478 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ROSES FOR AUTUMN BLOOMS. 



By Arthuk William Paul, F.R.H.S. 



[September 24. 1901.] 



The era of autumn- blooming Roses may be said to have commenced with 

 the introduction of the Bengal or Chinese Rose {Bosa indica) from the 

 East at the end of the eighteenth century (1789), and it is to this Rose 

 and its descendants — direct or hybridised with other species — that we owe 

 the best autunnials of to-day. It is true that the Musk Rose and perhaps 

 one or two other late-tlowering species were already in English gardens, 

 but the flowers were comparatively insignificant and only fitfully pro- 

 duced. The Roses of the West were essentially summer flowers ; and 

 hence by the earlier poets and painters they are linked with sentiments 

 and associations of early summertide. Shakespeare makes one of his 

 characters say : 



At Christmas I no more desire a rose 



Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows, 



But like of each thing that in season grows. 



At the present time, however, it is no unusual thing to pluck blooms of 

 ' Gloire de Dijon,' ' Madame Lambard,' and other favourite Roses at 

 Christmas from plants out of doors on walls and other sheltered positions 

 in the garden. 



Without doubt, ever since the Rose enjoyed the serious attention of 

 the horticulturist, Roses in autumn have been appreciated, especially in 

 large gardens, coming as they do at a time of year when so many of their 

 owners are in residence, Avith the leisure to admire the beauties of the 

 surroundings of their countrv homes. In 1812 was raised, in the gardens 

 of St. Cloud, near Paris, a beautiful crimson Rose, named by the raiser 

 ' Rose du Roi.' This Rose I have always regarded as the first of the 

 Hybrid Perpetuals, a group which, having increased in variety, held almost 

 undisputed sway from the middle till nearly the close of the last century. 

 In the first edition of " The Rose Garden," published in 1848, we find 

 enumerated and described 188 varieties of Bourbon Roses, 145 varieties 

 of Tea-scented Roses, 106 varieties of Hybrid Perpetual Roses, upwards of 

 100 varieties of Chinese Roses, and many other varieties of autumnal- 

 flowering classes ; but when representative groups began to be exhibited 

 at the meetings of this Society, some eight or ten years since, it was rare 

 to find admirers of the national flower who had cultivated it with 

 this especial object in view. Since that time, however, the number of 

 really handsome autumn-blooming Roses has largely increased, and to 

 what a state of perfection in beauty of form and colour they have attained 

 may be judged of from the collections which have been exhibited from 

 time to time in this hall. It may be said that the long and warm 

 summers of the last few years have greatly favoured the development of 

 the autumn flowers, especially in the Chinese, Tea-scented, and Hybrid 

 Tea-scented sections ; indeed on October 10 last year these particular 



