SCOTCH ROSES 
Roses of great beauty. For the most part they turned their attention 
to the Bengals, the Centifolias, and afterwards to the Noisettes, leaving 
the spinosissima hybrids to our English and Scotch growers, Brown, 
Austin, Malcolm, Lee and Kennedy, and others, who were so 
active in raising new varieties that there were soon between two and 
three hundred upon the market under distinctive names. A glance 
at the nurserymen’s catalogues of the first half of the last century is 
bewildering and leads us to wonder if so many of these little Roses 
could possibly have been sufficiently distinct to appear as independent 
varieties. Many of them were charming, to judge from the few which 
have survived the changes of fashion, and it would be interesting to 
try to reintroduce some of the vanished varieties by raising a fresh 
series of seedlings. Paul in his Rose Garden 1 enumerates by name 
seventy-six of these hybrid Scotch Roses which were in vogue about 
1840. They must have lost favour very shortly after, for only about 
eight out of the number are now to be found. In its wild state Rosa 
spinosissima has a greater tendency to form hybrids than any other of 
our native Roses. 
It does not appear that Scotch Roses were ever so popular upon 
the continent as they were in England, although the F rench catalogues 
contain a certain number of varieties. Prevost in 1829 includes 
thirty-six, but mostly under fancy names, so that it is difficult to identify 
them with Sabine’s list. 
These little Roses are so charming that they can never entirely 
disappear from our gardens. Flowering from three weeks to a month 
earlier than the generality of other Roses, they continue in bloom for 
a considerable time, and in autumn their bronze foliage and plentiful 
hips are an additional charm. The fruit apparently ripens but slowly, 
and is therefore not attacked by birds until towards the end of winter. 
Their compact habit and wealth of blossom makes them very beautiful 
objects for the rock garden. Care should, however, be taken not to 
plant them where their suckers are likely to interfere with the rarer 
plants. These Scotch Roses are seen to best advantage when growing 
on grass where they may increase unrestrained year after year, without 
requiring the least attention, except that the old wood should be cut 
out from time to time. 
1 Pt. 2, pp. 17-19 (1848). 
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