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Garden and Forest 4(150): 4-5 (Jan 7, 1891)
Notes on Some Hardy Wild Roses.—I.
J. G. Jack, Arnold Arboretum.
The surculose habit of R. nitida is imitated by the little Prairie Rose, Rosa foliolosa, which was figured on page 101 of the last volume of GARDEN AND FOREST. R. foliolosa, however, is a very much more slender and more dwarf plant, with very few branches; and, moreover, it differs in having its stems, which are of a light green color, entirely free from prickles, and only possessing straight, geminate, intrastipular spines, which are often weak and slender. On the flowering branches, indeed, the spines are either absent or so little noticeable when handled that the species might almost be called a thornless Rose. The stems of this Rose are peculiar from the fact that they do not live more than two or three years. The new shoots branch and flower the second season, after which they wholly or partially die and are replaced by new stems arising from or from near the ground. In this habit it is like some of our Raspberries.
Although naturally only native to regions so far south as Arkansas, New Mexico and Texas, R. foliolosa seems perfectly hardy at the Arboretum, where it grows from eight or ten inches to a foot and a half in height, and spreads freely by underground stems or suckers, by which it may be very easily propagated. The sweetly fragrant flowers are two inches in diameter, and usually solitary on the ends of the shoots. The earliest of them do not open in this latitude until the first or second week of July. There is no profusion of bloom at any time, but a few flowers continue to be produced throughout the rest of the summer, so that the species appears to have more or less of the character of the ever-blooming Roses.
It is a curious fact that, although it has been collected by many botanists, there do not appear to be any definite observations or statements on record regarding the color of the flowers of this Rose. In the original description of Nuttall's specimens in Torrey & Gray's "Flora of North America," p. 460, the flowers are described as "apparently rose- colored," and the description accompanying the illustration in Garden And Forest states that they are "bright pink." Berlandier, who collected it in Texas, notes that the color of the flowers is "pallide rosei"—pale rose color; and in the only nurseryman's catalogue where I have seen it advertised it is described as from Texas and producing "pinkish-white, very fragrant flowers all the season." The plants in the Arboretum, however, originally grown from seed collected by Dr. George Engelmann in New Mexico, have flowers of a very pale lemon-yellow or creamy- white color, and there is not the slightest appearance which would give the suspicion that the blossoms were ever rose-colored or pink, unless it is that a slightly rosy tinge may be detected on the outer edge of the petals when they are about to fall. It may be that the color in these plants is abnormal, but it hardly seems probable.
The fruit ripens in late autumn, it is light red in color and is rather sparingly produced here. On account of its white flowers and continuous blooming habit this Rose may prove to be of much interest and value to hybridizers as soon as it becomes well known and disseminated.
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