Roses for English Gardens: Dwarf polyantha roses (Pompom roses)

17 April 2010

Dwarf polyantha roses (Pompom roses)

Chapter 1 (extract 4) of "Roses for English Gardens" by Jekyll and Mawley (1902), in which Miss Jekyll talks of the dwarf multifloras, or pompoms and their use in "dainty spaces".

Another thing is puzzling to the amateur, that the name polyantha is also used for the class of quite dwarf Roses, such as Paquerette, Mignonette, &c. It would seem more sensible to keep the two classes quite apart and to use the name polyantha or multiflora only for the rambling kinds that retain the free-growing character of the type, and to have for the smaller bushy kinds some simple name that has no pretension to the character of a botanical specific name. A botanical name is in any case wrongly used for any class of garden flower that is a hybrid or a still later cross, and that nowhere in nature exists in a single state. These small so-called polyantha Roses should be simply called Pompon Roses, then there would be no puzzle or ambiguity, and every one would know what was meant, whereas if Roses fifteen inches and fifteen feet high are both classed as polyantha, unless the popular name of each kind is known, there is sure to be confusion. These pretty dwarf Cluster Roses are not nearly enough used. They have an innocent, childlike charm of their own, quite distinct from the more grown-up attractiveness of their larger brethren - one thinks of such a little bush as Paquerette as in place in a child's garden or on a child's grave.

They have their uses, too, in the Rose garden, in any small, dainty spaces, as at the foot of a platform on which a sundial rests; at some point where some small beautiful thing could be seen on a level with the eye; in small beds by themselves, or as an edging to Roses of slightly larger growth.

LIST: Pompon Roses—