Multiflora (Polyantha) roses (Rosa multiflora and hybrids)

Chapter 1 (extract 3) of "Roses for English gardens by Jekyll and Mawley, in which Miss Jekyll praises the multiflora hybrids.

From the type multiflora and some of its hybrids as parents on one side have arisen a range of garden Roses of inestimable value, most of them of rambling habit, comprising the rose-coloured Dawson, the charming pink Euphrosyne, the white Thalia and the yellow Aglaia, followed by Leuchtstern, a charming pillar Rose with pink, red-tinted, white-eyed flowers, Waltham Rambler and Eleanor Berkeley, and Psyche, rosy-pink slightly tinted yellow. From the same source on one side there are also Lion and Wallflower, crimsons, and Electra, canary-yellow ; so that from R. multiflora we have already all the best colourings of which Roses are capable, while we may confidently expect many other pretty things.

The name polyantha for this Rose is as often given as multiflora. It seems needless that the two forms of the specific name should be almost equally in use, the more so that they mean exactly the same thing, polyantha being the Greek and multiflora the Latin for "many-flowered."

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LIST: R. multiflora, syn. polyantha — single, white, in large clusters.

• Double
• Large flowered, single

Hybrids —

• Crimson Rambler; crimson.
• Euphrosyne; pink.
• Thalia; white.
• Dawson; rose.
• Psyche; pink, salmon-yellow centre.
• Aglaia; yellow-pink.
• Eleanor Berkeley; pale pink.
• Leuchtstern; white and pink.
• Waltham Rambler; white and pink.
• Electra; canary-yellow.
• Claire Jacquier; buff-yellow.
• Queen Alexandra; deep rose-pink, pale centre.
• Lion; single crimson.
• Wallflower; rosy crimson.

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See also:

New Roses of the late Victorian era

Turner's Crimson rambler

Dwarf polyantha roses (Pompom roses)

The wichuriana roses (Rosa wichuriana hybrids)

The rugosa roses (Rosa rugosa)

Some new tea roses and species roses for gardens

Sweet Briars (Rosa rubiginosa) and the Penzance hybrids