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Rosa Arvensis Hybrida.—The origin of the Ayrshire Rose has been the subject of some discussion among botanists and cultivators. It is generally supposed, however, to have sprung from the seed of a wild trailing rose common in Great Britain and in Western Europe, the flowers of which had been impregnated by accident or design with the pollen of some other species. The Ayrshire roses are known in Europe for their astonishing vigor of growth; some species, it is said, growing nearly thirty feet in a year,—an achievement which we never knew them to equal in this country. Their growth, however, is very rapid; and, when once established, their long, slender shoots quickly possess themselves of every object near them. As may be gathered from their name, most of them originated in Scotland. In Europe, these roses are valued as standard weepers, since, when budded on tall stocks, they form huge heads of pendulous foliage and bloom. Doubtless they would succeed as well or better in our Southern and Middle States; but in the North they would probably require, in common with other standard roses, a careful protection against the changes of the seasons.
Bennett's Seedling and the Dundee Rambler have white flowers; those of the last being not fully double. The Countess of Lieven is creamy-white and semidouble. Splendens is white, edged with red; and the Queen of the Belgians is of a cream-color. The Ayrshire Queen is of a dark crimson-purple, and less vigorous in growth than the rest. Ruga is of a pale flesh-color. Like the last, it is a hybrid, probably between the Tea Rose and one of the Ayrshires; for it has much of the fragrance of the former.
"I have a steep bank of a hard white clay," says an English writer, "which, owing to a cutting made in the road, became too steep for cultivation. About sixteen years since, this was planted with Ayrshire and other climbing roses. Holes were made in the hard soil with a pick, two feet over and two feet deep; some manure mixed with the clay, after it had lain exposed to frost to mellow it, and climbing roses planted. This bank is, when the roses are in bloom, a mass of beauty: I have never seen any thing in climbing roses to equal it. On another bank, they are gradually mounting to the tops of the trees: none of them have ever been pruned. Ayrshire roses, as articles of decoration in places unfitted for other ornamental climbers, are worthy of much more attention than they have hitherto received."
The following extract from the "Dundee Courier" of July 11,1837, will give some idea how capable these roses are of making even a wilderness a scene of beauty:—
"Some years ago, a sand-pit at Ellangowan was filled up with rubbish found in digging a well. Over this a piece of rock was formed for the growth of plants which prefer such situations, and amongst them were planted some half-dozen plants of the Double Ayrshire Rose, raised in this neighborhood about ten years ago. These roses now most completely cover the whole ground,—a space of thirty feet by twenty. At present they are in full bloom, showing probably not less than ten thousand roses in this small space."
