Today’s rose is awfully pretty, and is accompanied by amusing erudition-soaked dialogue. Rugosa is a rose species and “yellow” is self-explanatory. But the combination is rare.
I ran another yellow-Rugosa picture in May of 2007. Shortly thereafter I received an email from Alex Waterhouse-Hayward:
That yellow rugosa. Are you sure that’s what it is? In Canada, generally the only yellow rugosa is Rosa “Agnes” which happens to be not only a Canadian rose but also the world’s first yellow rugosa.
Lauren wrote back:
That yellow rugosa is the Yellow Frau Dagmar Hastrup. We got it at the Old Rose Nursery on Hornby Island. http://www.oldrosenursery.com/hardy/rugosa.htm
There's another picture at http://www.hortico.com/roses/view.asp?action=show&productid=2599 which is reasonably close.
Alex had the last word:
Statistically since Rosa “Fru Dagmar Hastrup” (Frau is incorrect) was hybridized (a found seedling of Rosa rugosa) by a Mr. Hastrup in 1914 (Since Hastrup was Danish it would have to be Fru and not Frau) it never occurred to me that your rose would be the one it is. I simply did not think of it.
When Dr. W. Saunders (in Ottawa) crossed Rosa rugosa with Rosa foetida “Persiana” (a very yellow rose) in 1922 Rosa “Agnes” became the first yellow rugosa.
Your specimen appeared in 1987 when an American called Moore crossed Rosa “Golden Angel” with a rugosa hybrid called Rosa “Belle Poitevine”. What is interesting about this deep pink rugosa is that it was introduced in 1894 (before our Fru). While its name is similar to Fru it is in fact a yellow rugosa that has no relationship with Fru except that both are hybrid rugosas.
My recapitulation of the above would be condensed to: Both of you are now honorary plant snobs. Not too many people have yellow rugosas, and to call the one in your garden just a yellow rugosa (without being precise to exactly what it is), ah! so nonchalantly as if all of us had this and other yellow rugosas...
Actually, I’m only snobbish about audio equipment, draught beer, typography, and Web technology.
Comment feed for ongoing:
From: Carolyn A. Colborn (Jul 10 2008, at 03:54)
“in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: ...
because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose.”
The Little Prince
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
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