Nuits de Young

Nuits de Young (more authentically "Nuits d'Young") is a moss rose of a sumptuous black-purple, and is one of the darkest of all roses. It is named, indirectly, after Edward Young, English poet and divine (1681 – 1765) whose nine part poem, "Night Thoughts", published between 1742 and 1745, made him famous. The poem is a brooding meditation on death, and so wholly suitable for the blackest of roses. The poem was an 18th century success, striking the same chord as the other romantics including Goethe. It was translated into many languages including French.

Rosa x alba "Maiden's Blush"

The various types of Rosa x alba (according to Hurst, a canina x damascena cross) are tough and vigorous. Miss Jekyll called it "a capital rose" and it was a great favourite of cottage gardens all through the 19th century. The double white forms Maxima and Semiplena are most commonly seen, but a beautiful pale pink form, Maiden's Blush, arose in the 18th century (usually the date of 1797 is given) - and quickly established itself as a great favourite. Mrs Gore could write in 1838 that "Our cottage and farm gardens adhere almost exclusively to the Cabbage Rose, Damask, and Maiden's Blush". Paul praised the "delicately coloured blossoms, and the ample cool-looking leaves which it supplies". There was soon an attempt to improve on Maiden's Blush, resulting in varieties like Celeste [Celestial], Félicité and La Séduisante. Madame Audot and Queen of Denmark also followed. The Victorians loved a delicate blush pink. The great rosarian Paul accordingly wanted to create a moss rose with the delicate pink colouring of Maiden's blush. He writes: "To obtain this I hybridised the Moss du Luxembourg with an alba Rose, and among the offspring was a Moss Rose with flowers like the Maiden's Blush, afterwards named 'Princess Alice'."

Gloire de Dijon

One of the greatest roses of all time.

If one were designing a rose garden for the gods, "Gloire" would take its rightful place. Gertrude Jekyll called it "The most free-flowering of all climbing Roses, and for general usefulness has no equal." Henry Arthur Bright wrote: "But no rose, taking all the good qualities of a rose together, its hardiness, free blooming, beauty, and scent, will surpass the Gloire de Dijon, though the golden cups of Marshal Niel may be richer in colour, and the fragrance of La France recalls, as no other rose does, the luscious fragrance of Oriental otto of roses".

Gloire de Dijon (bred by Jacotot in 1853) is what may aptly be described as an "advanced noisette". It is a relatively free flowering scented climber. Its colour is basically buff - a sophisticated, unshowy but rich buff that is difficult to categorize and may vary, perhaps due to the soil or pH on which it is grown. Some growers pronounce in apricot, some yellow-buff. Some see tints of gold, others of pink. No-one complains when its lovely quartered blooms appear.

Rosa forrestiana

This wild rose, from mountain scrub in Sichuan and NW Yunnan has (for a wild rose), unusually deep and bright red-pink flowers.

It only has a brief flowering period in June, but the decorative hips add interest through the rest of the year, so it is a good bet for an informal shrub border.

Collected in 1918 by the great George Forrest, it is one of the best of the wildings.

"Leverkusen" climbing rose

I have lately been musing on yellow climbing roses. It was "Maréchal Niel" that set the standard in the Victorian and Edwardian era. It was bred in 1864 and named after Adolphe Niel (1802-1869), a French General. It was long described as the finest yellow climber ever bred and was for long the "must have" rose.

(Another Edwardian "must have" rose, "Gloire de Dijon" is sometimes described as a yellow rose, or at least buff-yellow, but it is in reality just buff).

Maréchal Niel was the classic greenhouse rose, and is now considered slightly too tender, slightly too demanding, slightly too disease-prone for modern gardens.

Leverkusen is a hardy and reliable alternative, bred by Kordes and like Gloire de Dijon named after a town. In this case it was the chemical factory town between Cologne and Dusseldorf. It should really be a blue rose, as this was where Herr Leverkus made his ultramarine dye.

Pale yellow, hardy, reliable, repeat blooming it is a lot less trouble, but (sigh) without the size and quality of bloom that made the Marshal a legend.

Rosa gallica "Violacea" (La Belle Sultane)

Like a gallica, but with the flowers ageing from crimson to a dusky violet-purple contrasting well with the golden stamens. This rose is worth growing for its wonderful colour alone, and as part of any collection of gallicas.

As it is not quite typical of R. gallica it is not thought of as a sport. Instead it appears to be one of the first "hybrid gallicas", although what R. gallica was crossed with to produce this beauty is unknown, a secret that the 18th century has not divulged.

In petal number, it hovers somewhere between single and semi-double. A richly coloured mystery.

Rosa californica "Plena"

This beautiful double form of a wild north American rose is worth a place in any garden. The first thing to note about it however, is that it is not a form of Rosa californica, despite being almost universally misnamed as that species. So widespread is the misnaming that to call it by its proper name seems almost pedantic and causes no end of confusion. However, for the record, it is correctly:

Rosa nutkana "Plena"

Rosa nutkana, the Nootka rose, is a very beautiful wild rose in its own right, and even arguably the most beautiful wild rose of all. It is named after the romantically rugged Nootka sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island, which is in turn named after the Nuu-chah-nulth people, one of the First Nations of Canada.

Rosa nutkana is not restricted to British Columbia however, but ranges down to California. This rose and Rosa californica are distinguished by their prickles: Rosa nutkana generally has straight prickles whereas Rosa californica has curved prickles.

Always a precious gem for those who grow it.