Parsons on the Rose / A Treatise on the Propagation, Culture and History of the Rose

by Samuel Browne Parsons

Throughout the whole season during which the roses remained in bloom in this beautiful valley, the Feast of Roses was kept with great rejoicing, and an entire abandonment to pleasure. At this time, a great number of tents were pitched, and multitudes of men, women, boys, and girls, were dancing and singing to the music of their various instruments.

All that has been handed down to us, and all we know at the present time of the climate and productions of Persia, and the customs of its inhabitants, prove that it was emphatically the land of roses; and all that we can gather from its history or tradition evinces, that to the inhabitants of the East, including the Hindoos and the Moors of Spain, is this beautiful flower indebted for the most careful and abundant cultivation, and for a due appreciation of its merits.

At the present time the Rose is cultivated throughout the civilized world. Loudon speaks of hedges of mixed Provence Roses, in the garden of Rosenstein, in Germany, and also of their profusion in the public garden of Frankfort. They are found in the gardens of Valencia, in Spain, and Sir John Carr, speaking of the seat of a Spanish gentleman near Tarragona, says, “The doors of the dining room open into a small garden, the walls of which are covered with myrtles, jasmines, and roses.” In the Botanic garden of Madrid, rose trees are used for dividing hedges, and the flower is a favorite throughout Spain.

Among the Spanish ladies, the Rose is highly valued, and, with the Orange flower, is a favorite ornament for the hair. We have frequently been struck, while traveling in the Spanish West Indies, and in some parts of South America, with the careful nurture and attention bestowed on a single rose bush, and the delight exhibited at its bloom, while all around in natural luxuriance were the most beautiful and gorgeous plants and flowers which the tropics can produce. The brilliant cactus, the beautiful oleander, the singular orchids, and the delicate and fragrant flowers of the coffee and orange, seemed cast into the shade by the ancient and well-known Rose.

I well recollect, that on returning one day from a ride into the country, where I had been luxuriating in the gorgeous splendor of a tropical forest, the fair daughter of my hostess wished to introduce me to a flower, which, in her opinion, far surpassed all that I had seen; she accompanied me to the top of the flat-roofed house, used at the South as a place of evening resort, and there, in one corner, I found a thrifty plant of the Tea Rose, which to her infinite delight, was just showing above its glossy and delicate young leaves, a little ruby-tipped bud. This little plant had been the object of long and careful nursing, and her attention was now about to be rewarded by a fine and perfect bloom.

In France, however, is the Rose a preëminent object of horticulture, both in commercial establishments and in private gardens. The skill of the French has originated many new and beautiful varieties, which are to be found in several of the nurseries in the United States. The French are constantly searching for improvements in horticultural science and practice, with an enthusiasm rarely found in the more cold Englishman, whose skill seems to consist less in the creation of new varieties, than in growing perfectly those already known. None, indeed, can surpass the English in the art of growing fine plants, but we are chiefly indebted to the French for the finest new varieties of the Rose.

In Great Britain, although comparatively little attention has been paid to the obtaining of new varieties, the culture is more careful and the nomenclature more correct. The competition excited by their numerous horticultural exhibitions causes great attention to be given to correct nomenclature and to symmetrical habit of growth. We can imagine nothing more beautiful than some of the plants that we saw at the exhibitions of the London Horticultural Society at Chiswick; every plant was pruned, trained and grown, after an ideal, but perfect model, with its close and luxuriant foliage, its thrifty, symmetrical habit, and the thick, leathery petals of its well-cupped flower. This high standard should be introduced into every Society, and if such were the case in this country and the rule were carefully obeyed, the character of our exhibitions would in a short time be very materially changed.

T. Rivers is one of the most extensive rose cultivators in England, and is also known as the author of a very excellent descriptive work on the Rose. He has also been successful in hybridizing, and has originated come very fine varieties. His attention was at one time directed almost exclusively to the Rose, but it now includes many other nursery articles, and on our visit to him, we found him much interested with experiments in fruit culture. Lane, Wood, and Paul, are esteemed very good cultivators, and generally correct in their nomenclature. From these several establishments in England and France have been imported most of the varieties now existing in this country. Their trade with the United States is, however, comparatively limited, from the great risk of loss by a sea voyage. We have frequently lost in this way two-thirds or three-quarters of an importation, to our great annoyance and expense, and it is only by repeated and persevering importations that we have been able to obtain all the desirable varieties.

In the United States the culture of the Rose has been very much neglected, until within a few years. Tulips and dahlias have successively been the rage, and although there has long existed a great variety of roses, comparatively few of them have been cultivated, even in the best gardens of the United States. Now the tide is turning. Dahlias are going out of repute, and the Rose is resuming its ancient empire in the queendom of Flora. The advent of the Bourbon and the Remontant, or Perpetual classes, has no doubt materially aided this change, but it is in a great part owing to the easy culture of the plant, and the intrinsic merits and beauty of the flower. The taste of the horticultural public being thus decidedly for the Rose, a demand will exist for all the information respecting soil, planting, cultivating, etc., and this information we shall endeavor to supply in a simple and concise manner, avoiding, as far as possible, all technicalities, and adapting it to the use of the cultivator of a single plant in the crowded border of a city garden, or to the more extended culture of a commercial establishment.