Continuing the discussion from 'Maypole' - A repeating Canadian R. arkansana selection:
Margrit
I would be interested in trying to locate this repeating Arkansana rose this summer. Would you be interested in providing the location?
Tim
By the way the double arkansana you gifted me is doing well. I will be sharing a division with David Z of this forum.
Hi Tim
Great to hear from you. Thanks for the note and query about the ‘Maypole’ rose. You certainly can go and walk around the area if you are out that way. Ten years ago my sister and I received permission from the land owner and tried to locate it. There were some arkansana along the fence line but it was the wrong season for bloom.
The legal land location is in the references posted on HMF.
I’m glad the dwarf arkansana I sent previously has been doing well for you.
Best wishes for 2025.
Margit
Is there any way for an American to get a hold of Maypole or one of its wild siblings?
Tony
Margit,
Thank you for the quick reply. Two things. Where would the legal description be in the threads, and when might the best time for bloom be? I appreciate all of your help and the insights you bring to this group particularly for we northern rosarians.
Tim
Sorry please disregard I found the info. July for bloom and here is the reference
Walter Schowalter notes - ca 1960:
Maypole - R. arkansana or hybrid. Found by W. Schowalter on SE1/4 -18-38-1-W4. Height in wild not over 45 cm., under cultivation to 75 cm. Prickles on primary stems, few on laterals. Leaflets 9, deeply troughed. Leaf 9.0 cm, leaflets 3.8 x 1.2 to 1.5 elliptic. Flowers light pink, flat, petals to 15 produced on new wood and secondary, beginning at the end of June and continuing through the summer. Flowers in a corymb. No fruit available for measurement. Found on outside edge of poplar bluff.
Now I just need to figure out Canadian survey maps and districts🤔
For whatever it’s worth, I’ve seen R. arkansana flowering occasionally long after the main season in the summer in eastern North Dakota, and I personally believe that remontancy is not uncommon in the species, if that is the main draw. However, its relative toughness on the windswept, sun-drenched prairies doesn’t necessarily translate well to direct cultivation under more humid garden conditions, and many of its well-known garden hybrids have not inherited particularly great stem hardiness or especially strong disease resistance.
Stefan
Arkansana is the rose which taught me how to force a rose to rust. I had a plant of it in a nursery can in Encino, CA, Zone 10a. It was fully leafed out in glorious new foliage (spring) and I accidentally allowed it to dry out. The entire plant rusted from the growth tips to the soil level. I began copiously watering it and it shed the rusty foliage and broke out in that gorgeous foliage again. A second dryout forced another bought of severe rust. That got me thinking… Arkansana is highly cold hardy where naturalized. The plant leafs out in spring, flowers, sets hips and as the ground water from the winter/spring rains begins to dwindle and the water stress kicks in, it rusts, which interrupts the foliage from feeding the plant, triggering it to go into “winter dormancy”.
And, here WE think WE can eliminate diseases when “Nature” obviously uses them to “tell” the plants what to do and when. Ironically, the only forms of Arkansana which have never rusted for me have been Arkansana “Peppermint” 'Rosa arkansana 'Peppermint'' Rose , and “Woodrow” 'Woodrow' Rose .
Peppermint is highly susceptible to “repeat” flowering after periods of temperature changes. As if it “thinks” it’s gone through winter again and it’s now spring. Woodrow flowers spasmodically spring through late summer.
And, all commercial Arkansana hybrids, except Morden Blush, have been terribly susceptible to rust in SoCal Zone 9b.
Roseseek. Do you still have both roses?
Hopefully Woodrow is still out back. I lost Peppermint a few years ago.
Tim, If you are feeling adventurous, you might try locating the ‘J.W. Fargo Rose’ south of the Black HIlls of South Dakota.
emphasized text"A kindly old gentleman, the late J.W. Fargo, led me across a secret ridge crest on his property in the southern tip of the Black Hills, where grew a double wild rose in a colony of perhaps 50 plants. I was told I might dig freely, on condition that I distributed the rare gem under his, the discoverer’s name. Sent to the late F.L. Skinner, the noted originator of lilies, roses, and other hardy plants in Dropmore, Manitoba, they were pronounced the best double wild rose he had seen. The flower is larger than the normal single form, having about 40 petals, more than two rows of them large, with inner petals grading to tiny, all opening to show the golden centre. The free-flowering peak is reached in early July. The Fargo rose uses the Rosa arkansana trick of sending up a strong shoot from the ground to prolong its season with a wide corymb opening gradually over many days. The fragrance of this rose is mild and fine."
Here is a link to a picture of Claude Barr
https://www.gpnps.org/claude_barr.htm
Of note was the relativity close proximity to one another of the three double arkansana discoveries. .‘John Allen’, another double dwarf arkansana, was discovered in Saskatchewan near northeastern Montana about 200 miles north of Woodrow, SK which is approximately 400 miles north of the Black Hills in SD.
Under hot August sun, I dug a single flowered form along roadside in county of Lacombe, Alberta … being unfamiliar with arkansana, I was not prepared for depth and distance of root run, no wonder the drought tolerance of these! I had also wished to dig the lovely white form, the blooms being particularly large, though my poor excuse of a digging tool wasn’t up to the task. Back home, I potted the compromised plant and left to sit the winter out under snow cover. Come spring, I wasn’t surprised for it having died back, though a single strong basal shoot pushed that soon was topped with plump buds opening to a wonderful double mutated form that has thereon remained stable. Being only about 12 inches tall (at least under my experience), a very cute diminutive plant I let to run among ornamental plantings and now has escaped to dance about a section of lawn to give unexpected surprise of color among the often drought stricken grass. Under hot dry conditions they stay very small, even stepping upon them barefoot, I have hardly noticed the miniscule thorns. After the spring flush, a rest is taken, though soon to continue to push basal growth and runners to flower until frost. My selection I have given the name ‘Lacombe Park’.
Pretty! Compare that to the photos of Woodrow. It’s rather variable. The more water it receives, the greater the quantity of petaloids in the flower centers. Both Lacombe and Woodrow appear to share the same odd long anthers. Peppermint’s are more traditional.
Thanks Roseseek, yes, the two are very similar, ‘Lacombe Park’ might be a bit lighter in color. The photos shown are from my lawn dwellers within bone dry chalky soil, those in moist fertile ground are more vigorous and possibly carry better quality blooms. Now, I don’t know if the double trait would be passed on … though, I have a more vigorous purplish pink single that I should attempt to cross the two.
You’re welcome, Terry. I’ve not succeeded in getting Woodrow to breed but I have raised two results from Peppermint and both are on HMF. Pepperfed is the only one I still have.
Tim;
Kim shared suckers of Peppermint with me a number of years ago. I still have it. Here in GA it wants to go dormant in mid-summer, but if I really pour the water to it it leafs back out. I can look for a sucker.
Stephen
Thanks, Stephen! I’m delighted you still have it. Peppermint really is a nice rose.
