Old Garden roses - The cabbage or Provence Rose (Rosa centifolia) and Provins Rise (Rosa gallica)

Chapter 2 (extract 1) of "Roses for English gardens" by Jekyll and Mawley (1902), in which Miss Jekyll notes the superb scent of the old-fashioned Provence or cabbage rose, and the virtues of the Provins Rose. Despite the superficial similarity of the names, the Provence Rose (R. centifolia) and the Provins Rose (R. gallica) are very different roses.

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CHAPTER II - garden roses new and old

Old Garden Roses

The first Rose that comes to mind among the old favourites is the Cabbage or Provence (R. centifolia). No Rose surpasses it in excellence of scent; it stands alone as the sweetest of all its kind, as the type of the true Rose smell. The Moss Rose is a variety of the Cabbage Rose, with a mossy calyx having its own delicious scent, of a more aromatic or cordial character. They are so well known that one need say no more than that they should never be neglected or forgotten.

There are several dwarf Roses—dwarf not in the nurseryman's sense, which only means a Rose that is not a standard—but actually dwarf in stature and correspondingly small in all their parts, that are derived from the Provence Rose. These are the neat little De Meaux and the still prettier Spong, and the charming Moss de Meaux, and their white varieties.

Of the old Provins Roses (R. gallica) there are a number of catalogued varieties. They are mostly striped or splashed with rosy and purplish colour. I have grown them nearly all, but though certainly pretty things, they are of less value in the garden than the striped Damask Rosa Mundi. But there is an old garden Rose, the Blush gallica, much more double, and that grows into very strong bushes, that is a good Rose for all gardens. It will put up with any treatment. I have it on the top of a dry wall where it tumbles over in the prettiest way and blooms even more freely than the bushes on the level.

These two names, Provence and Provins, for two classes of garden Roses of the same kind of growth and use, are so much alike that they are one of the puzzles that the Rose amateur has to get clear in his mind in the earlier stages of his education. Provence is the Cabbage Rose (R. centifolia) \ Provins is Rosa gallica, the garden kinds being mostly striped; pretty, but not of the first importance ; the best as far as my own knowledge and judgment go being Reine Blanche (if it be a true gallica) and the full double Blush gallica.

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See also:

Old Garden Roses - The damask rose

Old Garden Roses - Rosa cinnamomea (the Whitsuntide rose) and Rosa rubiginosa (the old sweet brier)

Old Garden Roses - Rosa alba

Old Garden Roses - Rosa alpina and Rosa arvensis

Old Garden Roses - the Banksian Roses and the China Roses

Old Garden Roses - Fortune's Yellow and certain other old roses

A list of the best Old Garden Roses