The Single Life

One summer afternoon a few years ago, I had the occasion to be driving with a friend down along the waterfront. The windows were down, the air was warm, and we were zipping along at a goodly pace, when the car was suddenly filled with deep, intense perfume. "Stop! Turn around!", I commanded, and she did. We drove back, this time more slowly, and to my wonderment, there stretched a length of roses unlike any I had ever seen.

Single they were, with loose papery petals of intense magenta and translucent white. I was introduced for the first time, to Rosa Rugosa. They bloomed in abundance in a locale both windy and salt laden, and what fragrance! Thus began my love affair with single roses.

Now Rosa Rugosa is a bit ungainly to the eye, having a rather uninhibited and raggedy look, but I rather enjoy its wild abandon. The city mows them down to about six inches every fall, and every spring they leap back up to about thigh high or more. Having grown them in my own garden, I can understand something of the reasoning behind this shearing, as my rugosas resemble nothing more than dead, dried, thorny sticks in the winter. Ugly? Most decidedly they are, and they serve as catchers to every stray bit of litter or dead leaf that dares try to cross the path, but still I put up with them.

A more formidable hedge you are not likely to find, as the thorns are narrow and needle sharp. Even my leather gloves proved to be no lasting match, and I handle them gingerly and as little as possible. Why, you ask, would I put up with such an illmannered rose? Because its perfume is amazing, and the blooms are as delicately wrought as rice paper. My eye delights in the form, and my nose by the fragrance. This is also one of the toughest roses you are likely to find, and it grows very well in coastal areas where the salt winds would make a lesser rose falter. A native of Japan, this rose is not plagued by black spot, and in fact reacts badly to spraying for the disease. If you have problems with people cutting across your property, or you have an area you wish to hedge, I guarantee this rose will redirect traffic.

It will sucker, so keep an eye out for that. I tend to just relocate some of the suckers after severing them, to thicken out the hedge, and leave others just as they are. After the blooms have faded, the leaves are an extremely pleasant, deeply ridged (rugose), soft medium green, with tender new growth of a terrific chartruese. They make a nice contrast to the leathery, shiny foilage of other roses.

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