Moxie Gardener

Roses continuing to grow in an abandoned lot. How long will they live with no gardener to tend them?

Roses, well known to need copious amounts of water and attentive care, are growing in an abandoned, fenced parking lot.

What’s amazing to me is that we just had the third driest spring in our area since weather record keeping began over a hundred years ago.

Last fall a fast food restaurant in the neighborhood mysteriously closed in the middle of the work day. They put the address of their nearest restaurant on the marquee, boarded up the windows and put a chain link fence around the entire property.

Nearly nine months later, I couldn’t help but notice the roses growing in the formerly landscaped parking area.  The picture above was taken through the chain link fence erected to keep trespassers out.

Apparently the landscaping fabric in the rose bed is keeping enough of the weeds down to allow the rose to grow.

It brings to mind the many rose societies around the country that actively seek out and rescue old rose varieties. Many old roses are growing wild without assistance from gardeners. These roses are found in vacant lots, abandoned farmsteads and old cemeteries.  Heirloom rose preservation societies document, take cuttings of and propagate old roses so that they are not lost to us.

The goal of most of these societies is to collect so-called “old” roses—those developed before the genes of Chinese roses were bred into the gene pool. Although this may be the primary goal of heirloom rose rescuers, I’m betting many obscure “modern” rose varieties have found their way into the protection and cultivation of these organizations.

A rose lover will not refuse to grow a beautiful, unknown rose variety simply because it’s not old enough.

After all, “a rose is a rose is a rose.”

Look for more articles about roses this summer.

Roses haunt us like no other flower.

There’s no disputing it. Roses are the queen of all flowers. Their perfect beauty and haunting fragrance are universally appealing.

They flourish in shades of red, pink, white and yellow. They climb arbors and trellises or take center stage as lawn specimens.

Fossil evidence exists that proves roses are 35 million years old. Their cultivation began over 5,000 years ago in Asia.

Frescoes in Crete dating to 1700 BC illustrate a pink five-petaled rose.

Tombs in Egypt contain wreaths made with roses and other flowers.

Roses and rose water were considered legal tender in the seventeenth century.

It wasn’t until the eighteenth century that cultivated roses were introduced to Europe. Repeat bloomers from China revolutionized the hybridization of rose varieties. Roses that bloomed more than once a year were of great interest to plant breeders.

This is the dividing point in the genealogy of roses. All varieties that existed before the introduction of Chinese rose varieties are referred to as “old roses.” Roses cultivated after 1800, using the more frequent blooming Chinese stock, are called “modern” roses.

The yellow rose appeared around 1900. After 20 years of trying to breed a yellow rose, a hybridizer stumbled across a mutant one growing wild in a field. Yellow and orange have been in the rose pallet ever since.

After World War II, the Peace rose was introduced. It was thus named because the seeds that produced it were smuggled out of a war zone in a diplomatic pouch shortly before the area fell to the enemy.

Ever since, it has been the standard by which new rose introductions are judged.

Look for more posts this summer about the history, folklore and cultivation of roses.