"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands........" 1 Thessalonians 4:11

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Rosa Rugosa.................

sounds like something that Dr. Seuss named.......doesn't it? ..........
and it's not moss covered ........or 3 handled............{:
It's this very tired.........at this time.........rose plant that now has come to live in my garden...........
thanks to a couple of dear friends, Jane and Mary, who dug it up........hard work..........thank you Jane, and brought it home to me. In all of the years of my garden experience, I had never heard of this wonderful plant and am quite delighted to have it come live here on the grounds. It is now making itself at home in the flower garden that I have been working on in the past couple of years.
I have been adding various perennial plants to make a natural fence line to the garden. One long side of stock flower, the front entrance lined with Italian Jasmine, the front walk with a welcoming pink and yellow Lantana, the back with a crate of climbing roses...........and now this to fill in the gap between. If it does well............which my friends guarantee..............that even I and the harsh climate can not kill ...................I will as the years go by, transplant cuttings from it to add to the other long side............thus, completing my natural fence.

This is how it is supposed to look, if it decides to stay here.........(photo borrowed from a garden website). I was quite surprised...........after some research, that it is not an American beauty at all, but actually Asian. Here is the information on the sturdy and durable rose plant..............
It just shows, how different things can be when researched..

Rosa rugosa
"Hamanasu" redirects here. For the Japanese train service.
Rosa rugosa (rugosa rose, Japanese rose, or Ramanas rose) is a species of rose native to eastern Asia, in northeastern China, Japan, Korea, and southeastern Siberia, where it grows on the coast, often on sand dunes.
It is a suckering shrub, which develops new plants from the roots and forms dense thickets 1–1.50 m tall with stems densely covered in numerous short, straight thorns 3–10 mm long. The leaves are 8–15 cm long, pinnate with 5–9 leaflets, most often 7, each leaflet 3–4 cm long, with a distinctly corrugated (rugose, hence the species' name) surface. The flowers are pleasantly scented, dark pink to white, 6–9 cm across, with somewhat wrinkled petals; flowering is from summer to autumn (June to September in the northern hemisphere).
The hips are large, 2–3 cm diameter, and often shorter than their diameter, not elongated like most other rose hips; in late summer and early autumn the plants often bear fruit and flowers at the same time. The leaves typically turn bright yellow before falling in autumn.
Cultivation and uses
Rugosa rose is widely used as an ornamental plant. It has been introduced to numerous areas of Europe and North America. It has many common names, several of which refer to the fruit's resemblance to a tomato, including beach tomato or sea tomato; saltspray rose and beach rose are others.
The sweetly scented flowers are used to make pot-pourri in Japan and China where it has been cultivated for about a thousand years.
This species hybridisis readily with many other roses, and is valued by rose breeders for its considerable resistance to the diseases rose rust and rose black spot. It is also extremely tolerant of seaside salt spray and storms, commonly being the first shrub in from the coast. It is widely used in landscaping, being relatively tough and trouble-free. Needing little maintenance, it is suitable for planting in large numbers; its salt-tolerance makes it useful for planting beside roads which need deicing with salt regularly.
Numerous cultivars have been selected for garden use, with flower colour varying from white to dark red-purple, and with semi-double to double flowers where some or all of the stamens are replaced by extra petals. Popular examples include 'Fru Dagmar Hastrup' (pink, single), 'Pink Grootendorst' (pink, semi-double), 'Blanc Double de Coubert' (white, double) and the more common 'Roseraie de L’Haÿ' (pink, double), which is often used for its very successful rootstock and its ornamental rose hips.

Are any of you familiar with this plant. Do you like it? Do you have photos of it?
I would love to hear!

11 comments:

Elaine/Muddling Through said...

No, I don't have that particular rose, but I'm wondering if it was used to create the Knockout Roses, which are so hardy?

grammy said...

Girl
what a special thing
pretty and scrappy at the same time
I have no special plants...but I love other peoples (o:

Debbie said...

Oh, Kathleen! It sounds like they've finally made a rose bush that can withstand me. I have seen this and heard great things about them. They are popular up here in the landscapes around businesses. They outlast everything else in blooming season. They are expensive too! But I sure do need me a rose!
Hug, and thanks for your sweet comment!
Deb

Connie said...

I'm not familiar with it, but it looks beautiful. I hope it grows and thrives for you. It will make a lovely natural fence. :)

Conni said...

Thanks for the info, Kathleen. For some reason, I had always thought this was a native rose. I may need to add a couple of these beauties to the landscape, here.

Vickie said...

I am not familiar with that rosa rugosa, Kathleen! I'm anxious to see how it does - be sure and show us later. I love perennials that I don't have to do much to - something I caN'T KILL. I do pretty well with my Knockouts, so I'll be interested to see how these do for you!

drafter29 said...

When Mom moved into the house where these were, they had been mowed down so short, we didn't know anything was in the flower bed. She bought the house in October, but didn't move in until first of January, then in the spring, they were cropping up all in that flower bed. We seldom watered them, even when the temp was over 100 degrees. The soil was heavy clay. Conditions that would kill most any plant.

TxFarmhouse said...

How pretty! I'm so ready for spring and some flowers. Your ground looks as dry as ours here..I noticed yesterday that the horses are kicking up dust when walking across the pasture. Where's the rain?

peggy said...

I don't have this one Kathleen, but I've always associated rugosa with rough and ready. Can't wait to see yours when it blooms.

LindaSue said...

You'll love it - actually being used in a lot of commercial landscapes around the DFW area - rugged, blooms a lot and wonderful low growing rose bush.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Kathleen, I am not familiar with this plant, andd hope it takes in your garden. The photos in bloom looked lovely, Like you, I am getting away from annuals and trying to buy one or two (maybe 3) perennials each year cause sometimes ones in previous years have not taken. I buy a few geraniums for pots near the front steps and they last all sumemr long.