ROSES HERE AT A WAY TO GARDEN are notably scarce, but there is one kind I actually have in multiple—and think that you should, too. It’s Rosa glauca, the blue-leaved rose, and that’s why I grow it—for its beautiful foliage.
I first came to know Rosa glauca as its former name of Rosa rubrifolia, meaning red-leaved, because they’re tinged with red, as are the stems. Whatever the name, it has arching canes that may get to about 6 or 8 feet tall in time, forming a roughly vase-shaped shrub, and is hardy to a brutal Zone 2 (where I never wish to test it, thank you).
The foliage color will be best if the plant is grown in light shade, emphasis on light, but don’t ask this (or any rose) to do in the dark or fungal problems will prevail. In early June here, small (perhaps inch and a half) single vivid pink flowers are produced, followed by good-sized orangey hips.
I have my older R. glauca planted with the big-root geranium, Geranium macrorrhizum, at its feet, whose hot-pink flowers coincide with those of the similarly colored rose’s, and with lots of Nectaroscordum siculum (an Allium cousin whose mauvey-blue-green blooms complete the picture) poking up out of that.
It is a strong addition to a mixed shrub border, where the glaucous foliage is an especially vivid contrast to purple-leaved things like smokebush or Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Diablo.’ Blue-leaved glasses such as Helictotrichon sempervirens (blue oat grass) would be great nearby; if the shrubbery this rose is part of casts enough shade, even blue hostas would be wonderful in the mix below. You get the idea.
I just cut back my oldest plant right near the ground, and being the tough thing it is, it immediately pushed up many strong canes (above) in the spirit of the intended rejuvenation. Look at the color of the fresh stems. Delicious.
Because R. glauca is a species (non-hybrid) rose, it will self-sow around and the babies will come true to form—looking like the parent. Not a bad thing if you happen to want more, and have the required patience.
I have to confess, some of the newish nonstop-blooming rose series are looking pretty appealing lately, even to my non-rose-lover’s eye. The ‘Drift’ series, for instance, and also the ‘Knockout’ ones keep calling to me at the garden center, though for now here it’s still just me and my Rosa glauca and a rugosa (love those hips, as does the wildlife) and one super-hardy climber.
So let me ask you this: What’s the rose you can’t live without?
oops….I put my rosa glauca in full sun….should I move it or wait until the fall?
Oddly, the one rose I can’t live without is the one I am living without: rosa rugosa “Blanc Double de Coubert.” It is the nearest thing to a gardenia scent this southern transplant to the northwest can get (me, not the rugosa rose!) without a greenhouse. It is a pure white, which is a sweet pleasure against the fresh apple green foliage rugosas are known for. I have another white rugosa at present (sorry but I can’t recall the name), and it has the palest pink buds which open into stunning single bright white flowers, and a lovely ethereal (read mild) scent– close, but no cigar once you’ve smelled the Blanc DdC. Have to agree the rosa glauca is a fabulous rose, too, never fails to please.
I do not have Rosa glauca, but our climates are different . . . . My personal favorite out of all I grow is R. ‘Carefree Beauty’. It is an astounding workhorse of a rose with no blackspot. A wonderful introduction by Dr. Griffith Buck.~~Dee
I got rosa glauca in a trade last year and have been wondering what to do with it. Thanks for letting me know how large it gets, it’s just a small baby plant now, but even in its small stage the foliage is attention getting. I guess I will let it get bigger before I move it on out to a shrub border.
But the same question as Maureen – why shouldn’t it be grown in full sun like other roses? Do the leaves crisp up and burn?
‘Zephirine Drouhin’ a climber . It has single pink flowers that have that very old fashioned true rose scent. Also no thorns! I have it on the front porch, so I can smell her everytime I come in the front door.
Welcome, Mary. I wish I had the white rugosa, too, but somehow I seem to have a profusion of things here that are Pepto-Bismol pink. Poor planning! :) Glad to “meet” you and hope to hear from you again soon. (And at least you landed in good gardening territory in the PNW — nice!).
@Dee: Good name for a rose, that ‘Carefree Beauty,’ huh? Truth in marketing! :)
@Maureen: It may be totally happy in the sun for you. My observation is that here it just appears more vividly blue and happier in a tiny bit of shade — versus out in the beating midsummer midday sun. But it’s a rose and will happily live through a sunny locale. Frankly, I think many blue-leaved plants look better out of the toughest sun, where you can really enjoy their color.
I’ve got a rangy double pink number that’s a cutting of a rose my great-great-great-great aunt Rhoda brought with her when she married and moved from southern New Hampshire to central Vt in the 19th C. It’s pretty but here more for its history than its merits as a shrub. The rose I really love, however, is Madame Plantier, an awesomely scented, white rambler that appreciates the morning sun/afternoon shade that is the most light I can offer anything here. It has an unfortunate habit of flopping over in the rain and the buds sometimes wither if it’s very wet, but boy am I a sucker for that old-fashioned rose look and sweet scent. I’ve also take a hint from your book, Margaret, and I planted a clematis “General Sikorski” to climb through it.
My most favorite rose is Therese Bugunet (spelled something like that) the toughness of a rugusa background with old rose scent and pink full flowers. It blooms for about 3 weeks now and then again in the fall when it cools off.
I admit to loving the ‘Rainbow Knockout’ rose. Okay, up close they are a bit pedestrian, but at a distance they provide a spectacular non-stop bit of coral-y pink color that gets way too much attention for being so easy. Glad I gave in to them!
I like the explorer series roses (on their own root) because they are reliable, hardy and generally maintenance free, but they can get HUGE. My favorites are the Austin roses Heritage and Mary Rose that are casually elegant with heavenly scent and repeat blooms until freeze up.
Rosa glauca is the one and only rose I can’t live without. I fell in love with it the first time I saw it, and searched until I had one of my own. I plant it wherever I move. I give seedlings to friends and family. You forgot to mention the how nice cinnabar hips and violet stems are in winter. I cut out a few of the oldest stems every year, so it maintains good stem color and a fountain shape.
I’ve a preference for single or semi-double roses in general. I love the grace and simplicity of them. ‘Carefree Delight’ is a charming rose, too.
The rose I can’t live without? My pink fairy rose – it blooms all summer.
Suzanne
For Colorado gardeners Rosa glauca is a Plant Select for 2010. I wish I had room for it, but it is too big for my yard. I love Sally Holmes and 4th of July, both climbers.
Margaret — are “blue-leaved glasses” preferable to rose-tinted glasses? Tee hee. ;)
I’m partial to yellow roses, so Carefree Sunshine was going to be the only rose in my garden. But a friend talked me into buying Westerland, bloom unseen, so now I also have what is to my eye a garishly colored hot orangy-peach colored climber. Fortunately (or unfortunately) my husband loves it.
My can’t live without is Golden Wings. Gorgeous big pale yellow singles that fade to cream. I have glauca too and that’s no slouch. If you like glauca, check out Louis Riel, a flawless relative with delicate white flowers and the blue foliage.
I just got 2 Nahema Delbard pink climbers grafted onto Fortuniana root stock to make it Florida friendly. The roses are the most beautiful little blush pink beauties. I have high hopes for many years of enjoyment as it grows up our new shed.
Welcome, Rachel. Sounds beautiful…’Golden Wings,” I mean…and also ‘Louis Riel.’ Uh-oh, could be trouble. :) See you soon again!
Hi Margaret! Saw this wonderful rose from afar at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, Va. It was spectacularly beautiful and several in my group were drawn to it with comments like “What is it, a lorapetalum?” and so on. The foliage was so unusual for a rose. Two of us were impressed enough to put it on our must have list and so I thank you for the tutorial on how to care for one. It will be an addition to my garden in the fall.
I love rosa glauca too. The challenge it poses is that if you want to have your hips you should let it flower (the flowers are pretty but nothing to brag about) and if you let it flower the foliage doesn’t get to look at it’s best. So, as you mentioned, wait until you have babies sprouting around it and then you can grow two bushes: one for the perfect foliage (probably the one in semi shade: get rid of the flowers) and another one for the hips (full sun).
Regarding rugosas, I made the mistake of chosing a double one: it doesn’t set hips.
Rosa geranium moyesii is also a beautiful shrub that works well even without its very pretty single red flowers.
The fairy and bonica would be my other choices: tough, carefree, hardy, beautiful.
I just planted mine before I left to come back to the city this afternoon. You are a bad influence ;-)
What happened to your Monday podcast?
I love ‘The Fairy’ as well. Love the non-stop blooming – I sometimes have them in December – and I love the babies that come from layering. Now I have to get a glauca. Thanks for the education – it sounds like a great addition to a new mixed shrubby border I want to plant after we rip out a long hedge of wing bark euonymous.
Welcome, Carol. I used to grow ‘The Fairy’ and think of it fondly still. Glad to have you here and hope to see you again soon.
Rachel, Where did you get Louis Riel? I looked online and only found one source that wants $45 for a custom propagation. I also learned a little bit about Canadian history.
I love rosa glauca best, and I also have a very happy Therese Bugnet. Another fav is an old gallica rose that a friend gave me that is tough as nails and blooms in a stunning pinkish purple.
I have Henry Hudson below a bedroom window and just added George Vancouver, both explorer roses on their own roots. I am envious of the fragrance mentioned in other postings, but Henry and George do well in zone 4B.
Honeysweet by Griffith Buck is my all time favorite rose…Margaret, can you possibly share a resource for Honeysweet? I have had no luck finding this rose locally and did not have the heart to take it from my old garden when we sold our house. If anyone can help…I know you can!
I also love Rosa Glauca and have given friends babies from my garden. My other favorite is Lillian Gibson… a gorgeous pink climber that blooms with a flourish with thousands of blossoms.
@Donna: I can see that one of the country’s biggest wholesalers is still listing it (and therefore presumably producing it) so I’d start there, at Bailey Nurseries (their fields are in Minnesota and Oregon and elsewhere, but they sell to various regions).
Bailey’s has a zipcode-based search function for retailer locations, and if you can find a retail nursery near you that deals with Bailey’s already, they can get it for you on their next order from them.
That’s how I get lots of things, sort of special order, by tracking down who has accounts with the wholesaler that produces something. Good topic for a post, actually…thanks. :)
A PS to this comment: I found it listed subsequently at Roses Unlimited by mail.
Welcome, Dj Vail. Nice to hear your passalong glauca story, and off I go to look for photos of that climber you recommend. Uh-oh. :) See you soon.
I have rosa glauca in my smallish city garden, and love it, but my general rule about roses is that they must have scent, otherwise what’s the point? I have “Colette” which is an incredibly profuse bloomer in our hot humid Pittsburgh summers… a gorgeous peachy pink apricot, fragrant… Therese Bugnet is another rugosa-esque shrub rose with fabulous fragrance, and Rose de Rescht, while small, does well in less than full sun. While David Austin roses are somewhat out of fashion these days, I am still loyal to Abraham Darby, Graham Thomas and Shakespeare 2000. I also have a “mystery rose” which I think is French Lace… white buds, blushed with pink… intensely sweet fragrance… first giving me a hybrid tea look then opening to full old-fashioned many-petaled bloom… and disease resistant too. New Dawn is popular here, but it can overwhelm; White Dawn is better behaved. Mme. Hardy is lovely, but a scraggly looking plant best hidden behind others.
Rosa glauca is my very favourite rose, it’s perfect, no black spot, no mildew, and the cardinals adore eating the hips. My close to No 1 is ‘The Fairy”, delicate little flowers, no blackspot or mildew also which is a huge bonus. The only drawbacks are lack of fragrance but then you can’t have everything!
Love striped roses, esp. Variegata di Bologna, Miller’s Striped Rugosa, and Scentimental. Also have a weak spot for very dark ones, like Night Owl, which seems to be disease resistant (always a big plus). Oh, and the ever-productive, easy, easy care, Alba Mediland.
Cant’s find any sources for Rosa Glauca. Loomis Creek is sold out. Where can it be purchased? Have admired it for a long time.
My climbing Cecile Brunner blooms in June with just a few blossoms later, but the scent is heavenly! Rosa Glauca was the one rose I HAD to have and I loved it. But it got that terrible rose rosette disease-RRD and died. However there was a seeding nearby and I am keeping a very close eye on it, hoping to avoid the disease.
I love my Peggy Martin Rose. A climber in pink, thornless with repeat blooms later in the summer. The rose that survived Hurricane Katrina.
I’ve left my old rose garden behind. Now I’m in the Berkshires with lots of shade to deal with, and as a weekend gardner, roses haven’t been on my radar. With two notable exceptions: Zephrine Drouhin, as Jean mentioned, is also great for part shade—a vigorous climber in bright pink against a fence with what seems like way to little sun. Opposite is Darlow’s Enigma, a hybrid musk climber–fragrant, repeat-blooming, and disease free in part shade. ( I think I picked it for the name.) I think if I only had one rose, it would be Darlow’s-because I’m partial to white flowers.
But after reading this, I have to try to find a spot for rosa glauca–I love blue foliage! “Never stop wanting more plants,” right Margaret?
I have had the pleasure of growing rosa glauca for 24 years now. It is my favorite.
The glauca in FULL SUN really does the very best. It is very healthy and does not need rejuvenation pruning. Years ago I read it was a rose that could grow in part shade, not that they prefer part shade. From experience I learned ones planted in part shade do not hold a candle to ones grown in full sun.
After seeing the contrast years ago, I moved them all into full sun. Although it is once blooming, the leaf colour is beautiful. Many fellow gardeners have asked me for the “babies” that show up around my garden and I have grown many plants from seedlings and passed them onto friends. After two years the seedlings take off. They are worth the wait.
Welcome, Nina. So good to hear about your experience with the rose after so many years, and also how you pass them along to others. Sweet. Yes, they are definitely worth the wait. I do like the way the color looks here in the light shade more than in the blazing sun, but everyone’s conditions are different, of course — each exposure, each soil, etc. Of course, I like many things in a little less than full sun since I like to take photos and full sun is the worst condition for that. :) I am crazy about dappled light. Hope to see you soon again, and thanks for sharing your wisdom.
Welcome, Clarissa. Did you call Windy Hill in Gt. Barrington? Not a rare thing by any means so I’m certain you will bump into it at one of the local hangouts…the listing of garden advertisers on the WKZE radio station site, for instance, has a lot of possibilities you might try calling…just a thought.
I love the rose Pinky, or is it Pinkie? A smallish climber, it grows to 12′ and has fewer thorns than many. I have it supported on an umbrella tuteur and I smile each May when it peaks. It came from the Antique Rose Emporium.
Welcome, Carol. Apparently it’s ‘Antique Pinkie,’ and it’s a polyantha type. Good choice…said to be a Zone 6 creature (I am Zone 5B) but tempting, tempting. See you soon!
Okay, so I am a little behind in my reading! I first bought Rosa Glauca when it’s surname was rubrifolia. The original is gone, having gotten to look a bit tired, but as I was weeding the other day, I discovered numerous offspring; I left 10 healthy looking kids. Wish I had the “light” shade you mentioned but I am sure they will be quite happy and adjust nicely. Several will find hmes elsewhere. One question – you mentioned cutting back your oldest. Is this something one should do from time to time? Perhaps I should have done that with the original but that is now a moot point. I have the children.
Welcome, Susan. My oldest plant got so leggy and sparse, but down at the base I could see that there was the potential for some new life, so I rejuvenated it. I don’t think it’s essential, but if any shrub (rose or otherwise) gets out of control or sparse or stretched-out looking, I always think of this (in earliest spring) as a possible remedy, and cheaper than replacement from scratch. :)
How does the rosa glauca do as a cutting. I am currently trying, my second attempt. Or should i give up and order it from somewhere?
@Harriet: I have always had it come easily from seed, and have read that you can do softwood cuttings in spring or hardwood in fall or layering of branches. Shouldn’t be different from other roses that way.
I have a few that are not my favorites!!
I have a David Austen ‘Abraham Darby’ that I am very disappointed in. I have a small town lot and it has always got something wrong with it.
*There’s a question for ya….What do you do when you have something that doesn’t live up to it’s name??? I can’t throw it out being i paid a lot of money for it but I sure would give it away!!
What do you or your posters do???
I too have the climber Zephrine Drouhin which graces the front of the cottage with its beautiful pale pink blooms; also Marchioness of Londonderry is another gorgeous climber, pale pale pink, not frequent blooms but worth the wait, and the most fragrant, Baronne Prevost , a deep pink cabbage style rose on a full shrub that blooms throughout the season. I’ve gotten these roses from the Antique Rose Emporium – great antique roses rescued from old cemetaries and homesteads and given a new life in modern gardens. It’s definitely a place where one can get carried away. These are just my 10s, I have several 9 1/2s also! I’ve fallen head over heels for roses.
Hi, Dianna. The Austin rose series isn’t very happy here in my zone, either. There are many beautiful roses included, but they just hate it here generally speaking. Other very experienced local garden friends nearby have failed, too. I hand things down all the time — but the tricky part is if it’s a zone thing it won’t do better for a neighbor. I have tossed many plants onto the compost as a result, or waited for a visitor from slightly south of me!
To name a favorite rose out of our couple hundred or so is like picking a favorite child! Here in NC, the teas bred as the first remontant superstars, sent from SC to France and back, are the tough old broads in our garden. love that they can live on the hot, miserable border of our yard that is full of tree roots and dry as a bone in mid-summer. I love that even before this springlike week, there was purpley new leaf growth on all of them, even the smallest plants. My favorite is our big Safrano tea rose – more apricot than saffron-colored, rumored to have been the result of hand-pollination in 19th century France. The blooms are luminous and silky. It pumps them out all season, and is still going strong by Thanksgiving. I realize that teas are not cut out for the northern garden, but the rugosas like Therese Bugnet and the huge selection of roses hybridized by Dr. Buck are good ones to try.
The fragrance of Therese’s blooms is intoxicating!
We carried R. glauca at our garden center for a couple of seasons. One of the lessons I’ve learned in that business is some great plants greatly resent trying to be sold in pots and glauca is one of them. The other thing is that Iowa is so darned humid that powdery mildew spoiled the foliage thoroughly. So it may be worth a try but probably not the best choice in the Midwest and if you find one, get it in the ground and don’t let it suffer any more ignominy than necessary!:) (PS–the Knockout series roses have been used very successfully in this region in streetscape plantings, tougher than nails and bloom all season so there is a place for them)