Carmin d'Yèeles, or Carmin Superbe, has bright carmine flowers. Cramoisie Supérieure has double crimson flowers, and, like the former, is excellent for pot-culture. Eugène Beauharnais is large, very double, and of a bright amaranth-color, approaching crimson. Fabvier is of crimson scarlet, very vivid and striking. President d'Olbeque is of a cherry-red.
All of the above belong to the Semperflorens species, and are of deep colors. The following are varieties of Rosa Indica. Archduke Charles is of a bright rose-color, gradually deepening as the flower grows older, till it becomes, at times, almost crimson. Cels Multiflora is white, shaded with pink, and flowers very freely. Madame Bréon is of a rich rose-color, very large, double, and compact in form. Clara Sylvain is pure white. Madame Bureau is white, with a faint tinge of straw-color. Mrs. Bosanquet may be placed in this division; for, though it is certainly a hybrid, the blood of the China Rose predominates in it, and characterizes it. It is of a pale, waxy, flesh color, very delicate and beautiful, at the same time large and double. Napoléon is of a bright pink, and the Duchess of Kent is white.
The Dwarf roses, called Lawrenceanas, or Fairy roses, are varieties of the Chinese. They are very small, many of them not exceeding a foot in height, and are used as edging for flower-beds in countries of which the climate is not too severe for them. Like all other China roses, they are very easily grown in pots.
"China roses are better adapted than almost any other class for forming groups of separate colors. Thus, for beds of white roses,—which, let it be remembered, will bloom constantly from June till October,—Clara Sylvain and Madame Bureau are beautiful. The former is the taller grower, and should be planted in the centre of the bed. For crimson, take Cramoisie Supérieure,—no other variety approaches this in its peculiar richness of color; for scarlet, Fabvier; for red, Prince Charles and Carmin Superbe; for deep crimson, Eugene Beauhamais; for blush, Mrs. Bosanquet; for a variegated group, changeable as the chameleon, take Archduke Charles and Virginie; for rose, Madame Bréon. I picture to myself the above on a well-kept lawn, their branches pegged to the ground so as to cover the entire surface; and can scarcely imagine any thing more chaste and beautiful.
"To succeed in making these roses bear and ripen their seed in England, a warm, dry soil and south wall are necessary; or, if the plants can be trained to a fined wall, success will be more certain. Eugène Beauharnais, fertilized with Fabvier, would probably produce first-rate brilliant-colored flowers. Archduke Charles, by removing a few of the small central petals, just before their flowers are expanded, and fertilizing it with pollen from Fabvier or Henry the Fifth, would give seed; and as the object ought to be, in this family, to have large flowers with brilliant colors, and plants of hardy, robust habits, no better union can be formed. China roses, if blooming in an airy greenhouse, will often produce fine seed: by fertilizing their flowers, it may probably be insured. In addition, therefore, to those planted against a wall, some strong plants of the above varieties should be planted in the orchard-house,—the place, above all others, adapted for seed-bearing roses."—Rivers.
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Rosa Indica Odorata.—This is a Chinese species, closely allied to the last named, but more beautiful, far more fragrant, and usually more tender. The two original varieties of it, the Blush Tea and the Yellow Tea, were introduced into England early in the "present century; and between them they have produced a numerous family, than which no roses are more beautiful.
To grow them in the open air, they require,'in the first place, a very thorough drainage. If the situation is at all damp, the bed should be raised some six inches above the surrounding surface; but this will be rarely necessary in our climate. If it rests on a good natural stratum of gravel, this will be drainage sufficient; but, if not, the whole bed should be excavated, and underlaid to the depth of four or five inches with broken stones, broken bricks, or with what is much better than either,—oyster-shells. Over these, sift coarse gravel to prevent the soil from working into their crevices, and on the gravel make a bed somewhat more than a foot deep of good loam, mixed with a nearly equal quantity of light, well-rotted manure, adding sand if the texture of the loam requires it. The bed should be in an open, sunny situation, and sheltered, as far as may be, from strong winds. The Tea roses planted in it—unless they have been exhausted by forcing in the greenhouse—will give a liberal supply of bloom until checked by the autumn frosts.