A Collection of Heirlooms: Antique Roses, Part 1
Unlike it's haughty cousin, the hybrid tea rose, which takes endless tending, spraying and deadheading, an antique rose is almost carefree. Some, like the rugosas, object to sprays and pampering almost more than they object to pests and diseases. Their easy care, often superior fragrance and amazing variety has caused a huge resurgence in the popularity of the old garden rose.
Some are singles, with a dainty 5-petal array, and some have literally hundreds of petals in a single bloom. Some seem large as cabbages, while others are barely the size of a dime. Some will cover small buildings in a single bound, while others are small enough to grow in quart pots. In the next few weeks I will try to cover the various classes of antique roses, so that anyone who has ever longed to grow roses but been intimidated by their bad press will be sure to find one or more that they can proudly grow in their yards.
Albas Rosa alba is often considered to be the most elegant of the old roses. They come almost exclusively in shades of pale pink or white, with grey green foliage. Albas are rarely troubled by disease, and can even bloom in part shade. Best of all, they are wonderfully fragrant. Unfortunately, they are once bloomers. This means you get one knock-out performance in early summer, and then only foliage the rest of the year. Alba maxima is one gorgeous example -- double blooms of white, sometimes tinted pink and growing from 6-8 feet tall. Like most old garden roses, it produces fall hips that provide winter color and food for the birds -- or you can harvest the seeds and try to grow your own. Albas are hardy from zones 3-9.
Bourbons If you've seen Victorian wallpaper scattered with fullblown roses then you know what a Bourbon rose looks like. Bourbons are large and very full, flowering in every shade from deep red to silver pink to striped. And Bourbons, unlike the albas, are repeat bloomers. You get a spectacular early show, and intermittent blooms throughout the growing season in zones 5 through 10. Most Bourbons are also spectacularly fragrant. If asked to choose just one Bourbon I would be hard pressed to choose between Variegata di Bologna, a striped wonder that can be trained up a pillar, or Zepherine Drouhin. The latter is one of the few climbing Bourbons, and is nearly thornless. Extremely popular now, because it was featured in several garden magazines as being shade tolerant and hardy, it is unlikely to perform as flawlessly in my northeastern climate as in the Pacific Northwest; nonetheless, it is a lovely rose, well worth owning.
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