Magazine  (2005)  Page(s) 16. Vol 27, No. 3.  
 
Patricia Routley. The Velvet Leafed Rambling Rose.
Is the “Velvet Leafed Rose” or “Guildford Rose” possibly R. multiflora Carnea, as Maureen Ross asked on page 9 of the last issue? Perhaps not. I am not so sure it is ‘Laure Davoust’ either. I am leaning more towards a descendent of a very old and hairy little rose from the south of China called R. beauvaisii.

This “Velvet Leafed Rose” has been fascinating me now for eight years. I first saw the fence at the Pinjarra Heritage Rose Garden in Western Australia simply covered with tiny pink blooms and it was such a beautiful sight, I can never forget it. Then I read Neville Passmore’s little book “Roses WA” 1993 and he told me in the 1850's an engineer called Edmund DuCane built a bridge over the Swan River at Guildford and then planted roses beside it. “I have a rose which sprung from a little cutting thrown down by chance last year which covers a space of about 7 feet square and is growing amazingly fast – some shoots about an inch a day. I have planted roses all along the embankment approaching my bridge – and they have flowered already – and are splendid.,” he wrote to his brother Arthur in England on 15 October, 1854. In case the “Velvet Leafed Rose” was one of the roses he was talking about, I simply had to have a slice of Western Australia’s history and took a cutting in 1997 of the “Guildford Rose” from the Pinjarra Heritage Rose Garden. I knew it was a toughie so put it on the shady fence under the karri trees. It hasn’t been quite tough enough to compete with the karri tree roots, but has stayed alive long enough for me to strike two more cuttings and put them in sunnier places.

In that same year, 1997 I found another rambler, just near the Fine Woodcraft Gallery in Pemberton and spreading all over the ground, hiding the kikuyu and barbed wire and goodness knows what else under the remnants of the old garden. This rose was similar, but seemed even lovelier and its gorgeous little face was imprinted into my receptive brain. In 1998 I received my first issue of the English The Rose magazine (Spring 1998) and Bill Grant had written of an Italian lady finding a rose at an abandoned estate and naming it “Rosa Abbandonata” - because she could find no one who knew it. Bill had accompanied his story with one of the most beautiful pictures I had ever seen and instantly I recognised it as my “Fine Woodcraft Gallery, Pemberton” rose. Not only did he give me this wonderful picture, he also gave me the rose’s real name – ‘Laure Davoust’. Oh joy! One really should not identify roses like this, but that was an exquisite picture with much detail, and after typing up ‘Laure Davoust’, I now have absolutely no doubt about the identification of this rose. There are no hairs or velvet feel to the under side of the leaves. Indeed there is a hesitant drag of the finger across the surface of the under side, giving a rubbery feel. The flowers of this rose are about 4 cm in diameter.
Interestingly, Graham Stuart Thomas has written that ‘Laure Davoust’ leans more towards Rosa sempervirens than to R. multiflora with which it is usually grouped, and my rose is certainly well-foliaged today, two months into our winter. Neither ‘Laure Davoust’ nor the “Guildford Rose” set hips for me and so I believe they are sterile roses. Odile Masquelier has said that the fragrance of ‘Laure Davoust’ is exquisite. Bend your face to one of the “Velvet Leafed Rose” clusters of tiny roses and you will discover, alas, that it is scentless, unlike the majority of the fragrant synstylaed multiflora’s.

R. multiflora Carnea is redolent of history. Although recorded centuries ago in China and Japan, seeds of the species, R. multiflora multiflora were only sent to Europe around 1862. But 56 years earlier, R. multiflora Carnea, was found in China and introduced quite hastily to England by T. Evans around 1804. The haste of the introduction begs the question of correct nomenclature. From England, Boursault took it to Paris in 1808 where it flowered in 1812. Redoute’s painting of the rose appeared between 1819 and 1821. This painting shows stamens and no pointel. Pancrace Bessa also painted it prior to 1819 (Peter Harkness The Rose, A Colourful Inheritance p149 & 329) and showed stylised bracts and a curious leaflike pointel. He has reversed a few leaflets to show a white underside.

In 2000 I visited New Zealand and had the foresight to take a computer scan of both the “Guildford Rose” and ‘Laure Davoust’ with me. At Sally Allison’s garden her ‘Laure Davoust’ was the same as mine, but perhaps the sepals and buds were of a size intermediate between the “Guildford Rose” and my foundling ‘Laure Davoust’.

Later, at the very beautiful Jessie Calder Heritage Rose Garden in Invercargill, N.Z., I saw another similar rose. It had only one cluster half out, but it was unmistakeable and officially named - brass plaque and all - ‘John Wickliffe’ pre 1840. The gardener said there was quite an interesting story behind it (which he couldn’t remember) but he thought it was the first rose to come into Dunedin. I believe the plant at this garden may have been misnamed and the Heritage Roses New Zealand December journal (do you subscribe?) will have some most enlightening things to say on the rose “John Wickliffe”.

In Australia - The “Velvet Leafed Rose” is known in NSW, SA and WA and I have no doubt that it occurs often in other older gardens right throughout the country.
In France - Odile Masquelier has said the “Guildford Rose” is not what they grow as ‘Laure Davoust’.
In America - At The Huntington, USA, Pat Toolan saw the “Velvet Leafed Rose” labelled Rosa multiflora Carnea. She saw also ‘Laure Davoust’ a couple of pillars further down, noting the difference in size of flower.
In Bermuda - they have a rose they are calling the “Talbot Rose”. “The leaves are small and a dull bluish-green colour. They are velvety and composed of five to seven leaflets. They grow on very short stems which spring from the main cane. The rose blooms in May and has clusters of small one inch (2½ cm) flowers which fade to a paler pink The chief characteristic is the green eye.”
In China – They call R. multiflora Carnea, the Lotus Rose, or ‘Ho Hua Ch’iang Wei’
and say it has light pink, double flowers.
....continued

Magazine  (2005)  Page(s) 17. Vol 27, No. 3.  
 
....continued
During a visit to California this year, I saw R. multiflora Carnea at the Santa Clara University fence site No. 25-4 and which was not really as furry as ours. Two little blooms just coming out were very much like the "Guildford Rose", but when they opened right out, they were bigger and whiter. I thought the leaves were much bigger as well, than the “Guildford Rose”. This rose at site 25-4 was a California foundling. Later on in the fence at site No. 36-1 they had something they called Carnea [Smooth-leafed variety].

I have seen another lookalike in the flower – ‘La Fraicheur’, Turbat, 1921 except that this is not a multiflora rose, but a wichuraiana. (sorry Bill, I am old-fashioned.) With this one you cannot help noticing the wich-y leaves

If we take Redoute’s painting as the quintessential of the rose, there are some modern pictures around which are captioned R. multiflora Carnea and do seem to be a different rose altogether. Refer Charles Quest-Ritson Climbing Roses of the World pl51, and James Young The Joy of Roses p115.)

My “Guildford Rose” has a furry surface to the underside of the leaves that you can feel and almost see with the naked eye and my little 30x microscope reveals the top is evenly covered with long slanting silky hairs. The flower is about 2½ cm in diameter. It sets no hips for me. When measuring two leaves, all the seven leaflets were lanceolate and narrower than the ovate (egg shaped) ‘Laure Davoust’ leaves. It is hard to write in midwinter of a bloom one hasn’t seen since last spring, however, my memory tells me both ‘Laure Davoust’ and the “Guildford Rose” are a soft pink with a hint of lilac, very pretty, wonderfully round, flat topped and very double with a little green pointel. The petals are not quilled as some books say – to me a quill is a complete roll of the petal, say around a pencil.

Fred Boutin, a knowledgeable rose man of California (and see Phillips & Rix The Quest For the Rose page 116 for his happy smiling face) has written:
“The rose at the Huntington does match Redoute's illustration and Thory's description which notes the pubescence on leaves, pedicels, stems, and hypanthium. This rose also tends to have the flowers hanging in elongated clusters like grapes. There are some similar ramblers without the fuzzy leaves and hanging flower clusters. They are more common here in the Motherlode region of California. That said, that this is Redoute's R. multiflora Carnea, what is it really? There appear to be no wild forms of R. multiflora which have fuzzy leaves etc. So is this rambler a hybrid or a double cultivar of some other species. In my experience it never sets a hip or nor has pollen. I was hoping the new treatment of Rosa in the Flora of China was going to help us identify R. multiflora variants, but it appears that the treatment will lump all multiflora variants under a single broad species for China. If there are illustrations when it comes out we may be able to determine to what other species 'Carnea' might belong.”

So, does it belong to R. Beauvaisii? I am no botanist. To say “it is” or “it is not” is beyond my expertise and I must leave it to others to decide. If you would like to read a little more about that very old and hairy little rose from the south of China , have a look at the following websites:
http://home.tiscali.be/ivan.louette/botarosa/roses/carnea/beauvais.htm
http://home.tiscali.be/ivan.louette.botarosa/roses/cathay.htm
I think that about sums it up. Until someone does more work on this rose, it looks like we go on calling this rambler with the beautiful little baby face, the “Velvet Leafed Rose”. It is a good study name for a foundling and describes it perfectly.

Book  (2003)  Page(s) 92.  
 
'Carnea'

Book  (1997)  Page(s) 38.  Includes photo(s).
 
Covering an archway

Website/Catalog  (1982)  Page(s) 34.  
 

Rosa multiflora carnea Double, globular flowers of lilac-pink in pendulous clusters. Dark foliage on a vigorous, wiry plant. 1804  T. Shade tolerant. N.  (S) 15 x 10’.

Book  (1981)  Page(s) 118.  
 
R. multiflora cv. 'Carnea' Flowers double, flesh-pink. Introduced from China by Thomas Evans of the East India Company in 1804 (R. multiflora Sims in Bot. Mag., t. 1059, not Thunb.; R. multiflora var. carnea Thory) This, the first form of R. multiflora to be introduced to Europe, is perhaps no longer in cultivation, but similar plants are widely cultivated in China. It evidently derives from var. cathayensis.

Book  (1978)  Page(s) 154.  
 
R. multiflora.  One of the least attractive of wild roses, but one of the most generous and amazing parents. Its leaves are dull, its white flowers small......There are pink varieties, R. multiflora cathayensis, with a larger flower, and R. multiflora carnea, which is double. 

Book  (1936)  Page(s) 265.  
 
fleurs carnées, R. à (multiflora) Ewans 1804; flesh-coloured.

Magazine  (Jul 1908)  Page(s) 243(photo), 246.  Includes photo(s).
 
p. 243: Rosier multiflore a fleurs carnées
D’après la gravure de Redouté.
(Les stipules pectinées sont bien apparentes.)
Texte page 246.

p. 246:  Le Rosier multiflore à fleurs carnées, peint par Redouté, a été introduit en Angleterre par l’écuyer T. Evans, qui l’avait rapporté de Chine vers 1804. Il a fleuri pour la première fois dans la pépinière de M. Colville. M. Boursault l’a ensuite fait, venir de Londres à Paris en 1908 [1808] ; et ce n’est que quatre ans après, en 1812, qu’il a donné ses fleurs dans le jardin de M. Cartier.

Book  (1873)  Page(s) XLI.  Includes photo(s).
 
Rosier multiflore à fleurs carnées.
Arbuste à rameaux sarmenteux, rougeâtres, garnis d'aiguillons géminés, souvent épars. Feuilles de 5 à 7 folioles assez petites, ovales ou ovales allongées vertes et glabres en dessus, pales et pubescentes en dessous, brièvement pétiolulées, dentées. Fleurs petites, pleines, rose pâle, légèrement odorantes, très nombreuses et groupées, à l'extrémité des rameaux naissant des branches principales, en une vaste panicule étalée; ces fleurs, qui forment des bouquets tout faits se succèdent de juin à juillet.
Cette espèce est originaire de la Chine d'où elle a été introduite en Europe vers 1804 par M. T. Évans. Elle fleurit en Angleterre d'abord, puis dans le jardin de M. Cartier, en 1812.
Elle est assez délicate sous notre climat où on doit la préserver des grandes gelées soit avec des feuilles sèches, soit par de la paille non humide que l'on mot autour des souches dans les premiers jours de novembre.