Download Resplendent Rugosa Roses By: Nanette Londeree, ROSIENAN

Resplendent Rugosa Roses
By: Nanette Londeree, [email protected]
Resplendent - shining brilliantly: characterized by a glowing
splendor. What a definition! And you can bet that any rose
that has that description is one you want to consider for your
garden. Welcome to the world of hybrid Rugosa roses.
Hybrid rugosa roses are the progeny of crossing different
Rosa rugosa species roses. Rugosa species are native to
northern China, Korea, Japan and the far north Pacific Rim
regions. A few had been hybridized in the 1820's, however,
hybridizers became interested in working with the species in
the late nineteenth century due to the roses' special
characteristics.
One of these is their very textured leaves – their
name is derived from the Latin word for
“wrinkled.” The foliage is very dense, to a point
in some varieties that you can barely see the
canes. They produce blooms from white
through pink to red and purple, and even a few
yellows. Flowers in the species are often singles
with few petals, while most of the hybrids have
fully double, medium-sized, fragrant blossoms
with informally-formed petals. They produce
brilliant orange-red hips in the fall that are
filled with vitamin C, and as many varieties are
repeat bloomers, you can have a plant with
flowers and hips at the same time. They range in size from compact shrubs to vigorous climbers,
and there are new dwarf cultivars as well.
One of the major attributes of this group of roses is their
general health and vigor. As a group, these roses are
tough – they are very disease resistant, heat tolerant, cold
hardy, can survive in poor, dry soils and even seem to
flourish near the ocean's salty air. As a result, they make
terrific low-maintenance landscape roses. Planted in mass
they are truly resplendent, both in their burst of bloom in
the spring and their fall color – leaves and hips! Once
established, they require minimal care. To prune these
roses, remove the oldest canes at ground level during late
winter or early spring before growth begins.
Most varieties don't like to be sprayed with anything (except water). Otherwise, phytotoxicity is
quick to follow and the shrub will rapidly defoliate. While the species are also noted for their
suckering (production of stems from the roots), hybrids are less likely to sucker.
Some varieties you may want to look for include:
Blanc Double de Coubert, (ARS rating 8.3) - this
hybrid has semi-double to double white, very
fragrant flowers (even at night) with yellow
stamens. The foliage is very rugose, and it is a
very vigorous plant.
F. J. Grootendorst, (ARS rating 7.7) – bright red
double blooms have serrated edges in clusters of
up to 20 flowers. Foliage is small, dark and
leathery. It has a vigorous, bushy form and is a
repeat bloomer.
Frau Dagmar Hartopp, (ARS rating 8.5) – also known as Frau Dagmar Hastrup, this variety
produces fragrant light pink flowers with yellow stamens. It has large red hips that appear shortly
after the first flush of flowers so both flowers and hips are present throughout the season. The
plant grows 2 to 4 feet tall and has yellow to orange fall color.
Hansa, (ARS rating 8.4) - a 1905 introduction which produces large, brilliant red-purple blooms
with extremely fragrant blooms. Vigorous, recurrent bloomer with big red hips.
Photos courtesy of Nanette Londeree