A Rose a Day No.17

This picture was sent to me yesterday by my neice, Erin Macairt. A lovely red rose blooming in her garden in south Wales in late October.

It looks like a Hybrid Tea, but as there are many red varieties it’s difficult to tell which one exactly.

The typical Hybrid Tea has long slender, high-centered buds, carried singly on long, slender, upright stems, wihich gives it an erect plant form. Its flowers are large but not too full, having larger outer and smaller inner petals which unfurl without losing their cup-like form. These flowers can vary considerably in colour, are vigorous, and borne over long periods. Sound familiar? It should, because these characteristics still remain today the dominant ones of roses in our gardens and parks.

Hybrid Teas inherited their petal shape and their remontancy characteristic - their capacity to bloom repeatedly over a long period - from being crosses with Chinese parents (of which, more in a future post). This longer blooming period became a hugely appealing new feature for European rose growers from the late nineteenth century.  Before this period, almost all roses in the West only blossomed once, for two or three weeks in the springtime.

You can hear me discussing roses on BBC Radio 3's 'Free Thinking' with Rebecca Solnit (who has just published a book called 'Orwell's Roses') and others on 21st October (today) at 10.00pm BST.

By the way, check our Erin’s work on Etsy: Land of Erin:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/market/land_of_erin