JOUENAL 



OP THE 



Royal Hoeticultural SoeiETY- 



Vol. XXXVI. 1911. 

 Pabt III, 



EAMBLING EOSES. 

 By G. L. Paul. 

 [Read September 13, 1910.] 



The few notes which follow deal with Eambling Eoses, their develop- 

 ment and their possibilities. By rambler " I mean something dis- 

 tinct from the ordinary climbing and pillar roses ; I mean a variety 

 which grows rapidly and throws out strong branches in various direc- 

 tions, and is usually well clad with foliage; it is, in every sense, a very 

 vigorous form of climbing rose. 



In looking through the catalogues of by-gone days one is struck by 

 the fact that although some of our oldest roses were ramblers in the 

 true sense of the word, yet it is this class that modern rosarians have 

 left to the last in their efforts to obtain new varieties ; and it is par- 

 ticularly noticeable that nearly all those ramblers that have lasted until 

 the present day are whites, or white touched with pink. In the most 

 recent catalogue of the National Eose Society we find the following 

 old names still surviving: 'Felicity Perpetue' (introduced in 1828), 

 'Ami^e Vibert ' (1841), ^Bennett's Seedling,' ' Blairi No. II.,' 

 ' Dundee Eambler,' ' Flora,' '^Madame d'Arblay ' (which, by the way, 

 was raised in England), 'Euga,' 'The Garland,' and * Splendens.' 

 With the exception of ' Blairi No. 11. ' and * Flora,' they are all whites. 



' Fehcite Perpetue, ' the earliest of them all, is a reputed hybrid 

 from Rosa sempervirens, the wild Italian briar, and others hke 

 ' Dundee Eambler,' * Euga,' and * Splendens ' are hybrids from the 

 Ayrshire rose, Rosa arvensis, the wild white briar of our own country. 



It may here be remarked how singular it is that while a number of 

 varieties have been raised from the Ayrshire rose, we know of scarcely 

 aiiy that have come to us from the Dog Eose, the Rosa canina of 



VOL. XXXVI. N N 



