The Name of the Rose

A discussion in flickr prompted me to consider how many of the plants in our garden are named for people. This seems to apply particularly to roses. So here is a walk around the garden to see whom we may meet.        

We come to  Mary Webb first. She is on the entry path. In fact there are four of her, all standards. Mary Webb (Auswebb) was bred by David Austin so is one of his English Roses. Bred of a seedling x Chinatown it was released in 1985. David Austin’s website says that it has a strong scent of myrrh. It seems to me that in that case myrrh must smell like stale beer. Still she is a beauty.  David Austin  lists it as yellow but for us it is more very pale lemon, shading to yellow in the depths of the petals, and ageing to white. Mary Webb was a poet and novelist whose works were published during and after the First World War. Her most famous novel was ‘Precious Bane’ (1924) but she was largely unappreciated until after her early death.

Mme Hardy is along the path on the left. She is a Damask rose. Her fragrant flowers are white with a green eye.  She was bred in 1832 by Alexandre Hardy and named for his wife Félicité. While she is not remontant her blooms in spring are well worth the annual wait. It is lucky that she is tolerant of some shade because the two unusually wet years we have just experienced have caused nearby trees to flourish with unexpected vigour. It is possible that Mme Hardy along with her neighbouring white roses may be due for a change of scenery to a sunnier locale.

Next to Mme Hardy is Margaret Merril. There is really no such person as Margaret Merril . It is the name used by the Olay company for the fictitious advice columnist for their beauty products. It almost seems a shame that such a pretty and fragrant rose should be associated with mundane commerciaism.  The rose was bred by Jack Harkness and released in 1977.

Leaving the whites we move into the next part of the garden which houses mainly pink roses. In the bed we call the Dove garden is the mid-pink rose  Zéphirine Drouhin. She is climbing up an obelisk because, although she is a climber, she is not vigorous of the house-enveloping kind. Beautifully fragrant she is also virtually thornless; a point which contributed to the resolution of the Agatha Christie novel Sad Cypress. The rose was named by M. Bizot of Dijon in 1873for Zéphyrine Drouhin. Mme Drouhin was the wife of one M. Drouhin who was resident on the Côte d’Or and was engaged in horticultural pursuits. This information was provided by the invaluable HelpMeFind website. (http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.2572.0&tab=32&qn=1&qc=0)

Just near Zéphirine Drouhin is Dainty Bess. which was released in 1925 and named for Elizabeth the wife of the breeder W.E.B. Archer . Dainty she certainly is and Elizabeth Archer must have been very pleased to have this beauty named for her.

If she has a fault it is that she is a bit leggy. It is often advised to plant her in a group rather than singly. We planted three quite close together and I sometimes wonder whether that was enough. I am going to increase the

coddling of this rose and see how she responds. I certainly would not want to be without her now. There is a climbing form which may bear investigation. 

Still in the same big bed is Princess Margaret of England grown for sentimental reasons as it was a favourite of my mother.  Obviously named for Princess Margaret of England she was actually bred in France by Marie-Louise (Louisette) Meilland in 1968. Mildly fragrant and mid-pink in colouring she has the typical HT form.

Near Princess Margaret is Gertrude Jekyll who probably needs no introduction. Tall in stature, as Gertrude Jekyll’s reputation towered over the gardening world in the early 20^th century, we have her on an obelisk. Her scent pervades that area of the garden and she is also a beauty in the old-fashioned rose style typical of David Austin’s breeding. Released by David Austin 1986 she was bred from the Wife of Bath and Comte de Chambord.

Across the path is Duchesse de Brabant, a tea rose about which there are mixed reports. She is said to like warmer climates and with us in our cooler climate she is mildly sulky. It is likely that she resents being shouldered by ‘Australia Felix’ and ‘The Fairy’, so we are asking a lot of her. Her blooms when she does display them are worth the wait. Apparently a favourite of Teddy Roosevelt her origins are a bit obscure. She was introduced by Bernéde in France in 1857.The Count of Brabant is a Belgian title so a search for information about the countess in 1857 would seem to be in order. However this would probably be unproductive because it seems that this rose was originally introduced as Comtesse de Labarthe (which in Australia became corrupted to ‘Countess Bertha’). Therefore the search should be for the Comtesse de Labarthe in 1857 and why her rose assumed the name of the Duchesse de Brabant. Head spinning, the search for the Duchesse is postponed for another day.

 

Instead we take the path which turns the corner and enters Ultima Thule, the further part of the garden. Here at either side of the gate is Penelope the hybrid musk bred in 1924 by Rev.  Joseph Pemberton. Another protracted search for the lady after whom this pretty rose was disappointing. I imagined that a wife or daughter or niece was remembered in this rose. Finally I found a suggestion that Pemberton often named his roses after the women of Ancient Greece. Thus Penelope may have been the faithful wife of Odysseus who sat and span for all the time of his journeying and ignored all her suitors. http://www.love-of-roses.com/penelope-rose.html

Turn left around ‘Sparrieshoop’ (about which more will be in another post) and we reach the Gallica rose Duchesse d’Angouleme. New to the garden last year she flowered at a very busy time and we did not get a photo. Therefore the accompanying photo comes from the David Austin website. (I hope he doesn’t mind). The Duchesse seems to be flourishing so maybe we will get our own photos next year.

Bred by Jean-Pierre Vibert and released in 1821 (or 1836 depending on who you consult.  She is probably a Gallica x Centifolia hybrid. She is probably named for Princess Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte the daughter of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

We have now proceeded about half-way around the garden. At this stage we might stop the tour of the garden’s rosy personalities and take a cup of coffee in the shade of the Golden Elm. Next post we will stroll around the lower garden to meet more of the roses there.