Romantic Roses Charm Southland Gardeners
For charm and fragrance, it is hard to beat the English or Austin roses, which are finally becoming more available at nurseries, even at this time of the year during the bare-root season.
These remarkable roses, developed by David Austin in England, seek to combine the frilly elegance and soft colors of antique roses with the vigor, disease-resistance and repeat blooming characteristics of modern roses on plants that have a naturally bushy shape--plants that many gardeners find more attractive mixed with other flowers, perennials in particular.
Their lineage, though always complex, includes classic old roses, such as a Gallica or Portland, and more modern hybrid teas or floribunda, such as Iceberg or New Dawn.
Aficionado Sharon Van Enoo thinks they should be called “Romantic Roses,” though David Austin has given them the classification of English Roses. Van Enoo, who has grown many in her Torrance garden, may have a good idea because other similar roses are on the way from France, and the French are bound to take exception to the name, while nobody can argue that they are romantic, evoking an earlier era in gardens.
She and Clair Martin III, curator of the rose gardens at the Huntington, have grown almost all of the English roses in Southern California and have discovered some favorites among the many kinds--good choices for the initiate, though they had a hard time choosing just a few and didn’t hesitate to recommend being more adventurous.
Happily, Van Enoo grows hers in a coastal climate, while Martin’s experiences are in the very different inland valleys, with their much hotter and drier summer days. Gardeners have learned that roses often behave quite differently on the coast than they do inland, and vice-versa. It’s hard for the Santa Monica gardener not to be just a little jealous of roses grown in Pasadena because rose bushes get much bigger inland.
It’s important to realize that various English roses have very little in common other than the name and a charming demeanor. Various kinds can grow to a great variety of heights and widths, from a couple of feet to over 10, at least in our climate. The shape of the flower, even the way the flowers are held on the bush, can be quite antique or more modern in appearance. Some flowers nod on supple stems, others are quite upright. Some are many-petaled, some are seductively simple with few petals. And, disease resistance can vary greatly.
Since these are shrubby plants, most are as wide, or even wider, than they are tall, so don’t try spacing them as closely as similarly sized modern roses.
Also, don’t expect them to be as easy to grow as the modern hybrid teas and floribunda--they are a little more challenging--but those recommended here are pretty sure-fire.
For the Coast
For her list of favorites, Van Enoo has chosen the smaller bushes that grow to around three feet on the coast, staying away from any that she has observed getting mildew.
Of the newer (and admittedly harder-to-find) English roses, she likes Bow Bells, with it’s sprays of goblet-shaped pink blooms; Sharifa Asma, pink with a hint of yellow at the petal’s base; Tradescant, a decidedly old-fashioned rose that fades from a wine red to a sultry purple-red; and Symphony, with sprays of bright yellow rosettes--one of her favorites.
Of the older, easier-to-find Austins, she likes the Squire, a “great crimson red” with a powerful old rose scent and consistent repeat bloom; Belle Story, a simple, delicate pink flushed with yellow; Pretty Jessica, a many-petaled, “fluffy” pink; the Nun, which “looks like a white tulip”; Francine Austin, with masses of smaller, white pompon flowers; and Heritage, a pearl-pink classic that gets a little larger than the rest at four to five feet, maybe even six.
Inland Successes
Clair Martin, who has grown the English roses on a grand scale at the Huntington, as well as at his own home, suggested tall and short English roses, and he has a way of dealing with the tall ones.
Of the shorter kinds, he likes the three-foot Tamora with its strong fragrance (he’s planted a 65-plant hedge at the Huntington), even though its delicate apricot flowers are “kind of modern.” He thinks Mary Rose, a ruffled pink that grows to four or five feet inland, may be the best of all English roses, even though it was one of the first.
He also likes Symphony, which, inland, grows to three to five feet and tolerates extreme heat (the first year, the initial blossoms opened on a 100-degree-plus day in spring), and Charlotte, growing to five or six feet, with soft yellow flowers.
Lilian Austin is a more modern color, a sort-of salmon pink, with more modern growth, but it is distinctly shrubby, growing about three feet tall but spreading to up to six feet. Emily, “a really sweet (soft) pink,” is another favorite with complicated flowers composed of round petals on the outside and a dense whorl inside. It gets to about six feet. And, Charles Rennie Mackintosh (named for the art nouveau architect and designer), is a grayish lilac-pink that blooms even when the heat has turned everything else off. It grows to about four or five feet.
He also likes the new wine-red Tradescant, but says it grows to six feet inland.
Martin has developed a way to deal with the taller Austins that is a little like the old-fashioned technique of “pegging” a rose. He ties the tall ones--like Graham Thomas, which can tower to 10 feet--back onto themselves.
That is, he gently bends the tallest canes in an arch, tying the tips to the canes about halfway down, with soft green plastic tape. The plant responds by throwing lots of short flowering branches all along its length, much like a climber. He also cuts some of the canes at different heights so blooms come all along the plant. The result is spectacular, but Martin cautions that this is a two-person job, one to bend and another to tie.
At this time of the year, when plants are nearly leafless, it is easy to see how this is done in the rose garden at the Huntington in San Marino.
Martin has written a pamphlet called “English Roses in Southern California,” that is available at Hortus Nursery in Pasadena for $9.99, which describes most of the other English roses and suggests care. Glorious photographs of most English roses can be found in the book “David Austin’s English Roses” (Little, Brown: $40), though the advice and the eventual sizes given for the roses are based on Austin’s experiences in England, not Southern California.
More and more nurseries are carrying at least a few English roses, but for some of the newer kinds, try Burkard Nurseries or the nearby Hortus, both on Orange Grove Boulevard in Pasadena. Plants can also be found in the mail order catalogue of Jackson & Perkins, P.O. Box 1028, Medford, Ore. 97501; (800) 872-7673.
