Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 14, 1991 TAG: 9103190171
SECTION: LAWN & GARDEN PAGE: LG-16 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Roses were found in the ancient tombs of Egypt and in fossils in Oregon and Colorado. The rose appears in illustrations of 430 B.C. in China. The Roman naturalist Pliny lists 32 remedies made of rose petals and leaves.
The white rose was the emblem of England's House of York and the red rose represented the House of Lancaster. Thus, when the two fought, their battles became known as the Wars of the Roses.
The oldest known rose is the gallic rose, also known as the apothecary rose for its medicinal uses.
Roses seem to be everywhere, but experts remind us that they are native only to the northern hemisphere.
The rose known today is the result of an East-West meeting: A blend of the old sweet-smelling European rose that bloomed once a year and the Chinese tea rose that bloomed again and again. The first hybrid tea rose combining these dates back to 1867.
The hybrid tea is what one sees in the florist shops and in many gardens. But that's just one branch - the biggest - of an immense family. Bev Dobson of Irvington, N.Y., lists more than 7,000 roses in her annual "Combined Rose List" this year and doesn't pretend that's all there are.
Roses come in colors ranging from purple to white to bright red. They climb, ramble and stand tall, have very or barely thorny stems. They can be bushes standing 5 to 7 feet high and just as wide or plants with just a few stems crowned with flowers. There are miniature roses which do not grow more than about 12 inches high and have flowers an inch or less across.
Rose experts agree that roses will grow in any of the 50 states, inside or outdoors. Public rose gardens can be found from Anchorage, Alaska, to Walt Disney World in Florida. Tyler, Texas, Wasco, Calif., and Portland, Ore., are just a few of the cities with annual rose festivals.
Roses usually need five to six hours of sun a day - or plant lights if they're grown indoors, experts say. They need well-drained soil and about 1 inch of water a week. The soil should have a "pH" (acid) reading of 5.5 to 6.5.
Charles Nardozzi, horticulturist for the National Gardening Association in Burlington, Vt., says Felicite Parmentier and Great Maiden's Blush, Blanc Double de Coubert, Madame Hardy and Henry Martin are all doing beautifully in his garden.
Stephen Scanniello, co-author with Tania Bayard of "Roses of America: The Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Guide to Our National Flower," has Safrano, a tea rose of a type imported from China in the 1860s, and a miniature rose growing outside in summer and indoors in winter in New York City.
Roses have all sorts of names. Some honor a well-known individual. Barbara Bush, a pink hybrid tea rose, is making her debut this year, courtesy of the Jackson & Perkins nursery in Medford, Ore.
Others mark events: Brandenburg Gate appeared last year to honor the fall of the Berlin Wall. Awakening, Scanniello tells us, was found in a garden in Czechoslovakia as that country was doing away with communism. Awakening is also distinctive because it's a sport of a sport. A sport is a plant that deviates from the normal behavior of its group. Awakening is a sport of the climber New Dawn because Awakening is solid pink instead of having just a blush of pink. New Dawn, the first rose ever patented, is a sport of Dr. Van Fleet because new dawn is a repeat bloomer instead of blooming just once a season.
Some roses are touted as All-America selections. This means they have passed a two-year test growing in trial gardens across the country. They're judged for hardiness, disease resistance, flowers, and ability to grow in a variety of climates. Only a small fraction of the plants submitted by amateur and professional growers worldwide pass the test and go on to be displayed in public gardens nationwide before they appear on the market.
Public gardens, rose fanciers agree, are one of the best ways for the average gardener to find out what grows well in a given area. Nursery catalogs and the abundant, lavishly illustrated literature on roses give other clues. So do numerous rose fanciers' organizations.
by CNB