Sunday, December 29, 2013

CHARLESTON LOWCOUNTRY ROSE SOCIETY JAN. 2014 MEETING

The Charleston Lowcountry Rose Society will hold their first meeting for 2014 on Sunday, January 5 at 3 PM at Berkeley Electric Cooperative Office, 3351 Maybank Highway, Johns Island, SC 29455.

The program will be "Your 2014 Master Plan in the Rose Garden" to be presented by Bob Lundberg. Bob is an American Rose Society Master Rosarian and is also the Charleston Lowcountry Rose Society Consulting Rosarian Chair. He and his wife, Sandy Lundberg, maintain a rose garden of about 400 roses in Blufton, SC. They are top exhibitors, having won numerous awards from rose shows at the local, district and national level. Bob will go through each month and give an overview of what you should be doing in the garden. He will have a flip chart for each month and will also put the same information on a hand out.

Membership in the Charleston Lowcountry Rose Society is open to anyone with interest in roses. Dues are $15 for single membership and $20 for family membership annually, January - December and includes information-packed newsletter, The Charleston Rose and participation in all society activities. For more info, email Rosalinda Morgan at RosalindaRM@comcast.net.

To join, send dues to Matthew Morgan, Membership Chair, 3056 Sugarberry Ln., Johns Island, SC 29455.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

FRAGRANCE IN ROSES



The McCartney Rose has intense fragrance.



Fragrant roses have been a seductive tradition for years.   In the garden, a bed full of fragrant roses is heaven on earth.  Their sweet aroma as you enter the garden gate will be so captivating.  Fragrance is what we expect of the rose, whether consciously or unconsciously.  It is evident when one sees a rose either in the garden, at the florist or at the rose show.  The first thing a person will do is stick one’s nose to inhale the fragrance and commenting on its fragrance or lack of it. 



There are variations of the term fragrance like perfume, scent, incense and redolence.  Fragrance suggests the odors of flowers or other growing things.  Perfume suggests a stronger or heavier odor and applies especially to a prepared or synthetic liquid.  Scent is very close to perfume but of wider application.  Incense applies to smoke from burning spices and gums and suggests an especially pleasing odor.  Redolence implies a mixture of fragrant or pungent odor.  These terms are invariably used in conjunction with roses.



The American Rose Society recognizes the importance of fragrance with the James Alexander Gamble Fragrance Award which is given to outstanding very fragrant roses.  The ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ is the 2013 winner of the James Alexander Gamble Fragrance Award. Other roses that won the Gamble Fragrance Award are Crimson Glory (1961), Tiffany (1962), Chrysler Imperial (1965), Sutter’s Gold (1966), Granada (1968), Fragrant Cloud (1970), Papa Meilland (1974), Sunsprite (1979). Double Delight (1986), Fragrant Hour (1997), Angel Face (2001), Secret (2002), Mister Lincoln (2003), Sheila’s Perfume (2005), Fragrant Plum (2007), Sweet Chariot (2008), Louise Estes (2010), Falling in Love (2012). 



A rose is only half appreciated by the eye and the other half by the nose.  It is the fragrance of the rose that Sappho in 650 B.C. named it the “Queen of the Flowers”.  In England, they value the Old Rose fragrance in their roses that they awarded the Clay Cup for almost hundred years.  Shakespeare loved the Musk Rose, the Damask, the Sweetbrier, or Eglantine, the Cabbage Rose and the Canker Bloom that he referred to them in his writings.  Here in the colonies, the first sweetbriers were believed to come over in the Mayflower or soon after since it was growing in the Pilgrims’ garden before the end of the 17th century. 



Each year, new roses appear in catalogs.  Copywriters do a fantastic job describing the roses and its attributes.  I found the fragrance very subjective and if we want to grow roses for their fragrance, you have to choose your varieties very carefully.  A slight fragrance in the catalog lingo is basically no fragrance at all.  If you want a fragrant garden, look for roses with strong fragrance on the description.  In recent years, there were many scentless roses in the market that you wonder why people are buying them.  Modern hybrid teas are known to have very little fragrance.  Some have none at all.  The hybridizers are doing the public a disservice by hybridizing the rose too much to create a perfect formed rose that they are compromising its fragrance.  Luckily, more gardeners want the fragrance back and so the trend is reversing.  We should encourage the hybridizers to put more fragrance in their new creations. 



The “true old rose scent” is the property of the three classes of roses – Rosa centifolia, the Cabbage Rose; Rosa damascena, the Damask Rose; Rosa gallica, the French Rose.  No rose can surpass Rosa centifolia for fragrance. The Hybrid Perpetual which is a cross between Rosa indica and the old Damask and French Roses produced roses with lovely old rose scent.  Prominent in this group is General Jacqueminot which became the parent of a long line of fragrant roses.  I saw this rose at the Heritage Garden in San Jose, CA  and I was enthralled by its fragrance.  The old rose scent is the most refreshing of all the flower scents.  It is not bitter and will remain sweet to the end.  Most of these fragrant roses are red with pink coming next in degree of fragrance.  Yellow for the most part is the least scented.  Single rose tend to have less fragrance than their double counterpart.  Climbers for the most part are slightly fragrant.  The scent of roses is affected by warmth and moisture.  The scent of the roses is more pronounced on warm days than on cool days especially if the weather is dry.  Roses tend to be more fragrant in autumn than in the summer.  The Last Rose of Summer is said to be the sweetest of all.  Roses picked up early in the morning have stronger fragrance than roses gathered later in the day.



Fragrance in roses comes on various forms.  One associates rose with the true old rose scent.  Damask is the true rose scent and the Damask rose ‘Kazanlik’ is the most sought after rose in the manufacture of the attar of roses.  Old Garden Roses – the Damasks, Centifolias, Albas, Gallicas, Mosses, Bourbons and some Rugosas have damask scent with a touch of some kinds of fruit aroma.  One of the earliest Damasks is Rosa sancta found in an Egyptian tomb dated c. 170 A.D.  Cleopatra carpeted the floor two feet high with damask roses to seduce Mark Anthony.  Damask scented roses are associated with love and spring as evidenced in the painting La Primavera or Spring by Botticelli where he used Rosa gallica and in the Birth of Venus, he used Maiden Blush



Besides the true old rose scent, there are other types of fragrance in roses: We have the tea scent; the odors of spice – bay, clove, pepper, vanilla.  During the Roman times, bay was used as crowns to protect the emperors from evil spirit and ward off harmful bacteria.  In ancient Greece, the Pythian priestess ate bay before she went in to the sacred shrine at the Oracle of Dephi and started reciting verses. 



We also have musk, myrrh, wine, honey scent.  The Tea or the Musk roses also seem to be scented of muscatel wine.  Felicia, Cornelia and Buff Beauty will scent your garden with its tea and musk fragrance.  Tuscany, a deep purplish red gallica has the scent of wine.  Then we have a whole slew of fruity scents like apple, raspberry, lemon and oranges.  The hybridization of China with Austrian Briars gave rise to roses with fruity fragrance.  Mme Isaac Perriere has a raspberry fragrance.  Zephirine Drouhin and Rosa Eglanteria are good examples of roses with an apple scent.  Apples have been a fruit of favor since the Biblical times when Eve chose to eat it.  In mythology, the golden apple was given by Paris to Aphrodite in a beauty contest which indirectly led to the Trojan War.  We also have balsam, clover, violet, jasmine, and lavender scent.  Most of the Old Garden Roses- Rosa gallica, Rosa damascena, Centifolias, Mosses all have the balsam scent in their leaves.  Balsam was highly praised in the Bible as the Queen of Sheba took The Balm or Balsam of Gilead from Arabia to Judea and presented it to King Solomon.  Many Rugosas and some Hybrid Teas like Crimson Glory and Chrysler Imperial have the scent of cloves.  Some Hybrid Teas also smell of clover.  In the Middle Ages, clover was a symbol of the Holy Trinity because it had three leaflets and a four-leaf clover is a good luck symbol. 



Jardins de Bagatelle and Jude the Obscure have scent of vanilla which I find so intoxicating.  Stanwell Perpetual has the sweet scent of lavender and violet.  Some David Austin’s roses are myrrh scented.  One of them is Ambridge Rose.  In the Bible, myrrh was given to Jesus by the Magi and again while Jesus was dying on the cross.  The Egyptian also used myrrh resin in the mummification processes.  Old Blush, the Green Rose and La Reine des Violettes are all scented of pepper.  Gloire de Dijon and Marechal Niel have the scent of tea.  It seems that there is a correlation between yellow or ivory colored roses and tea scent. 



A form of Rosa indica odorata, the Tea-scented Rose from China smell like fine China Tea as distinguished from Rosa indica, the China Rose which is not always fragrant.  This rose found its way to France and later crossed with the old Musk Rose which gave rise to a new class called Noisettes.  The old Musk Rose scent is not exactly as you would expect a rose to smell.  A fine example of Noisettes is Marechal Niel, a fragrant but tender rose that can only be grown outdoors in mild climates.  Late in the nineteenth century, Hybrid Perpetual was crossed with the Tea-scented rose which resulted in the Hybrid Tea of the modern days.


The perfume of the rose is believed to have curative powers.  In the olden days, roses are used to make all sorts of medicinal potions to cure maladies and drive away bad spirit.  A bouquet of roses uplifts the spirit any day of the year.  Even a single rose in a room will liven it up on dreary days.  We are very lucky to be growing the rose.  Take a break and smell your roses! 



Copyright © 2013. By Rosalinda R Morgan, author of “BAHALA NA (Come What May”.

All rights reserved. FRAGRANCE IN ROSES





Saturday, September 28, 2013

FORMAL ROSE GARDENS – PART II




This is a continuation of FORMAL ROSE GARDENS - PART I published on April 2, 2013.

ELEMENTS OF A FORMAL ROSE GARDEN

Strong Axis – Paths of some nature be it grass, pebble or other materials provide visual axes that lead to a focal point.  It could be an urn, statue, an arch or some kind of architectural feature.  At the L’Hay les Roses in France, the most arresting focal point is the “Dome” and pergola.  To frame an axial view, sculptural forms of evergreen plants, a big urn or statue on a pedestal are situated at the entrance and exit.  One of the most basic garden layouts is the four-square form, the result of two straight paths intersecting at right angles to form a cross, yielding four rectangular or square planting beds.  It could also be some kinds of unique geometric shapes.  This could also take the form of four beds with a focal points at the center of the cross.  It could be an urn, sundial, armillary or punctuated by an upright pyramidal shaped tree or shrubs.  The William Paca Rose Garden in Annapolis, Maryland is a fine example where in the center of the formal beds is a Southern Magnolia Tree.  Five-to-eight-foot wide beds remain a favorite layout for small formal garden.

Level Ground – Throughout history when most of the great formal gardens in Europe were being established, the site underwent considerable leveling of the terrain.  It is hard to create balance and symmetry when the terrain is undulating waves of slopes and steps.  To create the visual effect needed, a formal garden has to have at least 12 feet by 12 feet minimum area of level space.

Symmetry – The most definitive feature of a formal garden is the symmetrical layout.  Symmetry enables the garden to create order and balance in the landscape.  No matter what the shape and size of the garden, if you draw a line down the middle of the formal garden, one side is the exact replica of the other side.  English poet, Alexander Pope in his Epistle to Lord Burlington written in 1731 described the formal gardens:
            “…each Alley has a brother,
            And half the garden just reflects the other.”

Well-Defined Pathways – Paths should be wide enough to accommodate two people walking side by side.  Evergreen shrubs like boxwood define the line of the pathway.  Gravel, stone, and brick are good choices for paving.  An edging of brick set three inches above the pathway well defines the edge.  Grass plants also work well. Pathways are good for outlining the geometric shapes of the parterres and enhancing the look and order of the overall pattern of the garden.
            Walking around or through a formal garden is a great way to appreciate it.  When I visited the formal garden beds at Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria, with very intricate patterns of the formal garden beds, I found it best to view it from a promontory way across from the garden beds.  For an expansive garden, this is the best way to see the beauty of the garden where you can see the design in its broad range.  In a small garden, ideally the best way to see it is up close.

Planting Beds and Parterre – When you think of formal garden, what comes to mind is the  classic parterre created in the 17th century in France. It is an upshot of the medieval knot garden of the 15th century.  The original French parterres were vast and complex in a number of interesting ways featuring clipped boxwood in swirling arabesque designs.  In the kitchen garden at Chateau de Villandry in France where vegetables and herbs are planted in eye catching parterres, the outline of the nine equal square beds of different design outlined by low box hedges is quite striking.  In the Ladies’ Garden at Broughton Castle, Oxfordshire in England, the box-edged beds are in the shape of fleur de lys and filled with old garden roses and enclosed with ironstone walls.  Today, only public gardens can support the grandeur of classic French parterres by calling planting beads by the same name is quite acceptable and endearing.

Structural Appeal – In the middle of winter when all the plantings are at rest and just the evergreen and the outline of the beds are visible, the formal garden should still be interesting to look at because of the underlying architecture of its design.  The brickwork, urns, statuary, fountains and other sculptural objects, the paths and the design of the beds lend a beauty all its own in the desolate atmosphere of the wintry days.  Evergreen also provides  a lovely contrast to the serene settings.  In my old garden, when the snow was just starting to stick to the ground, the outline of the garden is quite visible and the garden still looks great even with all the roses in stick form.

Defined Borders – Most of the formal gardens in England and France and even in the United States are bordered by enclosures.  However, a formal rose garden does not have to be enclosed.  The contemporary formal rose garden is usually a garden within a big lawn.  A well-designed layout, a central focal point, brick edging or the use of low, clipped boxwood, or other evergreen to form the outline of the bed create the effect of a formal garden within the framework of a big garden.

A formal garden does not have to be stiffly groomed clipped boxwood trimmed to perfection. To offset the stiffness of a formal garden, give your overall landscape an “oomph” for a better word.  The best formal gardens should have their own personality, an element of character, a surprise to make them more interesting.  Into that time-honored layout, add something to soften the edges so to speak.

Birdbaths, seating arrangements, pergolas, arbors, obelisks, urns and statues enhance the beauty of a garden.  Unlike the grandeur of the formal gardens of the Grand Manor Houses of England, the Chateaus of France and the Mansions of the wealthy robber barons of the United States, the contemporary formal garden of a true rose gardener is a combination of the rigidity of the formal garden structure of the past and the practicalities and charm of the contemporary garden of today.  So use your imagination and go for it.  Nothing like a formal rose garden!  It makes your garden more special.    

Roses are not difficult to grow contrary to popular belief as long as you know what they need. Why do you think Roses have been around for millions of years?  All they need are food, water and sunlight.  Just like you and me.
  
Here at Rose Gardening World, we’ll educate you about the Rose - our National Floral Emblem and the state flower of several states.  Welcome to the World of Rose Gardening or Rose Gardening World where Rose Gardening Tips, Rose Growing Advice, Planting a Rose Garden, Rose Descriptions, Where to Buy Roses, Where to see Rose Gardens, Rose Culture, Rose History, Rose Events, Rose Verses are all here in one place.
   
We are constantly updating our contents so visit Rose Gardening World often.  We want to help you grow Beautiful Roses and we welcome comments.  Take time and smell the roses.

Happy Rose Gardening!

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