Graham Porter’s gardening column talks roses

Jun 30 2009 By Graham Porter

THIS quotation – "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" – from a speech by Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was reportedly meant as a dig at the Rose Theatre which was a local rival to The Globe Theatre in London as apparently its sanitary arrangements were less than satisfactory.

True or false, Shakespeare was working at a time in the history of the rose when many species did smell very sweet.

Rose cultivation seems to have started in China at least 1,000 years ago, with hybridisation of Rosa gigantea, R. chinensis and R. multiflora acting as the basic building blocks – we still know them today as China Roses and Tea Roses.

From the middle of the 18th century, many of the hybrids were introduced to the West and a whole mass of new hybridisation began using the European species and hybrids to provide us with the vast array of choice that we have today.

Roses are now classified according to four main groups, each of which has its own sub-groups. The first group is the species or wild roses of which there are about 150 variations from across the Northern Hemisphere.

Old Garden roses are divided according their origins – Group A are those mostly from European breeding and Group B are those hybrids between Oriental and European roses.