The origin of Garden roses from wild species

Chapter 5 (extract 1) of "Roses for English Gardens" by Jekyll and Mawley (1902), in which Miss Jekyll touches on the wild species behind modern roses.

---

Illustration: Rosa macrantha

---

CHAPTER V

SOME OF THE ROSE SPECIES AS GARDEN ROSES

It is obvious that our garden Roses must have come originally from some wild kinds, and it adds immensely to the interest of our gardens to know something about these original types and the influence they have had in the making of our garden Roses; moreover some of the actual types are desirable in themselves. Like other classes of plants that are prime favourites, such as Daffodils and Irises, some prominent types have become the ancestors of a host of hybrids and garden varieties, and a close acquaintance with the character of the type plant will often give a very fair idea of the parentage of any garden Rose whose pedigree is unrecorded.

Though Roses have been for many hundred years the most highly prized of garden flowers, yet their antiquity, as far as our modern gardens are concerned, cannot be compared, for instance, to that of wheat, whose origin, in direct association with any one wild grass, has never yet been satisfactorily determined. We can trace the descent of all our Roses, within a move or two, from their wild ancestry, and, by the aid of the eye alone, observe relationships. Botanical characters, such as the strongly serrated stipule in multiflora, are a sure guide, but as this book is for the amateur, and deals with the subject from the point of view of garden observation and garden enjoyment, it is well to acquire the more rule-of-thumb, if unscientific, method of noting the visible links. Thus we learn when we see a hybrid Rose whose leaves are bluish and of a dull surface, wide in the leaflet and strongly saw-edged, to at once suspect the influence of alba. One soon gets to know the characteristic leaf of a China, and the habit and leaf character of a centifolia (Cabbage) or a gallica. The leaf of rugosa, again, cannot be mistaken, and is strongly shown in its descendants, even though the other parent was some Rose of a very different nature.

LINK: See list of wild roses