What strange things have roses actually been through? Today we'll tell you
At the two ends of the Eurasian continent, breeders in Europe and China were both cultivating and selecting plants of the genus Rosa. When the world began to become interconnected,the outstanding achievements of East and West happened to collide, producing even more wonderful sparks, and this spark wasthe Hybrid Tea rose。
Hybrid Tea rose "Princesse de Monaco" Rosa "Princesse de Monaco". Photo: Yu Tianyi
Clever you, having read the Species Calendar of previous years, will surely know that the cut flowers we see in flower markets are all "Chinese roses" (yueji) rather than "roses" (meigui). Butthe concept of yueji is also very complex. Before discussing Hybrid Tea roses, we first need to look at what "yueji" and "Hybrid Tea rose" actually refer to.
The tangled yueji family
Yueji is a general term, not specifically referring to a certain species or cultivar. The concept of "yueji" adopted in this article is equivalent to "garden rose" in English, broadly referring to all cultivated varieties of the genus Rosa, includingold garden rosescultivars andmodern rosescultivars.
The earliest variety of European old garden roses, the semi-double white rose R. × alba "Semi-plena". Photo: Yu Tianyi
Modern rose is a species(Rosa × dilecta), broadly referring to the many modern rose cultivars that humans have mainly bred on the basis of this cultivar group since the appearance of Hybrid Tea roses. Modern roses have many different cultivar groups, and although they are influenced by different parents,they look vastly different and have no very obvious common features. So if someone asks how to distinguish modern roses from roses (meigui)... no comment.
Floribunda cultivar "Angela" Rosa "Angela", which looks very much like a wild rose, yet is a modern rose. Photo: Yu Tianyi
Hybrid Tea rose(Rosa Hybrid Tea Group) cannot be equated with modern roses; itis only one cultivar group of modern roses. But the Hybrid Tea rose is the beginning of modern roses, and also the largest and most important category among modern roses. The image of "yueji" in our minds comes from the Hybrid Tea rose.
Hybrid Tea rose "Norita" Rosa "Norita". Photo: Yu Tianyi
So how did the name Hybrid Tea rose come about? In fact, they can also be calledHybrid Tea-scented rose. Seeing this name, perhaps you can guess that this cultivar group is related to theTea rose(R. × odorata) native to China. Westerners felt that the scent of the Tea rose resembled tea fragrance, so they called its hybrid descendants tea rose, and the Hybrid Tea-scented rose thus got the name hybrid tea.
Famous Hybrid Tea rose cultivar Rosa "Just Joey". Photo: Yu Tianyi
However, in realitythe Hybrid Tea rose was not directly hybridized from China's Tea rose. To borrow the words of Teacher Gu Yourong in the 2015 Species Calendar, the Tea rose had already "experienced some strange things in France" before this,the history of the Hybrid Tea rose is the entire chaotic hybridization history of old garden roses。
The story of Chinese old garden roses
Although modern rose cultivars were almost all bred in the West,Chinese old garden rosesplayed an extremely key role in the hybridization history. The Chinese old garden roses involved in the hybridization of modern roses mainly include two types, the Tea rose and the Chinese rose (yuejihua). They are not merely gifts of nature, but also the results of long-term artificial selection. That we can see Hybrid Tea roses today is also thanks to the efforts of ancient Chinese breeders.
Hybrid Tea rose cultivar "Mascotte 77" Rosa "Mascotte "77". Photo: Yu Tianyi
China possesses the world's richest wild species resources of the genus Rosa. According to the number of species recorded in the Flora of China, China accounts for about half of the wild species of the genus Rosa, and more than half of these are endemic species. Roses mainly live in the temperate and subtropical zones of the Northern Hemisphere,wild species of the genus Rosa can be seen in the vast majority of China's regions, which provided the foundation for the selection and breeding of yueji flowers.
The Peace Rose Garden of the Beijing Botanical Garden, mainly cultivating Hybrid Tea roses. Most cultivars in this article (except for a few old garden rose cultivars) were photographed in the Rose Garden of the Beijing Botanical Garden. Photo: Yu Tianyi
Chinese rose (yuejihua)
China is also the earliest country to begin cultivating and breeding yueji cultivars.The ancients may have begun cultivating yuejihua as early as the Tang Dynasty. In Zhou Fang's Tang Dynasty painting"Court Ladies Wielding Fans", a double-flowered, large-flowered cultivated variety of the genus Rosa appears. Even clearer evidence appears in paintings of the Five Dynasties period. In Huang Jucai's"Album of Flower Sketches", the painteraccurately depictedthe single-flowered yuejihua, the double-flowered yuejihua, and the double-flowered Tea rose.
The double-flowered yuejihua in Huang Jucai's "Album of Flower Sketches".
Theyuejihua(R. chinensis) mentioned here has a different meaning from "yueji". It is a specific species, but the concept of this species is rather similar to the peony introduced earlier; in reality it is a collection of cultivars, referring to the various "Yueyuehong" cultivars selected and bred from the wildsingle-flowered yuejihua(R. chinensis var. spontanea). In recent years, some studies suggest thatwild rose(R. multiflora) also joined the hybridization. The wild single-flowered yuejihua bears only one flower on each small branch, whereas the Yueyuehong inflorescence has multiple flowers; this trait may have been brought by the wild rose.
Chinese old garden rose cultivar, the yuejihua cultivar "Yueyuehong". Photo: Yu Tianyi
Starting from the Song Dynasty, China gradually came to have the names "yuejihua" and "Changchunhua" (referring to the yuejihua, not the Catharanthus roseus of the Apocynaceae family), which marked thatthe yuejihua began to stand out from the wild roses, becoming an independent ornamental flower. At the same time, the appearance of these two names also meant that the yuejihua had developedan important mutation，their flowers could bloom continuously, unlike other plants of the genus Rosa which bloom for only one season. Nowadays, people more commonly call this type of yueji "Yueyuehong" and "Yueyuefen", so the cultivar collection of yuejihua is also called theYueyuehong cultivar group。
Yueyuehong visibly opens and closes every day, and is most charming at night when it is in a half-closed state. Photo: Yu Tianyi
Tea rose
Another important Chinese old garden rose,the Tea rose, is also a hybrid species, coming from a cross between the giant rose and the yuejihua. The giant rose, also called the large-flowered Tea rose, is native to western Yunnan and has been introduced and cultivated in Yunnan since ancient times. When the large-flowered, fragrant large-flowered Tea rose met the repeat-flowering yuejihua, the hybrid Tea rose appeared.
The single-flowered color-changing cultivar of Tea rose 'Huang Hudie' (Yellow Butterfly) R. × odorata "Mutabilis". Photo: Yu Tianyi
Sincethe giant roseitself is already very variable in color, with white, yellow, and color-changing types, and when crossed with different yuejihua cultivars,the resulting Tea roses had even more diverse flower colors. In addition, many types of Tea roses have flower colors that change over time; some double-flowered cultivars can even show different colors on the same flower. Two Tea rosecolor-changing cultivars 'Huang Hudie' and 'Hong Hudie'are still very popular today, and are often cultivated both in China and abroad.
The breeding of European old garden roses
The history of rose breeding in the West is far shorter than that of China, but in just two hundred years several cultivar groups and tens of thousands of cultivars appeared. Although these cultivars have endless variations, they actually come from only a few original species. The earliest European old garden roses came from the large-floweredGallica rose. People accidentally discovered its double-flowered cultivar (R. gallica 'Officinalis') and its bicolor cultivar (R. gallica 'Versicolor'), and improved and selected them,the vast majority of European old garden roses and modern roses have Gallica rose blood。
The earliest Gallica rose cultivar R. gallica "Officinalis". Photo: Yu Tianyi
Plants of the genus Rosa easily hybridize across species. Humans first discovered many excellent offspring produced by accidental hybridization, and only then began actively hybridizing and selecting new cultivars. The importantDamask rose(Damascus rose) was one such accidental occurrence. The musk rose from the Himalayas, the glandular-fruited rose from Xinjiang and Central Asia, and the Gallica rose from Europe were introduced to Central Asia,and after being cultivated together they accidentally hybridized, producing the Damask rose, which then spread widely throughout the Middle East. It has both the many petals of the double-flowered Gallica rose and the rich fragrance of the musk rose, so it was quickly used by people for ornament and for extracting essential oil to make various products. After the Damask rose was introduced to Europe, it also joined the ranks of cultivar breeding.
One of the parents of the Damask rose, the musk rose R. moschata. Photo: Yu Tianyi
Early cultivars of the Damask rose, like other roses, bloomed only once. At this time there appearedan important Damask rose cultivar "Quatre Saisons"(R. × damascena 'Quatre Saisons'), which can bloom sporadically in autumn after the peak blooming period in late spring and early summer ends, so it is also called Autumn Damask. Because of this trait,most of the European old garden roses that appeared later took this cultivar as a parent。
The most important Damask rose (Damascus rose) cultivar "Quatre Saisons" R. × damascena "Quatre Saisons". Photo: Yu Tianyi
The "Quatre Saisons" Damask rose was first crossed again with the Gallica rose, producing a deep red repeat-flowering cultivar Rosa 'Scarlet Four Seasons'. This cultivar was given by Italy to the Duchess of Portland, and was later also called "Duchess of Portland" (Rosa 'Duchess of Portland') or simply "Portland rose" (The Portland Rose). Thus, starting from this cultivar, a new Portland rose cultivar group appeared.
The first Portland rose cultivar Rosa 'Duchess of Portland'. Photo: Yu Tianyi
The "Four Old Studs" are introduced to Europe
By the early 19th century, another important event in rose history occurred - Europeans brought the four-season-flowering yueji from China back to the West. Among these, four cultivars contributed the most to modern rose cultivars, now known as the "Four Old Studs”：
The yuejihua cultivar "Slater's Crimson China". The bright red color of Hybrid Tea roses comes from it. Photo: Yu Tianyi
Twoyuejihua(Yueyuehong) cultivars: "Old Blush" (Rosa "Old Blush") and "Slater's Crimson China" (Rosa "Slater's Crimson China");
One of the "Four Old Studs", the Chinese old garden rose parents of modern roses, the yuejihua cultivar "Old Blush" "Old Blush". Photo: Yu Tianyi
TwoTea rose cultivars: "Hume's Blush Tea-scented China" (Rosa "Hume's Blush Tea-scented China") and "Park's Yellow Tea-scented China" (Rosa "Park's Yellow Tea-scented China").
Hume's Blush Tea-scented China "Hume's Blush Tea-scented China". The Tea rose mainly provided the Hybrid Tea rose with its cup-shaped flower form and its "tea fragrance", although in reality it does not smell much like tea. Photo: Yu Tianyi
The birth of the modern rose
Europeans noticed that China roses bloom in all four seasons, and this ignited breeders' enthusiasm for hybridization. They carried out crossbreeding experiments between Chinese rose varieties and European Rosa species, but the first hybrid generation rarely continued to bloom. It was only later that people discoveredthat continuous blooming in all four seasons is actually a recessive trait, requiring self-pollination or further crossing with Chinese roses to produce repeat-blooming offspring.
The China rose brought an extremely long flowering period and vivid deep red to Europe's old roses. The varieties produced mainly by repeatedly crossing China rose varieties with European old roses were classified asHybrid Perpetual(Hybrid Perpetual). Although the parentage of Hybrid Perpetuals is complex, they mainly come from crosses between Portland roses and Chinese roses.
Hybrid Perpetual Rosa "Ulrich Brunner Fils". Most Hybrid Perpetuals have a tall, slender habit with very short branchlets, not as compact as Hybrid Teas. Image: Yu Tianyi
The Tea rose species also received great attention after being introduced to Europe. Breeders first crossed it again with Chinese roses, then crossed it with other European old roses, and then backcrossed or self-pollinated the resulting offspring with Tea roses. The series of varieties produced in this way that bloom continuously in all four seasons are collectively calledTea rose cultivars(Tea rose), sothe Western Tea rose cultivar group and the Tea rose varieties native to China are actually not the same。
The hybrid variety of the Tea rose cultivar group, "Magnolia Rose" Rosa "Devoniensis". Image: Yu Tianyi
Although many of the European old roses that appeared at this time were given names like "four seasons" or "evergreen", their flowering period was still not long enough. A single flower could not last two days before withering, and in autumn they only bloomed sporadically and intermittently. Although Tea roses can repeat bloom over a long period, they are not cold hardy and are often cultivated in subtropical regions; in temperate zones they can only be kept in greenhouses.
In a nursery in Lyon, France, a Hybrid Perpetual and a Tea rose accidentally crossed,and the first Hybrid Tea variety, "La France"(Rosa 'La France') appeared, which alsomarked the birth of the modern rose. Hybrid Teas have a rich fragrance and goblet-shaped flowers, as well as the habit of blooming continuously in all four seasons, while also being relatively cold hardy. From then on, a new chapter in the history of roses began.
The first Hybrid Tea variety, "La France". Image: Yu Tianyi
After the appearance of Hybrid Teas, the addition of Rosa foetida brought new yellow and vermilion genes:
Double yellow Rosa foetida "Persica". Image: Yu Tianyi
Bicolor Rosa foetida "Bicolor". Image: Yu Tianyi
The appearance of these hybrid varieties was accidental, but it was also a historicalinevitability. Different Rosa species came from the East to the West with human migration and trade. After being cultivated together, they crossed with one another, producing wonderful varieties that could not appear in nature. In the end, these varieties became deeply embedded in our culture and memory.
The most famous Hybrid Tea variety, "Peace" Rosa "Peace", named to commemorate people's hope for peace as World War II was about to end. Image: Yu Tianyi
This is the 147th article of Year 4 of Species Calendar, from Species Calendar author @Yu Tianyi.
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