Amateur Gardening – 29 June 2019

22 AMATEUR GARDENING 29 JUNE 2019

Pick of the very best

̈

Graham Rice chooses his six top RHS Award of Garden Merit winners

Old roses

This week it’s

The quintessential rose is both elegant and romantic, with a heady scent

and intoxicating flowers. Graham Rice’s pick of the bunch is hard to resist

With its mass of fully double blooms, classic tea

rose fragrance and dark-green leaves, ‘Buff

Beauty’ epitomises the appeal of old roses

David Austin Roses davidaustinroses.co.uk✆01902 376300

Peter Beales Roses classicroses.co.uk✆01953 454707

Trevor White Roses trevorwhiteroses.co.uk✆01603 755135

Where to buy

T

HINK of a classic, old-fashioned

flower and the image that

comes to mind is likely to be

that of an old shrub rose. The

colour, the rich fragrance, the intricate

flower form – they all somehow combine

in our minds to create a nostalgia for lost

times that maybe never were.

We are familiar with these roses from

Victorian flower paintings and from

historic gardens such as Hidcote Manor

in Gloucestershire and Sissinghurst

Castle in Kent. Yet in the first half of the

20th century they were seen as ‘old-

fashioned’ in the worst sense of the

term, and it was only in the 1960s and

’70s that their fortunes turned. There

was a huge revival of interest, largely

inspired by legendary rose expert

Graham Thomas. It has he who re-

activated enthusiasm for the fine

qualities of these essential shrubs, and

one of his rewards was to have the finest

of all modern roses named for him.

Iron constitution

In addition to their intriguing colours,

old shrub roses come in many diverse

flower forms, and with scents so varied

that classifying them is virtually

impossible. But they have something

else in their favour: many were

rediscovered in wild and neglected

gardens after decades of being ignored,

a testament to their iron constitution.

Roses were first cultivated not for their

ornamental value but for their fragrance,

and given that scent has an especially

strong connection with memory, it’s little

wonder that we were so entranced. The

fact that the fragrance could be retained

in dried petals or in a distillation only

enhanced our affinity for the flower.

Describing fragrances is notoriously

difficult and that, perhaps, adds to the

romance of roses. But the allure of their

perfume, combined with the delicate

intricacy of the flowers that are often

quite large and create impact in small

numbers, has ensured that old shrub

roses continue to fascinate gardeners.

Ahh! Those blooms. Some are so

double, with hundreds of short petals

packed into flat flowers – sometimes

divided softly into quarters – that they

last much longer than wild single roses.

Compare their longevity to that of a

hedgerow dog rose, the individual

flowers of which are gone in a few days.

On top of all that, you can never say

that old roses are difficult to grow. They

appreciate conditions that most of our

gardens can supply, and are among the

most reliable of plants to buy and plant

All photographs Alamy and TI Media unless otherwise credited
Old roses are excellent for
cutting. When preparing
cut stems for the house,
never bash them with a
hammer as is sometimes
suggested. Cut them at a
sharp angle instead.