Thursday 26 May 2016

Roses Galore!

It is almost peak time for the first flush of roses, with the facade of our house a mass of bloom, this provided by three climbers - the almost iconic, to use what seems to be an 'in' word at the moment, Maréchal Niel, the rather less known, Duchesse d'Auerstädt, and Westerland. All three are extremely floriferous, all three in the yellowy/orange shades. It is sometimes suggested that the Maréchal needs to be cosseted but not apparently in the Gers. The Duchesse on the other hand, with us at any rate a stronger yellow, has a tendency to 'ball' in wet weather, and as May is normally our wettest month this is a disadvantage, though fortunately it repeats well.

Meanwhile the various roses we have acquired in recent years from La Roseraie du Désert are beginning to make an impact, many of them classified as China and Tea roses, categories which before I came into contact with John and Becky Hook who run this nursery, I had not taken much notice of. They date chiefly from the 19th and early 20th centuries. They repeat generously, which of course has been one of their great attractions for all breeders of roses. They probably do prefer warmer and sunnier conditions, which may be one explanation why I have been so slow to discover them - the Riviera, Italy and further afield the Caribbean and California are where they flourish not dreary old Britain! Of course Gascony is not the Riviera and our wet Mays are not ideally suited for them, especially as their petals appear to be rather fragile, and thus easily damaged by rain. But since many will be still going strong in our very fine autumns this is perhaps not too great a handicap.

Which ones can I personally recommend? Well one of the most beautiful roses ever must surely be Noella  Nabonnand: elegant buds, large semi-double flowers of a very strong crimson on a large bush, and nearly always in flower, though since I have only recently acquired ours, I guess I am cheating a little in recommending it so strongly!  But in fact any rose originating from the Nabonnand nurseries - the father Gilbert who started it all, followed by two sons Paul and Clément who eventually had seperate nurseries, all in the South of France - are good news. General Schablikine, a coppery red and flowering strongly here since the middle of April would be a good example. Or if you prefer a lady, and what I call a strong pink but the Hooks a pale crimson, go for Alice Hamilton, incidentally a China rather than a Tea. For another good pink, though with rather larger and more blowsy flowers, and not from the Nabonnand nurseries, is the Duchesse de Brabant/Comtesse de Labarthe. And for continous flower power difficult to beat is Archiduc Joseph.

Still with La Roseraie du Désert, but for something rather different I can increasingly recommend Nanjing N92. It could do with a better name. It has taken quite a long time to get going, and I am not quite sure how big it is going to grow, but along with a multitude of rose magenta flowers it has very attractive dark green foliage. Similar in form with even more attractive foliage, and with flowers a strong red in bud, but with a whitish centre when open, is Bengale Pakistan. I have to confess I bought this originally because I was born in Pakistan, though in the Punjab rather than Bengal, now of course no longer part of Pakistan, but I am increasingly happy with it. There are others that I could mention, but the best advice that I can give is to visit to the nursery yourselves, this situated in the Gers near to Aignan. But you will have to hurry because the sad news is that reluctantly the Hooks have decided that the work is getting too much for them. Their hope is that they can find somebody to take up the baton, something which if I was younger I would be very tempted to do. But let us hope that that somebody turns up because it would be a tragedy if this wonderful collection ceased to exist.

But to return to our roses and indeed to my all time favourite roses, the Hybrid Musks. At this moment there is a length of border of about three meters consisting of Belinda, Penelope, and Vanity, with behind them Cornelia. It is a wonderful sight, and one that will continue for much of the summer and Autumn, since all Hybrid Musks repeat well, and moreover they do not appear to suffer from the various maladies that roses are prone to. If I started again I am not sure that I would bother with Belinda, good foliage but the trusses of fully double rather bright red flowers are a little bit of a worry. Penelope and indeed Cornelia you can take anywhere, but it is Vanity that I would most like to draw attention to, since I guess that it is not very well known. The flowers are single in very long arching sprays, and for this reason it does require quite a lot of space. Their colour is a strongish pink. Of course there are a number of more recent roses that do a similar job, which is to make a biggish impact in a mixed border over a long period. We grow André Eve's Axel Kahn with good single red flowers, and also The Fairy with small fully double pink flowers; We do not grow Ballerina, which I happen to hate, but I am clearly in a minority. Bonica also seems to be a favourite with many, and there are no doubt many others that I have not come across. But there is something about the way Vanity presents itself that makes it for me a real winner.