There are two basic forms of damask rose: the summer damask (R.gallica x R. Phoenicea) which has a well defined spring and early summer flowering season, and the autumn damask (R.gallica x R.moschata), which continues blooming sporadically into the autumn. This recurring flowering habit was a feature lacking in many early roses. The damask roses were extremely important because of their fragrance, a tendency to produce double flowers and because their flowering season extended into autumn. All are now the features we have come to expect in a garden rose but which were largely lacking in many early roses. Kazanlik (aka Trigintipetala) was among the very first damasks (the name means thirty petalled). This large 2m rose has a superb perfume with loose mid pink double blooms, has long been grown for the production of attar of roses. Other damasks grown today include 'Ispahan', a fragrant, soft mid pink double raised before 1832 and 'Quatre Saisons' which is also pink and highly scented. Also 'Versicolour' or 'York and Lancaster has been in cultivation since around 1550 and is still popular today among serious rose collectors but needs plenty of TLC.
Rosa Alba a rose of uncertain origin that may have been introduced to Britain by the Romans. The rose is thought to be the White Rose of York of Wars of the Roses fame and was crossed with existing gallicas and damasks to produce hybrids with very scented flowers-the alba roses. The Centifolia (one hundred petalled) or cabbage roses date from around 1550. Although once regarded as forms of a species , they are now thought most likely to be hybrids between the autumn damask and an alba. Centifolias are usually compact bushes with heavy double flowers which often droop under there own weight. The colours varied from white to deep rose red plus striped and spotted varieties. They were much featured in the paintings of the Dutch masters and came to be known as "The rose of the painters" 'Cristata' ('Chapeau de Napoleon' or 'Crested Moss') is one of the most popular centifolias. It has fragrant, mid pink, double flowers, the buds of which are covered in fine tubercles or filaments known as moss. Mosses are natural mutations which first occurred on Damask and Centifolia roses. They were very fashionable in the early eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when several hundred forms were raised. Many are still grown today such as the deep red flowered 'Nuits de Young' and the beautiful creamy white flushed pink 'Alfred de Dalmas' both available from specialist rose nurseries.
|
