Unlike the oldest China roses, no European rose cultivar can be traced back before about 1400. There is nothing to link the simple Gallicas and Albas that can be identified in late medieval paintings to the roses of ancient Greece, Rome, or Persia. Gallica roses may indeed have been cultivated 2,500 years ago, but we can put no names to them. They are selections and hybrids of Rosa gallica, a short suckering rose which is native to southern and central Europe from Spain to Slovakia and eastwards to Turkey. They were greatly developed by French hybridists in the early years of the 19th century, and their large, sweetly scented flowers place them among the most beautiful of all garden plants. They make medium-sized bushes - very hardy, once-flowering, and tolerant of poor soils.
They are short bushes whose flowers repeat constantly: in hot climates they are ever-blooming. When they were introduced to the West and widely distributed, from about 1750 onwards, they gave rise to a European-raised clutch of hybrids which are known as China roses. Examples include Tabvier’ and ‘Hermosa’. Tea roses are similar to China roses, and share their hybrid ancestry.
The most important cultivars for the history of roses were called ‘Hume’s Blush Tea-scented China’ and ‘Parks’ Yellow Tea-scented China’; both were introduced to Europe from southern China early in the 19th century. They get their name from their characteristic scent of China tea leaves, which is also found in many China roses. They tend to be very tender (only a few are hardy in Zone 7), but are tolerant of drought.
We know from recent DNA tests that the early Damask roses like `Kazanlik.’ and ‘York and Lancaster’ result from the cross (Rosa gallica x Rosa moschata) x Rosa ficltschenkoana, which means that they probably originated in central Asia and only found their way to Europe as economic migrants. They are very hardy and prickly, with a lax habit of growth and soft green or grey-green leaves. They grow to 1.5-2m (4-6ft). Forms were selected over the years for their larger flowers and greater number of petals, but an important new form occurred in about 1620 - ‘Quatre Saisons’.
Sometimes they are called Old Garden Roses, Old-fashioned Roses, Antique Roses, Heritage Roses or Historic Roses. Many types are onceflowering, including the Alas, Boursaults, Centifolias, Damasks, Gallicas, and Moss roses. The repeat-flowerers are the Bourbons, Chinas, Hybrid Perpetuals, Noisettes, Portlands, and Tea roses.
The Portland roses are repeat-flowering roses that descend either from the original `Portland Rose’ or from hybrids between Gallicas and repeat-flowering Damasks. ‘Rose du Roi’ and ‘Yolande d’Axagon’ are good examples, though many of the later Portland roses (like ‘Comte de Chambord’) are thought to have a touch of China rose in their ancestry.
Noisette roses are hardy climbing roses or semi-climbers, with masses of small flowers in large clusters, produced all through the growing season, or continuously in hot climates.
They are naturally variable, even within a single species. Rosa canina, for example, can have flowers of dark pink, mid-pink, pale pink, or white. Old roses tend to make bushy plants, and their flowers are often most beautiful when fully opened out. They also have thinner petals and do not stand up so well to rain. Opinion is divided on whether they are naturally healthier than modern roses or not, and whether they are more strongly scented, and there are exceptions to every rule - old roses excite passion. Almost every country has a society or group dedicated to them.
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