My beloved understock roses.

Above; One of several plants of Rosa Manettii that have established themselves in the garden.

Above: Rosa Manettii

Above: Roy Rumsay's Multiflora makes a fabulous garden shrub that cascades with bloom every October-November.

Above: Roy Rumsay's Multiflora.

Above: The multiflora and Indica Major flowering together.

With the exception of the dreaded Dr. Huey, some of my favourite shrub roses in the garden are the result of happy accidents...when the graft of a rose has met its demise and I am left with the understock onto which it was budded.

There are four understock varieties growing happily at 'Eurimbla'- Dr. Huey is unfortunately the most populous and unwelcome, but his fellow understocks are delightful...Indica Major, Manettii and a white thornless Multiflora that has been identified by two rose ladies I consider experts in their field as being "Roy Rumsay's Multiflora'.

By sheer luck, Roy Rumsay is growing next to Indica Major in a bed, and both flower at the same time for an extended period in October through November. They are beautiful together, and a sight I look forward to each Spring. The Multiflora has been raided many times by a local Canowindra fellow for cuttings, often cut severely back, and it bounces back with enormous vigour every time.

I have several other Indica Majors that have appeared in different spots, including one that is sharing space with "The Reeve", but the latter starts flowering just as Indica Major is finishing, so the effect is not as stunning as the I.M/Multiflora combo.

My other favourite understock rose is the very pretty Manettii. It is a handsome garden shrub even when it is not in flower, and again it has a long flowering period that begins here in the last week of October.

New Dawn

Not one of my favourite roses, but probably because it hasn't performed to its obvious potential due to drought, tree-lopping and ME...it really wasn't suited to be placed with the big mounding ramblers to begin with.

New Dawn really needs something to climb..it initially had a gum tree and wires to climb up and along here until both were removed in about 2009. I had actually assumed that my plant had been lost until it started flowering a week ago. With nothing to climb upwards on it has started sending its long arms out sideways and has reached the fence, so all may now be well.

New Dawn is an American rose dating from 1930. It is a repeat bloomer, and its flowers are strongly fragranced. I could live without it in the garden and if it died I wouldn't replace it, but I'm quite happy to let it wander where it will amongst the ramblers.

Stonelea Rambler

I have just discovered this pretty little rose over the past few days, despite planting it over ten years ago. It was planted at the very end of a long row of ramblers, and an understock from a grafted prunus tree has erupted all around it, so I haven't noticed it winding its way through shady branches until this week.

Stonelea Rambler is an Australian rose, bred by John Nieuwesteeg in Victoria and released in 1994, and is the offspring of Alberic Barbier and the hybrid musk Penelope. The foliage is very healthy, especially considering the lack of sunlight where it is situated. The blooms are quite lovely, being cupped and blush pink in colour, and it is supposedly recurrent in its flowering. Now that I have rediscovered this rose, I'll be keeping a closer eye on it and will record when the next flush occurs.

The Big Ramblers

Above: Multiflora Cathayensis.

Above: Silver Moon

Above: Francis E. Lester

Above and below: Rambler Francis E. Lester, a very strongly perfumed Spring rambler.

The track leading into and out of our garden is well-travelled by cars, tractors and motor bikes, and along its edges we have planted the big ramblers of the rose world, such as Francis E. Lester, pictured above. The track follows a 'sort-of' teardrop pattern, and one half of the outer 'teardrop' was lined with small gum trees, whilst the other was lined halfway with prunus trees. Under the gumtrees we planted Silver Moon, Apple Blossom, Tausenschon, New Dawn, Wedding Day, Multiflora Cathayensis, Multiflora Platyphylla, Multiflora Carnea and several understocks that murdered their grafts and were unwelcome in the civilized section of the garden.

Of these ramblers, still in the land of the living are Silver Moon, Apple Blossom, Tausenschon, New Dawn, Cathayensis, and two Multiflora varieties.

In the 15 years since the initial planting of the big ramblers, a five year drought played havoc with both the ramblers and the trees. The gum trees became sickly, stunted and infected with borers, as did the prunus trees. We had to have the gums cut back to ground level, from which some have regenerated, and the prunus trees exterminated themselves quietly and without any fuss. I am glad to say many of the ramblers have survived, despite getting no water beyond what falls from the sky, nor any mulch, fertilizer or pruning. The Cathayensis was even happy enough to start suckering (all of these ramblers were purchased as own-roots from Hedgerow Nursery, which is probably why they survived drought and neglect).

Above: The line of ramblers minus their gum trees. In the foreground is Silver Moon just beginning to spot flower. We are hoping that the ramblers will build themselves up into self-supporting mounds now that their gum tree support is gone.


Above: Some of the ramblers that were planted under a line of Prunus trees. Although most of the original prunus trees have died, the understock trees which they were grafted onto have survived and are doing beautifully (truth be told, I like these better than the maroon -leaved pink-flowering variety that was grafted onto them)

Under the Prunus trees were planted Francis E. Lester, Tumbarumba Schoolhouse, Kew Rambler , White Cottage Multiflora , Stonelea Rambler, Donna Marie and several others who remain nameless because I have forgotten their identities.

Gallica Complicata

Gallica Complicata as pictured above came from a cutting that was just bunged into a bed and forgotten about. I stuck it too close to a plant of Cardinal Hume because it was such a little mite at the time, but every year in late October I am cheered to see the fresh single flowers of Complicata start appearing from amongst the Cardinal's foliage.

The "Fruhlings" Roses

I just adore the Kordes-raised "Fruhlings" roses, or at least the three that I know and love first-hand...Fruhlingsgold(above), Fruhlingsmorgen and Fruhlingsduft. There is another, by the hefty name of 'Fruhlingsanfang', which I am going to chase up for next year's bareroot order.
Related as they are to the old Spinosissima roses (also known as Scotch roses), these roses give the most brilliant Spring displays, and are nice-looking garden shrubs even when they are not in flower. The bees absolutely love them when they are blooming.
My Fruhlingsgold is the biggest of the three that I grow- he is easily eight feet tall and the same in width. No support is needed, and the flowers are very fragrant


Above: Fruhlingsgold ( 'Fruhling' meaning 'spring')

Frulingsgold.

Above: The glorious Fruhlingsduft, which I purchased many years ago mis-labelled as 'Constance Spry'. This rose isn't as rampageous as its siblings Fruhlingsgold and Fruhlingsmorgen, but is still a large arching shrub rose that appears to be totally disease free.

Fruhlingsduft ("Scent of Spring')

Above: Fruhlingsduft showing the lovely golden-tipped pinkish-maroon stamens in the centre of the bloom.

Above: My specimen of Fruhlingsmorgen which grows intertwined with Fruhlingsgold. They both flower at the same time in October, and the effect is stunning.

Above: The sweet and simple blooms of Fruhlingsmorgen ("Spring Morning")

Beautiful Bourbons

Above and below: Souvenir de St Anne's. This most gorgeous rose is a sport of the famous Bourbon Souvenir De La Malmaison, and I love her even more than her better-known parent because she is much better behaved...far fewer petals means none of that awful soggy balling that SDLM is famous for. And her scent is to die for! I have two specimens of 'Anne' (she gets her her name from the Irish estate garden of St. Anne's in which she was found)- one grows at the base of a Manchurian Pear next to Souvenir De La Malmaison, and has only grown to 3 1/2 feet high. The other is in a better position, albeit crowded between Summer Breeze, Manettii and Gladsome, but has grown to about 4 1/2 feet in height and width.

Above and below: The Bourbon rose "Mrs Paul". She is apparently a seedling from Mme Isaac Pereire, although I can see no resemblance to the latter at all. Mrs Paul is lovely in full flush..her individual blooms are not as stunning as some Bourbons, but she flowers very prolifically in late October and again later in the season. Her blooms are very fragrant, and her habit is arching.

Above: Souvenir de la Malmaison is a rose that is capable of both making you want to tear your hair out in frustration and within a week soaring into your Top Ten of All-Time Roses. In our garden she is a "baller"...sometimes her magnificent blooms are nothing but sodden soggy balls that refuse to open. At other times, she opens like the bloom in the photo above, and takes your breath away. Her scent is amazing- if only the balling tendency didn't exist, she really would come close to being the perfect rose. Our specimen grows at the base of a Manchurian pear, and had to be severely cut back this last season due to die back in the long canes that had woven their way up through the branches.

Above: 'Bourbon Queen' is a once-flowering Bourbon rose, but the huge display that she gives in mid-October each year makes her well-worthy of her place in the garden. I grow her at the base of an old Swamp Mahogany stump, and her growth is sprawling with long arching canes (see the photo below), weighted down with blooms. Her fragrance is not as strong as most of her fellow Bourbons, but still very pleasing.

Above: The sprawly habit of Bourbon Queen.

Above: Bourbon Queen ( and Lavernius)

Above: Mme Isaac Pereire grown on a small arch and inter-mingling with Sparrieshoop. In the background on the other side of the track, Multiflora Cathayensis is happily suckering away and covering a very tough area of ground.

Above: Mme Isaac Pereire, suitable as a small climber or an arching shrub.

Above: Mme Isaac Pereire.

Above: Mme Isaac Pereire, one of the loveliest of the Bourbon family. I planted two either side of an arch 15 years ago, and despite being totally neglected after they were established, they have soldiered on and provided stunning Spring displays year after year since. The colour is unique; the fragrance very strong, and the blooms are so packed with sumptuous petals that as I wander about the garden I can never resist picking a bloom to bury my face in.

I did get a lot of die back in one of my Mme Isaacs last year that required cutting out, but she has responded well with new growth this spring.

Above: I am not a huge fan of striped roses..at least, not those horrid "in-your-face" modern varieties that make me cringe...but this softly striped old Bourbon rose is one of my favourites. Her name is Honorine de Brabant, and she was released in France in 1874. I grow her as a shrub, where she has grown to about 4 X 4 feet, and this time of the year she is covered with hundreds of buds and blooms, each one uniquely different in their stripey pattern. Most open a soft pinky-lilac colour with slightly darker stripes and flecks, but occasionally on the bush will appear one very dark coloured bloom with lighter striping, perhaps a throwback to Commandant Beaurepaire, the rose from which some people believe Honorine sported.

Above: The many different faces of Honorine De Brabant.

More members of the Hybrid Musk Group.

Above: Another Kordes-raised member of the hybrid musk group is Eva, a semi-double carmine-red rose with the merest touch of white at the centre. Despite having much fewer petals than many of her hybrid musk counterparts, Eva is still very fragrant.

Eva(above and below)

Above: Lavender Lassie is a champion of a rose who, despite being a relatively modern release from 1960, is bundled up with the hybrid musks. She fits in this category beautifully, forming a large arching shrub whose branches are laden with soft pink-tinged lavender blooms. Her perfume is very fragrant, and she is very healthy. I have never pruned her, simply snipping off the spent clusters if I can be bothered.

Lavender Lassie

Above: The white rose in this photo with the pink David Austin rose 'John Clare' is the hybrid musk 'Kathleen'. She is grown in quite a shady position in our garden and has developed into a tall and wide shrub- I am not sure what her habit would be if grown in an open sunny position.
Kathleen in full bloom is a sight to behold, and an absolute treat to the olfactory senses...the air around her for metres is sweet with musky perfume. A similar hybrid musk is 'Moonlight', but I personally prefer Kathleen for her yellow stamens...she has an airy appearance that I just love.

Above: Kathleen

Above: Hybrid musk rose 'Kathleen' with 'John Clare'

Above: Buff Beauty typifies everything wonderful about the hybrid musks- he is just as happy growing as a big sprawly shrub as he is behaving as a small climber. Scent: delicious. Colour: as his name describes, buff/gold/ to creamy white as he fades.

Above: Buff Beauty

Above and below: Although Emshorn was released by Kordes in 1951, it is often classified as a hybrid musk so I will include it here. I have never met a tougher rose...after continually popping out of a huge ( and I mean shed-eating) potato vine year after year, with the base of the rose located somewhere deep in the bowels of the vine, it must be awarded the Survivor of the Century Award. Last year the potato vine was totally grubbed out (what a task!!!), and the straggly Elmshorn given its freedom. It has repaid us by a glorious display of bloom this Spring, intertwined this time with a far more forgiving Indica Major (the remains of a grafted rose who didn't have the tenacity to fight the potato vine).

Elmshorn

Above: This hybrid musk rose, Prosperity, has snuck up on me over the last few years. I have paid it very little attention until last year, when I realised in November just how magnificent its snowy white display was. The individual blooms are perfect, and are carried in big trusses. The scent is, of course, sweet and musky. Prosperity is a brilliant shrub rose for a mixed border, and has a good repeat bloom in Autumn.

Above: Prosperity.