Victorian gardeners defined a new landscaping aesthetic for their middle-income, newly-developed neighborhoods. They used plant materials new to Europe and needed new forms of familiar favorites to fit the scale of suburban homes. Old European roses are spring-blooming garden giants. But remontant (blooming more than once in the season) Asian roses are not reliably cold tolerant. What British gardeners needed were compact, cold-hardy roses.
French rose hybridizers dominated that field throughout the 19th century. In the 1860s, they began experimenting with crosses between R. multiflora, the ancestor of all modern cluster blooming roses, and R. chinensis, ancestor of modern re-blooming roses. This breeding ultimately resulted in compact bushes producing prolific blooms in clusters of small flowers throughout the season.
The first rather uneven efforts were called polypompoms. By the 1880s more uniform results called polyanthas were introduced. The popularity of polyantha roses peaked between the world wars of the 20th century.
They were surpassed by their offspring. Early in the 20th century, the Poulsen brothers of Denmark began crossing polyanthas with hybrid tea roses to develop more cold-tolerant plants. In 1924, sister seedlings Else and Kirsten Poulsen were commercial success stories. The Poulsens were joined by other hybridizers and work continued on these new cluster-blooming roses.
By the 1950s, advances in color range and flower size led to the naming of a new classification. Today “floribunda” refers to all cluster-flowering shrub roses except polyanthas.
It may surprise you to learn that my polyanthas exhibit more continuous blooming than my floribundas. They are undaunted by our summers. The Fairy is never out of bloom. Marie Pavie has one very brief respite during the hottest days.
These roses thrive on benign neglect. They only need pruning to remove deadwood and damaged canes. Fertilize them once in early spring with a balanced slow-release product. I have never had a disease problem with any of them and insect pests seem to prefer hybrid teas.
One last plus: These roses enjoy the company of other flowers. After all, the Victorians needed them to fit into their floral borders.
(Photos: From top, The Fairy; Marie Pavie, a polyantha and just a great rose; Perle d'Or aka yellow Cecile Brunner, a polyantha; and Archduke Charles, a China rose.)
Ann Bartlett is a master gardener who knows her stuff about horticulture across the board; but when it comes to roses she gets seriously on subject and The poor Planet has to start looking stuff up! Got rose questions? You can email Ann at arose56@hamilton.net.
