Old roses

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Old rose
Rosa 'Pure Victoria'

Rosa 'Pure Victoria'

group Bourbon roses
origin France
breeder Labruyère / Schwartz
Breeding year 1872
List of rose varieties

Old roses , also known as "historical roses", are among the longest cultivated garden roses.

definition

The official definition understands this to mean only those rose varieties whose rose class was already in cultivation before 1867. This definition was endorsed by the Classification Committee and the Old Garden Rose Committee of the American Rose Society and the Board of Directors of the ARS.

In 1867 the "first" hybrid tea , the ' La France ' variety , was introduced. All classes that existed before this point in time are classified as "old garden roses", even if individual varieties were created later; it is only important that the characteristics of the class are clearly defined. "Old roses" were also bred again after 1867, these by crossing existing "old roses".

Classification of rose classes

The Noisette rose 'Blush Noisette', Noisette 1814

Old roses

Old roses of European origin

There are only roses that bloom once.

Old roses with the influence of Chinese roses

These roses already have the ability to bloom a second time in late summer / early autumn (re-blooming).

Modern roses

The following are not considered "old" roses:

history

Rosa alba Maiden's Blush (before 1400)
Rosa gallica Charles de Mills , before 1790

In Europe in the High Middle Ages, the first garden roses were grown from wild roses and as early as the 14th century there were some clearly distinguishable groups of roses. Three main groups of roses were cultivated in Europe: Gallica roses, Alba roses and Damascus roses, all quite similar to one another, so the groups have often been confused with one another.

The white rose of the English ruling house York is an early Alba rose. It is closely related to the Rosa canina . The competing House of Lancaster, on the other hand, has a red Gallica rose in its shield. The elegant Damascus roses were already cultivated in Persia in ancient times, before they came to Europe, probably through crusaders.

In the 17th to 18th centuries the group of centifolia was added through the efforts of mainly Dutch breeders. For a long time the centifolia was considered a very old group, but they have a complex ancestry of more recent origin.

Up to the end of the 18th century, the “old roses” only bloomed once, with a few exceptions: Virgil describes this as early as 50 BC. BC the "Rose of Paestum ", which could possibly be closely related or identical to the variety 'Quatre Saisons' that still exists today and bloomed a second time. But it was not until the 19th century that new rose classes emerged with the tea roses, bourbon roses, noisette roses, portland roses and remontant roses , the representatives of which usually show a second bloom in late summer.

Latest development

With the nostalgia trend of recent years, the newest varieties are approaching the "old roses" again. In their work, rose breeders pay more attention to combining classic variety characteristics of "old" roses such as fragrance, flower shape, flowering rhythm, color palette, growth habit with positive properties of "modern" roses. The focus here is on resistance to rose diseases, the expansion of the color spectrum and a longer flowering period. "Romantic" rose varieties such as English roses were developed from these considerations.

The following variety characteristics are characteristic of old roses:

  • the scent: old roses impress with their scent;
  • the flower shape: broad, flat, cup-shaped, mostly densely filled flowers;
  • the growth: old rose varieties grow into stately shrubs;
  • the flowering rhythm: historical varieties are usually single-flowered;
  • the color palette: old roses show pastel-colored, white, pink-red to purple flowers;

The "camp formation" between the supporters of "classic" roses and "modern" roses is reduced to absurdity due to the variety of properties in thousands of new varieties . David Austin writes: “The gap between these two types of roses is considerable. That is why there are two camps among those who cultivate roses today - one prefers the old roses, the other the modern roses. That is a shame because there is room for many roses in the garden. "

literature

  • Heinrich Schultheis: Roses: the best kinds and varieties for the garden , Stuttgart: Ulmer 1996, ISBN 3-8001-6601-1 , page 18-29.
  • Christine Meile and Udo Karl: Old roses - old times. Living with roses and their history , Augsburg: Wißner 2008, ISBN 978-3-89639-636-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ute Bauer, Ursel Borstell: Old roses: history, use, design, care practice; all major types and varieties; with new romantic breeds . blv, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-405-16713-2 , page 8.
  2. ↑ der-Burggarten.de .
  3. ↑ a b c d David Austin: English Roses - Tradition and Beauty. Dumont, Cologne 1994, ISBN 3-7701-3267-X , pages 7-21.

Web links

Commons : Alte Rosen  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files