Article (newspaper)  (Jun 2008)  Page(s) 10.  Includes photo(s).
 
Patricia Routley: I grow old, I grow old, I shall.... wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled....shall wear the colour purple....and shall grow purple climbing roses. I’ve been writing only of climbing roses, but those are the roses that have lasted around Northcliffe. They stand out so I see them as I pass, and climbers are roses to grow for my old age. Their roots seem to go deep, so they never need watering and the only pruning I ever do is cut the old and dead canes right out at the base. Admittedly, extricating those old canes can be a bit tricky but I have invested in a pair of canvas arm-guards which makes it easier. I don’t need my arm guards for this month’s rose – Veilchenblau. A violet purple rose bred by the chief gardener, Hermann Kiese, at the German firm of J. C. Schmidt who later introduced the rose in 1909 and described it as “the forerunner of a genuine cornflower-blue rose’. Herr Kiese bred it from ‘Turner’s Crimson Rambler’ (1893) x Erinnerung an Brod’ (1886). The seed parent (always the first rose mentioned in the parentage) is the rose I wrote about in the February issue, and the pollen parent was a blue maroon to violet hybrid perpetual rose, the name commemorating a town in Austria. ‘Veilchenblau’ was itself a fecund parent of blue roses and the one to which all were invariably compared. ‘I.X.L.’ and ‘Donau!’ are similar. The English translation of ‘Veilchenblau’ is violet blue, but don’t ask me how you pronounce it. I first saw this rose on Bob John’s front fence in Richardson Road in 1998. I begged cuttings and apparently, so did Julie Depilato who placed it with the canes growing horizontally around their concrete tank. ‘Veilchenblau’ produces flowering laterals with large clusters on short stems from nearly every leaf axil so the whole effect was enough to make one want to sing ‘tanks for the memory’. Grey, as in concrete tanks, or concrete block walls, is the best possible colour background for this oddly coloured rose, with perhaps cream as a second choice. Full sun will fade the flowers and as it tolerates partial shade, it looks better for longer, with some shade. It is said to grow 10-20 feet and I grow it on a fence (not so good) and up a small Sapium tree where it cascades out to catch my breath in spring. It is a bit of a scrambler, meaning it can’t hold on by itself, although it can throw a cane over a branch as a start, and then scrambles up its support. ‘Veilchenblau’ is completely thornless. It has long, soft, light-green leaves, grows in poor soil and only flowers once in spring. Because I haven’t seen this rose since last spring, I am leaning on Graham Stuart Thomas for the flower description: “Buds crimson-purple, petals opening violet, streaked with white (not variegated but, seemingly, a character connected with the central vein in each petal); semi-double, incurved, with a few small petals around the yellow stamens. White centre. The colour verges to murrey later and fades on the third day to lilac-grey.” Perfume? I don’t know. I can’t smell it, but some people can. Noses for roses are so fickle. Veilchenblau is beautiful and indecently purple, and outrageously like nothing you’ve seen before.

Article (misc)  (2005)  Page(s) 110, Table 5.1.  
 
Veilchenblau : diploid

Book  (2005)  Page(s) 187.  
 
'Veilchenblau', Syn. 'Bleu Violet', 'Violet Blue', 'Blue Rambler', 'Blue Rosalie'. Hybrid multiflora. (Descends from 'Crimson Rambler' x 'Souvenir de Brod'). Breeder: Schmidt, 1909. Height: 4 to 5m. Non-recurrent. Semi-double, mild fragrance, tolerates half-shade, hardy, tolerates poor soil.

..Its flowers, mildly fragrant, double, with somewhat irregular petals and a white brightened center, are of a stunning blue-violet which lightens when fading. They are joined in numerous clusters which remain in bloom a long time towards the end of spring. ...The stems are vigorous and so-to-say without thorns. It is clad in a superb light green, glossy and healthy foliage.

Article (magazine)  (2002)  Page(s) 409.  
 
Veilchenblau  Chromosome number 21  [Provenance: Guillot]

Book  (2000)  Page(s) 610.  Includes photo(s).
 
‘Veilchenblau’/’Blue Rambler’/’Blue Rosalie’/’Violet Blue’: Moderne – grimpant liane, mauve… violet vif griffé de blanc au milieu de chaque pétale, pâlissant au gris bleuté… Schmidt, Allemagne, 1909. RHS Award of Garden Merit 1993.

Article (magazine)  (Jun 1999)  Page(s) 71.  Includes photo(s).

Book  (Nov 1998)  Page(s) 104.  Includes photo(s).

Book  (Mar 1998)  Page(s) 9.  
 
Veilchenblau Cruse says its fragrance is like lily-of-the-valley

Book  (Mar 1998)  Page(s) 85.  Includes photo(s).
 
Rosa multiflora 'Veilchenblau' Description... The colour occurs in no other variety, and looks particularly attractive in partial shade; it is a soft lavender-purple, with white bases to the petals and yellow stamens. The small buds are red... lily-of-the-valley scent...

Book  (Feb 1995)  Page(s) 1.  Includes photo(s).
 
Actually in the Table of Contents