Fossil records suggest these are amongst the oldest roses on the planet – dating from at least 30 million years ago. They are very hardy, need little attention and flower repeatedly. The species comes from Japan, Northern China and Korea. It – and its many forms – are very widely grown, and deservedly so. The […]

Roses had been developed in China for hundreds of years before that country began to open its borders to English trade. China roses were developed largely from Rosa chinensis, a native of China that grows as a vigorous once-flowering climber but had produced in cultivation a number of short, bushy ‘sports’ that flowered almost continuously. The […]

Portland roses are a small group of hybrids derived from a rose named after a plant-collecting Duchess of Portland around 1780. The original is bright red, and flowers every six weeks or so through summer and autumn. Once thought to contain ‘China blood’, it has now been conclusively established by DNA analysis that they are […]

Moss roses appeared towards the end of the 17th century, when a ‘sport’ from the Centifolia rose was found with interesting ‘mossy’ characteristics. This became known as R. muscosa. The flower stem, calyx and sepals are covered in small, slightly sticky glandular structures that resemble moss, but have a scent of pine-leaves when touched. A […]

  First developed by Dutch nurserymen in the late 16th century, Rosa centifolia was said to have more than 100 petals, and its rounded shape gave rise to its English name of the ‘Cabbage Rose’. In John Gerard’s Herball (London 1597), it is also described as ‘The Great Holland Rose’ and ‘The Province Rose’ (from Provence, France, where it […]

The oldest Alba rose has semi-double flowers and is known as ‘Semiplena’. It is the white rose that the Yorkists chose as their badge in the 15th century. A fully double form called ‘Maxima’ was the emblem of the Jacobites in the 18th century. Again, DNA analysis has established that they are the result of a […]

DNA analysis has recently established that the original Damask roses evolved as the result of a natural double crossing of three species, i.e. a hybrid produced by crossing R. gallica with R. moschata (‘The Musk Rose’) crossed again with R. fedtschenkoana. This hybridisation must have taken place in cultivation – probably in Central Asia – since the natural habitat of […]

From Rosa gallica, a species indigenous to central and southern Europe including France – hence gallica, meaning ‘of Gaul’. Natural variation gave rise to forms with a few extra petals, of which the best known is R. gallica ‘Officinalis’, called the ‘Provins Rose’ after the town to the south-east of Paris where it has been grown commercially for […]

Species are native only to regions north of the equator, from North America through Europe, North Africa, the Middle East to Asia. There are about 150 species in total, the majority in Asia. Most are shades of pink or white with a few reds and yellows. All have five petals with the exception of the […]