La Roseraie du Désert

I make no apology for returning to the subject of the La Roseraie du Désert, so full of admiration am I of the work that Becky and John Hook have embarked on. As with everything else fashions in roses come and go with the result that the out of fashion ones are always in danger of disappearing. I suppose back in the 1950s the new Hybrid Teas with their bright colours and long stems, ideal for for putting in vases, were in danger of taking over. Then along came people such as Vita Sackville-West and Graham Stuart Thomas to remind us that the 19th century had seen an explosion of different types of roses, many of them with subtler colours and more scent than the prevailing hybrids - Albas and Bourbons, and Galliacas, etc., etc; -  and thus began the craze for what came to be called 'Old- fashioned Roses', This craze is perhaps still with us, helped by the work of people such as David Austin, but increasingly French nurserymen such as André Eve and the Guillot, who by marrying the old with the new have produced a healthier, repeat flowering old-fashioned type rose, not that many of the real Old-fashioned did not repeat, or were not perfectly healthy.

But in this rush for the Old-fashioned certain categories were overlooked, in particular the China and the Tea Roses, perhaps because they were considered to be tender, and in need of a greenhouse under English conditions. Those in my garden in the Gers, and apparently the very many in La Roseraie du Desert appear to have survived the recent exceptionally cold spell reasonably well.  More importantly from our point of view, they are very well adapted to hot dry summers, a very good reason to have some in your garden.

A history of these two categories of roses I will leave to the specialists. Suffice it to say that amongst them you will find some of the oldest known roses; for instance Old Blush seems to have been first recoded in Europe c.1750, but can be traced back much earlier in China. There then seems to have been two main periods for the creation of new hybrids, early in the 19th century, and then again towards the end, and beginning of the 20th.centuries. Many of them have single or semi-double flowers, and quite a few are a mélange of colours, often containing a touch of yellow not to say orange, this especially true of the many varieties produced by the Nabonnands, father and sons. This may not be to every body's taste, and I am not entirely sure that it is to mine, in fact one can find every colour with the exception perhaps of a pure white, and every form. Many of them also appear to have smell, though I have to confess that I am not quite sure that I want my roses smelling of tea.

But I suppose what does get me about these roses is their history and the research that is going on to recover the hundreds of varieties. When I read in the La Roseraie du Désert catalogue that Emmie Grey - a very good single red similar to Sanguinea, though more upright in habit - was 'found in Bermuda', this for some reason excites me, as do the many which have just been found. At this moment I am apparently the only person in S-W France, apart from the Hooks, who is growing  Bardou Job, though I hope that this will not be the case for long. It looks to be a good fully petalled red, but what is exciting about it is that it hails for some unknown reason from Wales, but then transferred itself across to America and Alcatraz Island, famous for its prison, but now also for Bardou Job. Even more exciting are the number of roses that John Hook has discovered on his bicycle rides. Belle Bassous looks to me to a complete winner, a sort of more double Lady Hillingdon, or a stronger coloured Gloire de Dijon.  I am not quite so sure about Labatut Tea, but since my sister had a house there I probably ought to have it - and there a good many others. Sadly when I came here there were no 'unknown' roses for the Hooks to discover, but I am doing my best to make up for this.