, however. The problem, as mentioned above, turned out to be thrips. I finally wrote to Patricia Wiley at Roses of Yesterday, since I'd received the rose from that nursery. This was back when Roses of Yesterday was still in business and still sending out catalogs and roses (many of them to me). I'd described my problem with LaVeque -- rose petals stuck together, the buds never opening, turning brown on the stem. (See brown-stained bud and contorted, half opened blossom below right.) Mrs. Wiley wrote by return mail that it sounded like thrips and told me to put a piece of white paper under the blossoms, shake them, and see what falls out. If it's a lot of little black spots, I had thrips.

I did what she suggested and finished up with a sheet of printing paper full of black spots. So it was a fact -- LeVeque had thrips! Up until then, my system of rose spraying consists of carrying a can of all-purpose stuff around as the spirit moves me and zapping anything that looks stressed. Now it was evident that I needed to be more systematic with LeVeque -- that is, if I ever hoped to see one of her rose buds actually open up into a full-fledged blossom.

So the following spring, my husband, Alan, after he sprayed both orchards, left a little solution in the tank and wetted the rose down well, including under the leaves. This got to the thrips early on before they did any damage. That year there was no thrip damage, the rose bush bloomed beautifully, and Alan's continued the treatment ever since. We have a low-spray orchard, so the rose gets a good wetting the same time the apple trees do, which is twice a season.

I should perhaps mention another reason for rose bud petals sticking together for those readers who might live in an area blessed with regular rainfall -- a long stretch of rainy weather. I'd read this in a rose bulletin early on, I think in one of the gardening magazines produced in the eastern part of the United States. I wondered at first if perhaps I had been watering the roses too much, since in this semi-arid clime, long stretches of rainy weather would be such a rarity as to warrant headlines in the local newspapers. I did watch my watering for a season, but the browning and dying of LeVeque's rose buds kept on happening and eventually, as I say, the problem turned out to be thrips.

Climber John Davis

Rose 'John Davis' in front of The Granary

Melanie's light pink climber, John Davis surrounded by lower minature varieties, Early Summer 2004

Melanie's climber, 'John Davis' (classified as a shrub), is far from an old rose (see photo above), though its growth habits and blossoms resemble the best of the old species roses with the added benefit of rebloom and resistance to disease. This rose, launched in 1986 by John Davis blossoms

the breeder, Svedja in Canada from hardy Kordesii stock, doesn't reach the height of its companion climber, 'William Baffin'. ('William Baffin' is another Kordesii progeny, and is shown in the photo above on the other side of the porch.) But 'John Davis' is indeed a feast for the eyes at the height of bloom in early summer. Its tumbling, close-packed branches overflow with clusters of double blossoms (40 petals) that have a light, spicy scent, serving as a striking foil for the tall, cascading branches of the 'William Baffin'.

A closeup of the blossoms of 'John Davis' are shown at left, a sweet sight all by themselves.

I should mention some of the miniatures in front of these two climbers. The mass of small pink and white blossoms in the front on the far right are those of the old polyantha, "Mignonette." This miniature was bred in the nursery, Guillot fils, and introduced in 1880. The bush mounds up to two feet and is covered with clusters of thirty to forty small one-inch double flowers ranging from bright rose to blush white with a good rebloom. The blossoms have a slight fragrance.

To the left in the photo is a newer polyantha, 'The Gift,' bred in the nursery, Dermits, in the 1980s. Its tiny blossoms are single and pure white with a sweet scent. 'The Gift' produces a prolific number of tiny currant-red hips in the fall. Their long sprays can therefore serve as a wonderful addition to wreaths and winter arrangements.

I've photographed the front of The Granary many times in early summer to capture this utterly charming group of climbers and the miniature roses in front of them, and I've never yet felt that I've done the group justice. There is simply nothing to compare with experiencing the sight of them while walking along the road toward the barn. It never fails to take my breath away.

Incidentally, be sure to click on QCFlower at the head of this page for some great information on flowers and their culture.

All the best,