Chances are you have admired the beauty and fragrance of a rose at least once in your life. Roses stand out from the rest of our gardening plants due to their beauty and fragrance and their long history of cultivation. Memories are reawakened at the fragrance of a rose long forgotten, perhaps taking you back to your grandmothers yard when you where a child. You may have even tried to recreate the rose gardens you remembered from your childhood. For the beginner, rose gardening can be intimidating. It need not be! A movement to preserve old garden roses began in the late 1930’s. Since that time, many ‘rose rustlers’ have discovered old roses growing in abandoned cemeteries, old homesites, and along the roadsides of the south. These roses have been found growing without much assistance and have proven to be very tough and easy to grow. With the help of the nursery trades, these roses have been introduced back into popular culture with much acclaim. The reasons for their success are many!

     When you take two varieties of a plant and cross-pollinate, you have created a hybrid. Certain desirable characteristics are breed into the new plant and some desirable characteristics are breed out of the new plant. Most hybrid roses are bred for their rose form and color. Many times the overall beauty and form of the rose bush is disregarded in this chase for the perfect rose. Antique roses, as opposed to hybrid roses, are grown on their own rootstock. This makes them hardier to temperature extremes and less prone to disease. The inherent growth characteristics of a rose that has not been hybridized tends to be more naturally formed and not grown just for the beauty of the rose itself. Old rose colors will tend to be less dramatic than hybrids but the number and fragrance of the blooms more than makes up for this one small fault. After they have become established, antique roses will require much less attention to maintain and keep alive and beautiful than their younger cousins will. 

    So where do you begin? As antique roses are a natural extension of a style of gardening termed ‘cottage gardening’ (as opposed to formal gardening), it would be advisable to find a book or two on this style of gardening. Cottage gardening is a mixture of plants that are planted together with special attention paid to their bloom time, colors, height, and form. It is in this atmosphere that antique roses stand out and perform their best. When it comes time to find that special rose for that special place, search out nurseries that can offer a variety to choose from and the knowledge to find the rose that will work for you. To discuss all the classes of roses or to list this rose or that rose would take away from all that could not be listed. Some are common and some are hard to find. But with a little studying and some searching you should be able to find the rose that will make that special place stand out!

   You will find that Dr. William C. Welch has two books that are indispensable in the learning of cottage gardening and old roses. He lives here in South Central Texas and writes beautiful and informative books. Look for Perennial Garden Color and Antique Roses for the South. Another Texan, Liz Druitt, has a book titled The Organic Rose Garden on how to grow your roses following organic gardening principles. For those on the internet, check out the Texas Rose Rustlers Website.