HERITAGE ROSES INTEREST GROUP
Recently we asked our volunteers if they would like to form a Heritage Roses Interest Group within the Victoria State Rose Garden Supporters Supporters.
Ten members put their names down. Their initial interest is in learning more about Heritage Roses - not necessarily in working with them. We suspect that the huge variety of groups of roses in the Heritage classification is a bit scarey. With time and a bit of knowledge we will overcome this fear.
This segment of the website is to give them - and you- a beginners' guide to Heritage Roses.
We will develop this segment over time, so that you have the opportunity to absorb the information and make comment on it as we go along.
So let us start by defining what is meant by a "Heritage Rose". Until 2010, it was all those roses that were introduced, either found or bred, prior to 1867. It was in this year that the first Hybrid Tea rose was introduced - La France.
In 2010, the World Federation of Heritage Rose Societies changed the end date to 1900. This has dramatically increased the number of roses we call Heritage, but after all any rose with an ancestory of 110 years has to be worthy of that name.
On the basis of dates, 'Heritage' Roses include those broad categories called Wild and Old roses. Once we called the Wild roses Species roses, but current research (using DNA) has shown that over the centuries there has been a lot of natural cross-breeding. This means that the so-called species roses may not be so pure at all, but we will continue to use the designation for species when naming these roses. This is done by using a lower case "r" (standing for "rosa") in front of the name, - for example r. setigera. When we know that there has been a cross-fertilisation we prefix the name with "r.x" - for example r.x anenomoides.
There does not seem to be clear definitions for "Heritage", "Wild" or "Old" roses, so forgive us if we make up our own. Remember that we are not talking about the individual plant as that is the result of being propagated many times over from the original.
So a "Heritage Rose" is any rose that has been introduced prior to 1900.
A "Wild" or "Species" rose is one whose parentage cannot be traced back further. That is, they are the parents of all the roses we grow today.
An "Old Rose" - if we use a dictionary definition - 'old - belonging to an earlier period', then we are talking about those roses which can be said to be "second-generation". Potentially bred by cross-fertilisation from the Wild roses, they have been grouped into sections. The section classifications are Gallicas, Damasks, Albas, Centifolias, Mosses, Portlands, Bourbons, Boursaults, Chinas, Noisettes, Teas, Hybrid Perpetuals, and Rugosas
As you walk along the Heritage Border in the Victoria State Rose Garden and look at the Identification Bricks, you will see that ours is not really a "Heritage" border, as there are many roses which have been introduced after 1900. When we were setting up the plantings we wanted to include historical roses. For example we have included "Constance Spry", released in 1961. This was the first rose released by David Austin and deserves a place in the Border. Similarly, we included many of the roses introduced by Alistair Clark. His first release was "Lady Medallist" in 1912 (Which is on a tripod in the Australian Leaf).
More next time.
Potent Web Design
