At last! The first roses of spring are here
Last week, it was sunny and almost summer-like. This week has been dull, cold and wet, wet, wet, with a few spots of brightness here and there. The weather looks set to change again, and become drier and brighter. I have fallen behind on my gardening tasks and I’ve got some catching up to do this weekend.
While I might moan about the weather, not so my early-flowering wild species roses. I am pleased to say that they are all coming into flower now.
Here they are!
Rosa xanthina f. hugonis
Also called Hugo’s rose …
Hugo’s rose is amongst the most beautiful of the species, both in and out of flower. It is one of the earliest roses to come into flower. Very early for me this year. Its long graceful branches are wreathed in dainty, slightly cupped, soft yellow blooms. The flowers are followed by small, round, maroon-coloured hips. Hugo’s rose is a tall, elegant shrub with vigorous, thorny growth. The tiny fern-like foliage is pale green, turning a bronzy colour in the autumn. A parent of several other very beautiful varieties, it was originally collected in West China by Pater Hugo who, in 1899, sent seed to Kew where the original plants still thrive!
Rosa willmottiae
Also called Miss Willmott’s rose
Rosa willmottiae is a species rose. It was introduced to western cultivation from the dry valleys of western Sichuan, China by Ernest Wilson in 1904 and was named after the collector and horticulturist Ellen Willmott. It has lilac-pink flowers, borne on short laterals all along the length of the branches in spring or early summer. The spiny branches bear stems with pinnate leaves which emit a pleasant fragrance when bruised. Very nice!
Rosa xanthina ‘Canary Bird’
Also called ‘Canary Bird’
‘Canary Bird’ is one of the earliest roses to bloom in the UK. It is always my first one. A profusion of musk-scented, single primrose-yellow flowers with prominent stamens are held aloft long, arching, thorny stems. 'Canary Bird' is quite distinctive for its finely-cut, light green, fern-like foliage. I have it growing beside a very vigorous rhubarb plant. It seems very healthy and happy indeed. I usually get a second, less-profuse flush of flowers in September. I love this rose!
