Father Schoener wrote this about his Gigantea breeding for the 1932 ARA. Clicking on the image takes you to another browser window where you may enlarge it and clicking on “newer” takes you to the next pages.
Kim, that was a great read. I have been wondering for a long time how gigantea genes got into modern roses and had assumed it to be European or Chinese breeders who did it. It was really enlightening to read Schoener’s essay.
Thanks, Don, I’m glad you enjoyed it. I love finding these old things none of us know about, but which every memeber of the ARS knew seventy years ago. What we’ve lost!
Hi Kim,
This is a great read. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
I would have loved to join in on one of the expeditions of the past to find new rose species. Doing another expedition today would no doubt yield other lines of Rosa gigantea that might have different nuances of their characteristics that could be better than the originals collected.
I especially liked the quote by Dr. Kathleen B. Blackburn in response to the concern that crossing widely different rose species might result in sterile hybrids. She said, “the rose apparently possesses a remarkable ability for getting out of a tight corner”.
It reminds me of a statement that Mr. Ralph Moore would often say, “the rose will find a way”.
Thanks Jim. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I love finding these gems again. I read them all years ago, back when digitizing and digital sharing wasn’t possible, much less convenient and inexpensive. Yes, Ralph loved that saying and used it frequently. I’m practicing some of his “Island of Dr. Moreau” breeding now, using Hugonis and 1-72-1Hugonis on your M37-1 seedling you shared with me at the VCRS program, and the M210-1 seedling from Ralph’s birthday party. Perhaps those might reintroduce some of the “wild character” to the flowers and foliage. Perverse, isn’t it?
Reading these old articles also points out how many of these roses were brought over as seeds, with many varying types raised from them, just as has been done with the “Baby Ramblers” and Chinas. Yet, we continue to clutch to the impression that there is only one, true form of any species, old China or other import from foreign lands. This reference on HMF for Xanthina is a good illustration.
Yellow-Flowered Roses
Article (magazine) (1915) Page(s) 29-30.
[After R. Hugonis] the next species to flower here, R. Ecae, is a very spiny shrub with small leaves and pale yellow flowers not more than an inch in diameter. It is a native of Afghanistan, where it is common on dry mountain ridges, and of Samarkand and although of some botanical interest it has little to recommend it as a garden plant in this region. In 1820 an English botanist found in a collection of Chinese drawings in London the picture of a double yellow Rose to which he gave the name of R. xanthina, and many years later the single-flowered form of this Rose was found growing wild in Mongolia by the French missionary David. English botanists have usually confused the Chinese Rose with R. ecae and it apparently had not been cultivated in the United States or Europe until 1908 when the Arboretum received from the Department of Agriculture seeds of this rose gathered in China by its collector, Mr. F.N. Meyer. Both the single and double-flowered forms were raised from this seed and have flowered in the Arboretum this year. The flowers are larger than those of R. Ecae and bright clear yellow. These roses appear to be perfectly at home in the Arboretum, but it is too soon to speak of their value in North American gardens. The single and the double-flowered varieties are much cultivated in the gardens of Peking.
I’m not finding them at this moment, but other references to seed producing single and double flowering forms of this, Hugonis and others exist which are not here on HMF…yet.