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| 1st September 1997 | The Rose Garden | |||
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| 1st September 1997 | The Rose Garden | |||
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| Of all the old roses families, the Moss is the odd one out. The name comes from the strange mossy bracts surrounding the buds, otherwise moss roses behave very much as their Centifolia parents.
Centifolias (a hundred petals) are often called cabbage roses, for their large blooms and abundance of petals. They were developed by the Dutch from the sixteenth century, being once-flowering hybrids probably of the Gallica family. Many's the time we've heard people remark about the dreadful crop of aphids on some of our roses. This is the reaction of some to the mossing. Rub your fingers up the mossy stem to the bud and you'll experience sticky moss and smell a strange turpentine fragrance. Some varieties are more mossy than others but all are quite recognisable. Moss roses are mostly very prickly, wonderfully fragrant and deserving of a place in your garden. They range from short-growing bushes through to lax arching shrubs. In their heyday there were 135 in the collection at Roseraie de l'Haye in Paris, owing their popularity to the attentions of the Victorian hybridists of Holland and France. Today there are thirty of forty Moss roses available, which is sufficient to ensure their continued popularity. Their parentage is believed to descend through the Gallica family via the Centifolias, but one often finds reference to Damask Mosses, suggesting the influence of the damask family. While most Moss roses are once-flowering, there are some that will oblige with repeat flowers later in the season. |
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The most important and foundation of the Moss family is undoubtedly R Centifolia Muscosa, (pre-1700) often known as Common Moss. Common she is not. As a foliage rose she has great virtue, with the young foliage possessing qualities rarely seen in the rose family. Her blooms are clear rose-pink, flat, many-petalled and superbly fragrant. Grown on its own roots Common Moss will colonise quite a large area. Less than a metre in height. |  |
| General Kleber (1856) was Napoleon's Egyptian army commander. The rose is clear pink, flat with a button eye, the foliage soft and very beautiful. Not very prickly, he will grow to over a metre. |  |
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| William Lobb (1855) also known as Old Velvet Moss is the most vigorous and spectacular of the family, growing to over 2 metres and putting out huge arching canes covered in wicked needles. The heavily mossed buds open to rich crimson-purple blooms, which change to slaty-mauve as they age. Strongly fragrant, the blooms are ideal for pot-pourri if you can justify harvesting them. Perhaps best grown as a short climber. |  |
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| Marie de Blois (1852) has bright pink blooms, muddled, frilled and heavily perfumed. Free-flowering with good repeat. |  |
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| Goethe (1913) is quite different. First he is the only single (five petals) rose, second he has a distinctive white eye, third he has the most unique pink thorns, in wicked profusion. Rich magenta-pink blooms with yellow stamens. We like him a lot. |  |
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| There are newer Moss roses, notably those from Ralph Moore in the USA who is producing lower-growing mosses in more modern colours.
Mosses are tough and don't need a lot of care. Some get a little late-season mildew but long after flowering. This is easily cured with a baking soda spray if you're fussy. They will survive quite well with minimal care. Pruning can be left to renewal - removal of older wood. Some think it's best done after they've finished flowering, although the repeat-flowering mosses are better hard-pruned while they are dormant. |
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| Copyright Lloyd Chapman spring 1997 |
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More pictures of Old Roses from Trinity Farm in the Garden Gallery.
More articles by Lloyd Chapman
Purple Ramblers January 2002 |
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