Old Roses

Already dog-eared...

Just returned from the National Heirloom Expo 2015. Heirloom plants and heritage breed animals. Piles of squash and rows of tomatoes. Very cute big and little piggies, bronze age goats. Lots of interesting thought-provoking speakers (and some really out-there speakers). Good food and good music.

Talked to the Heritage Rose Group people who had some booklets and some old roses for sale.

There are many people who call themselves "Rose Rustlers" who (very politely) find and propagate old roses found in cemeteries, homesteads, and old houses.

Initially, I was drawn to their booth because I'm looking for the Niles Cochet rose that was introduced by the California Nursery Company in 1906. However, I'm also interested in old roses because many are very drought tolerant and some might provide edible petals and rose hips.


This little booklet, "Rose Rustling" Discovery, Propagation, and Identification of "Lost" Roses, A Tradition of Preservation", is chock full of information.

On thing that needs to be done with rustled roses is to identify them. I've folded their suggestions into my references with other useful references found along the way.

References

Organizations

• The Heritage Roses Group (facebook page, website)
• Heritage Roses Group Bay Area are in San Francisco, El Cerrito?
• Gold Coast Heritage Roses Group (website)
• South Bay Heritage Rose Group (page, facebook)

Books suggested by Rosalind Creasy

• Rosa Rugosa, Suzanne Verrier
• The Rose Bible, Rayford Clayton Reddell 
• Landscaping with Antique Roses, Liz Druitt and G. Michael Shoup.

Edible Roses

• Not all roses are tasty! Rosalind Creasy, Edible Landscaping, has suggestions for better than average tasting roses.  Some of her rose suggestions are heritage. For rose hips: Eglantine and Rugosa roses ('Alba', 'Frau Dagmar Hastrupp', 'Hansa', and 'Belle Poitevine'). Her suggestions for edible flowers: 'Belinda' (hybrid musk, candying), 'Graham Thomas', 'Carefree Delight', 'Gertrude Jekyll', 'Julia Child', 'Tiffany', 'Double Delight', 'Flower Carpet Pink'

Identification

• What Rose is This? Ethelyn Emery Keays, 1938. Helpful guide to rose identification.
• Old Roses book, Ethelyn Emery Keays, 1935, republished in 1978
• In Search of Lost Roses, Thomas Christopher (interview,
• HelpMeFind is super helpful.
• The Field Report of Rose Characteristics, order from storm@caltel.com
• Brent Dickerson's books

Propagation

• Propagation (Texas A&M, Cemetery Rose)

Places to visit old roses

• San Jose Heritage Rose Garden - Jill Perry showed me the Niles Cochet in their garden and it looks very much like ours. She said that the Niles Cochet is very distinctive. No other roses look like it. Microscope not needed!
• Friends of Vintage Roses, Sebastopol. 
• Huntington Garden
• Rancho Camulos

Care

• Drought Tolerant Roses, A guide for low water use gardening with roses in California’s Mediterranean Climate regions
• Pruning for the Totally Timid
• Cass Bernstein, Pruning My Way