Wild for Valley roses

Gardeners in cold climates love to push the climate envelope, often hoping to recreate a garden with plantings more suited to the covers of gardening magazines than the vagaries of our sub-arctic region. We want those lush borders of English gardens with peonies, campanulas, huge towers of purple and blue delphiniums, and most of all we go to insane lengths to grow roses. Roses that look like real roses, those roses grandmother had with huge fragrant blossoms. Of course, those roses were bred from varieties with a wild past.

Having wild parents puts you at the head of the rose class for Zone Three gardeners.

The Hansa rose is not a species though many novices to the northern garden seem to classify all rugosas as Hansa roses. Rugosa roses are identified readily from their rugose or wrinkly leaves and their lovely fragrant blossoms that seem to bloom all summer. Rosa rugosa, native to northeastern Asia, is the wild parent to the most commonly available hardy roses well-suited to Zone Three gardens.

The pristine white Blanc Double de Coubert (C. P. M. Cochet-Cochet 1892, France) is one of the best hardy white double rugosas.

Since it has a tendency to sucker, you will always have plenty of this rose. The sport of this rose, Souvenir de Philemon Cochet (1899), with huge very double slightly blushed and deeply fragrant blooms, is more restrained in habit. Wasagaming (1939) has another wildling, R. acicularis, in its parentage. Its huge fragrant lavender-pink cabbage roses are a knockout in full bloom. Wasagaming is one of Canadian breeder Dr. F.L. Skinner’s best contributions to the northern rose garden.

Nearly every garden center will have the cast-iron Therese Bugnet (“boon-yay,” 1950) with large pink double blooms on a shrub that doesn’t look much like a rugosa rose. Canadian breeder George Bugnet’s roses are all very hardy complicated crosses with plenty of wild species in the mix such as R. blanda. Sometimes called “Labrador” or “Hudson’s Bay” rose, it has nearly thornless red canes with smooth blue-green leaves. The R. blanda hybrid “Helen Bland” (Percy Wright 1950, Canada) has semi-double blush pink blooms that smell like Cameo soap. The lack of thorns, however, makes her more attractive to moose browsing for hors d’oeuvres.

Spinosissima or Pimpinellifolia roses are the toughest moose-proof roses and often not commercially available. They bloom earlier than rugosas, tend to bloom only once, but have lovely ferny foliage, dark mahogany hips in abundance, are quite fragrant, and come in more colors than the other hardy roses. Often called Scots roses, the tall wild Altaica (1818) is Siberian in origin. Growing to a height of up to 6 to 8 feet with a spread nearly as wide, this suckering rose will never bow to winter’s blows. Its single creamy blooms perfume the air long before the other roses and will set shiny small almost black hips in abundance. Great for hedges, it is nearly impenetrable. The shorter Double Scotch Burnet (1800s, UK) has lovely double blush-white fragrant blooms that will sucker freely and is just as hardy. Crimson semi-double blossoms on a dwarf bush make William III a good rose for the smaller garden and doesn’t sucker as freely as its cousins.

Haidee (Skinner 1953), with Siberian R. laxa Retzius bolstering her wild nature, is a gorgeous double pink climber to 14 feet for a few local gardeners lucky to have her.

The Yellow Rose of Texas is quite a stinker. Known also as Harrison’s Yellow (1830s), this Spinosissima was crossed with R. foetida, which gave it a distinctively non-rose fragrance, but, very bright yellow semi-double blooms. A very prickly rose, it is also moose-proof, but, not as hardy as its cousins, being subject to winter kill on the canes.

Still, the bright dandelion-yellow blooms and vigorous spring growth make this rose a worthwhile addition to any garden.

Finding these roses can be challenging. Locals often “rename” varieties as they get passed around and R. spinosissima Altai is also called Altaica and listed as 3 to 4 feet tall by some and up to 8 feet by others. There is a short and tall version of this rose, so, take heart. Join the Alaska Rose Society the third Wednesday of every month in Anchorage (248-1624). It’s worth the drive.

On the web, my favorite rose site is Helpmefind.com, which has everything you want to know about roses and where to find them.

Let’s see, I still have a few wild buckets of Double Burnet, Altai and Helen Bland here somewhere.

Brooke Heppinstall, artist and gardener, is the owner of Wool Wood Studio and Gardens, an art studio and nursery specializing in Alaska-grown perennials and shrubs. Contact her at 746-3606. Visit online at Woolwood.blogspot.com.