• Cross No 181/2017
• S.No 297
• VIRrugosa

Bred by M.S. Viraraghavan (India, 2017).

Hybrid Rugosa.  

Lilac to rose-pink.  None to mild fragrance.  11 to 14 petals.  Average diameter 3".  Medium, semi-double (9-16 petals), borne mostly solitary bloom form.  Continuous (perpetual) bloom throughout the season.  

Spreading.  Medium, dark green, leathery, wrinkled (rugose) foliage.  

Disease susceptibility: very disease resistant.  

Apart from R.gigantea and R .clinophylla, Viru hybridised with other species – R bracteata, R. longicuspis, R laevigata, R hirtula, R. tunquinensis, R.roxburghii , and others, like R. rugosa. And as he found that ‘Reve d’Or’, the Tea Noisette climber, was always a good seed and parent for him, he crossed it with many roses, his own and others. One such was with the Louis Lens rose ‘Pink Surprise’. This seedling had lilac flowers and he crossed this with R.rugosa. He got a few seedlings but only one survived. He had been growing it for a number of years. Though it was a cross, the rugosa characteristics seemed to be dominant. It was a nicely spreading strong plant in a big clay pot. I am hoping the ‘Reve d’Or’ and ’Pink Surprise’ genes will kick in, in some way.

When we attended the 15th World Heritage Rose Conference in Brussels, Belgium in June 2023, we heard our friend from South Korea, Wook-Kyun Kim, give a talk about Rosa rugosa being native to his country and growing wild, and the many uses they make of this rose species, and its flowers. Viru mentioned to WK (as we call him) that he was sort of trialling a seedling which had R.rugosa in its parentage. And that if it continued to show promise, he would like to name it for him. As you all know,Viru loved to name his roses for friends and for those who had discovered species and roses, or had in way promoted rose culture. I have been watching this seedling this past year and it is showing promise,as Viru hoped, so I felt I had to honour Viru’s wish of naming it for our South Korean friend.

It may seem that I am posting a number of Viru’s seedlings, giving them names and having our friends, Kim Rupert with HelpmeFind.com, and Rudolf Bergmann with www.shoutwiki.com/KategorieViraraghavan, help, by adding them to these web sites. But all these are seedlings of many years standing that Viru had been observing for quite some time, and names of friends he had mentioned often, as wishing to name these seedlings for, since they had some connection to the person , either because they had given him a rose, or species , which he had used in his breeding of the seedling, or because the seedling reminded him in some way of the person. By giving the rose seedlings names and posting them on Face Book and then on the link sites, I am merely carrying out Viru’s thoughts and wishes, before it is too late.

Prickles: small size, triangular, brown colour