MUTABILIS

Welcome to the World of Rose Gardening or Rose Gardening World.  Take time and smell the roses.  Roses have been around for millions of years which just prove that roses are not difficult to grow. The Rose is also our National Floral Emblem and the state flower of several states.  Here at Rose Gardening World, you’ll find rose articles that will educate you about roses – its history, rose culture, rose profiles and even rose verses all in one place.  So visit Rose Gardening World often.  

  Rosa chinensis (‘Mutabilis’, Tipo Ide’ale)

This China rose is believed to have been cultivated before 1894.  Mutabilis was probably introduced to Italy from China, and then introduced to commerce in 1934 by way of a Swiss botanist Henri Correvon of Geneva who got his cuttings from the garden of Italian Prince Ghilberto Borromeo at Isola Bella.  Otherwise known as the “Butterfly Rose” because when the plant is in full bloom with the multi-colored flowers, Mutabilis appears to be covered with butterflies fluttering on the plant, and this Hybrid China is so easy to spot. 

Mutabilis sports different colored blooms, ranging from soft yellow as it opens with an orange blush on the underside, slowly turning into shades of peach, then pink, then eventually darkest pinkish red.  All different colors can appear on the same bush at the same time.  Its blooms have a slight fragrance which disappears as it ages. 

Mutabilis is a single, five-petal rose.  The first blooms appear in clusters and continue through to hard frost.  It is slow to start but worth the wait.  The plant is versatile, vigorous, sending long canes with glossy, dark green leaves and can tolerate partial shade and thrives in poor soil.  I saw it covering a front porch in Charleston, South Carolina and the homeowner graciously moved his car out of the way so I could take a nice picture.  Mutabilis makes an excellent hedge, can be grown as a landscape accent or in mass planting.  In mild climates and protected locations, it can grow up to 6 to 10 ft tall and wide as a shrub and can be utilized as a climber and can grow up to 15 ft. in height.  Mutabilis is very popular because it’s very disease resistant.  It is no wonder Mutabilis has been selected as an EarthKind Rose.  It has won the Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit in 1993. 

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SECRET

Welcome to the World of Rose Gardening or Rose Gardening World.  Take time and smell the roses.  Roses have been around for millions of years which just prove that roses are not difficult to grow. The Rose is also our National Floral Emblem and the state flower of several states.  Here at Rose Gardening World, you’ll find rose articles that will educate you about roses – its history, rose culture, rose profiles and even rose verses all in one place.  So visit Rose Gardening World often.  

Var. HILaroma

Hybridizer - Daniel Tracy/E.G. Hill Co., 1992

            This exhibition quality pink blend Hybrid Tea is a winner of the All-America Rose Selections Award in 1994, Portland Best Rose in 1998 and the Gamble Fragrance Award in 2003.  It is white with raspberry pink edges and is both excellent on the show table and garden display.  It is a medium, moderately thorny, bushy plant with an upright habit, semi-glossy dark green leaves on long stems and produces lots of large high-centered blooms 4 to 6 inches across.  It grows 3 to 5 ft tall and 2 to 3 ft across.  Blooms come on single stem or in clusters of three or four.  Blooms are double (30 to 40 petals) and tend to get larger in cool weather.  

            Secret is a generous performer giving blooms from late spring to early summer and repeats through to fall.   It can be used in beds and borders and if you need lots of fragrant blooms to share with others, plant Secret in the cutting garden in threes so the plants look bushier.   It has a strong, spicy fragrance.  It is winter hardy and has good disease resistance.  Who says modern hybrid tea does not have any fragrance?  Secret can perfume a room with just one bloom.

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FIREFIGHTER

Welcome to the World of Rose Gardening or Rose Gardening World.  Take time and smell the roses.  Roses have been around for millions of years which just prove that roses are not difficult to grow. The Rose is also our National Floral Emblem and the state flower of several states.  Here at Rose Gardening World, you’ll find rose articles that will educate you about roses – its history, rose culture, rose profiles and even rose verses all in one place.  So visit Rose Gardening World often. 

Hybridizer: Orard, 1999

Var: ORAdal, Hacienda, Red ‘n’ Fragrant

Firefighter is a beautiful dark red hybrid tea which is the first of the nine roses to be named for the Remember Me Rose Gardens to honor the 343 firefighters who died on September 11, 2001 while trying to save lives in the World Trade Center.  Firefighter also honors those men and women who risk their lives daily to protect ours.  

Firefighter is a tall hybrid tea about 5-6 ft tall with a perfect flower form, about 4-6 inches and disease resistant.  Petal count is about 40-45 and has a very strong fragrance.  Firefighter won the City of Portland Gold Medal Award for 2007.  I planted two Firefighter rose bushes, one on each side of my walkway and when they are in bloom, you can smell the sweet fragrance as you walk by.  Right now, they are about 5 ft tall and full of blooms.

To honor and pay tribute to all the victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, an organization was formed by Sue Casey of Portland, Oregon to create three rose gardens on or near the sites of the terrorist attacks in New York, at the Pentagon and at a field in Stonycreek Township, Somerset County in Pennsylvania.  

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