(1988)  Page(s) 139.  Includes photo(s).
 
When I first saw the lifeless stump of the Tea rose called 'Archimedes' ....

(1995)  Page(s) 42 (third edition).  Includes photo(s).
 
Photo. “Libertas Rose” (‘Chenedole’?) [Footnote – (1) Sangerhausen Rosarium has recently confirmed my identification.]

Although I have been unable to identify this rose, it appears to be a Gallica hybrid, judging by its fat round cerise buds and brittle dark-green leaves. The very fragrant quartered flower lacks, however, the purple-maroon sheen of the pure Gallica and this may indicate some China parentage. I saw it for the first time one November morning as a large shrub in full bloom on the side of a farm road behind the main house at Libertas. This farm dates back to the 17th century and is famous because its one-time owner, Adam Tas, was locked up in the Dark Hole of the Castle in Cape Town by the corrupt governor, Willem Adriaan van der Stel in 1705. The story had a happy ending for Tas, who was released when the governor was relieved of his duties and recalled to Holland. Of all the old roses I found growing at Libertas this one was the most spectacular. It grew easily from the slips I took and I am calling the rose “Libertas” until someone identifies it more accurately. `William Paul, on page 75 pf the second part pf The Rose Garden, describes a Chinese-Gallica hybrid of vigorous growth with light vermilion, very large double flowers and spiny stems. He calls it a superb pillar rose and a good seed-bearer – all of which fit the Libertas rose perfectly. Could this be Paul’s ‘Chénédolé which actually did grow in the Cape Town Botanic Garden in the mid-19th century? Dr. Morley, who has many beautiful old roses in his garden, Lime Kiln, near Adelaide in Australia, has found a rose which appears to be identical to my ‘Chénédolé, growing along old roadsides and cemeteries in South-West Australia. He too has not been able to identify it. (1)
Plant: A tall suckering shrub growing 1.5 – 2 mertres high with many drooping branches. There are many hooked thorns of varying sizes. Foliage: Five oval, large, dull-green leathery leaflets with dull surfaces and serrated edges; the stalk and adnate stipules are glandular on their edges. Flowers: Round buds open to large, dark pink, roughly quartered flowers of 10cm in diameter. The stamens and bunch of pistils are of the same length. The calyx is cup-shaped and glandular as are the branched reflexing sepals. The flowers appear in spring and do not repeat. They are very fragrant. Inflorescence: Flowers are borne singly at the tips of the main branches on glandular stems.

(1988)  Page(s) 168.  Includes photo(s).
 
“Roses at the Cape of Good Hope” 1988. 3rd edition 1995
In 1858 only five years after Roussel had introduced ‘Général Jacqueminot’ to Europe, this brilliant scarlet rose was listed amongst the roses growing in the Botanic Garden in Cape Town. There seems to be some uncertainty as to its parentage. Some say that it was a seedling of ‘Gloire des Rosomanes’, others that it was a hybrid between that and ‘Geant des Batailles’. It certainly has the same scarlet colouring, occasional white streaking and delicious fragrance of ‘Gloire des Rosomanes’, and as the flowers age they display the darker purple hues of the Giant. After one and a quarter centuries all three of these scarlet roses are still to be found in old gardens at the Cape, though ‘Général Jacqueminot’ is the least common. According to Roy Shepherd its bright red colour and intense fragrance were used as a basis by which other roses were judged’ for more than fifty years. He regards it as one of the greatest rose parents of all time – it gave rise to more than five hundred seedlings and sixty sports. Two of its best-known descendants, ‘Crimson Glory’ and ‘Etoile de Hollande’, were to be found in almost every Cape rose garden when I was a schoolgirl, and they still occur frequently in older gardens. ‘General Jack’ itself, however, is a scarce rose and I had searched far and wide without tracing a single plant, when I was told of a very old red rose growing in Grace Taute’s garden in the Langkloof. This turned out indeed to be ‘Général Jacqueminot’ . No one knew which of the Taute ancestors had planted the rose nor what it was called. Grace was pleased that I took cuttings…..
Plant: Strong growing shrub with many stout stems having slightly hooked thorns of different sizes.
Foliage: Five oval-round pointed leaflets with marked serrations and dark-green matt surfaces. Stalks are sturdy and have prickles; stipules are adnate, narrow and light green.
Flowers: Round red buds open to half-full flowers about 8cm in diameter. Petals are broad with wavy edges, crimson turning purple-maroon as they age. There are numerous short stamens around a bunch of hairy pistils. The calyx is cup-shaped and smooth. The sepals are long, pointed and unfoliated; they are slightly glandular on top and velvety on the underside. The very fragrant flowers appear in a flush in spring and autumn with fewer blooms in between.
Inflorescence: two or three flowers at the end of short side shoots at the top of the stems. Flower stalks-are glandular and the leaf-like bracts light green.

(1988)  Page(s) 91.  Includes photo(s).
 
‘Gloire des Rosomanes’. ….Plant: Many bunched stems, forming a large loose shrub 2 – 3 metres high, with large slightly hooked thorns….

(1988)  Page(s) 156.  Includes photo(s).
 
Caption:  Lady Roberts  (1902);  a sport of 'Anna Olivier', also with apricot colouring. 

(1988)  Page(s) 175.  Includes photo(s).
 
Mrs. John Laing. A strong shrub growing up to 1.5 metres high, with many upright stems. it is practically thornless. Foliage: dark green long oval leaflets pointed at both ends. The surfaces are smooth and shiny above, velvety below, and the edges are separated and glandular. The sturdy stalks have small hooks on the underside and the stipules are narrow with glandular edges. Flowers: The large deep-pink globular buds with long foliated sepals open into very full cup-shaped flowers of about 8 cm in diameter. The firm oval petals are clear pink, paler towards the shanks. Stamens of unequal length are haphazardly arranged around the short clump of white pistils. The narrow calyx is cone-shaped, glandular and has short bristles, sepals are large, much foliated, glandular above and velvety below. The main flush is in early spring. but the plant has blooms for most of the year. The flowers are very fragrant. Inflorescence: Usually one per head on a sturdy glandular stalk

(1988)  Page(s) 38.  
 
'Petite Renoncule Violette'.
....In Sydney, while staying with my friend Gillian Batchen, whose garden is full of old roses, I was shown a new plant with two small dark-maroon flowers which reminded me very much of my Renoncule rose, but the flowers were not good specimens and therefore difficult to assess. This little rose was called Orphiline de Juillet, and was the only one of its kind that I saw.

(1988)  Page(s) 39.  Includes photo(s).
 
Petite Renconcule Violette
Plant: a suckering shrub with many thin upright stems and fine straight thorns.
Foliage: Five very dainty pointed leaflets with dull surfaces, glandular on the underside and with bidentate serrations on the glandular edges. The young leaves have a distinctive coppery red tinge. Leaf-stalks are delicate and also glandular and have many tiny hooks on the underside. Stipules are adnate, narrow and glandular on the margins.
Flowers: The small round bud with flattened top opens into a very full, dark-maroon flower about 5cm in diameter with central recurving crumpled petals and outer notched petals opening flat to form a rosette. The calyx is cup-shaped and smooth, the sepals foliated and glandular. The flowers are fragrant and appear only in the early spring.
Inflorescence: One to two flowers in a truss at the top of the bunches on glandular, delicate, upright flower-stalks. Bracts are small, green, and glandular.

(1988)  Page(s) 84.  
 
p84 Nobody takes much notice of this little rose which is very commonly seen in the Western Cape countryside, especially along road boundaries in the Wellington, Drakenstein, Paarl and Stellenbosch areas. Perhaps it is too closely associated with the unwanted shoots that sprout and have to be removed from the rootstock of cultivated modern garden roses, for until quite recently ‘Indica Major’ was commonly used not only as hedging material but also as an understock by nurserymen here. It is a very thankful plant, thriving in almost any kind of soil, in sun or shade, and with little attention growing to luxurious heights against veranda poles or into the tops of old fruit trees. I have not seen it in areas prone to frost. ‘Indica Major’ is one of my favourite roses and I love to pick the dainty sprays of pale pink flowers when the buds appear in July, for no matter how cold or wintry the weather, the fragile silky flowers, earliest heralds of spring, will open one by one indoors to remind everyone that warm sunny days are at hand. I wake up in the night hearing the rain, and the faint sweet scent of the roses and their airy shadows against the wall fill me with contentment and happiness. ‘Indica Major’ is an old garden rose from China, where it is known as ‘Fun Jwan Lo’. European rosarians generally believe that it is descended from the tea-scented Rosa odorata that reached Europe in the early 19th century from Canton. It has the same delicate pink, porcelain petals and the same distinctive tea scent. There is, however, a variety of this rose in which the somewhat paler flowers are blotched with crimson, and a single form of this variety may be the original species from which ‘Indica Major’ is derived. A fine specimen of the single variety grows at the Swellendam Drostdy museum, but as none of us can remember collecting it, it is not impossible that it was planted as a slip of ‘Indica Major’ which has now reverted back to its single form. A painting of a half-open ‘Indica Major’ in Volume III of Redoute’s Les Roses (which he calls ‘Grand Indienne’) indicates that it was growing in France in the early 1800s. In American, where it used to be a popular rootstock, the rose was known as ‘Odorata’. (Note 1)

(Note 1) According to McFarland Roses 8 this rose was introduced to America as ‘Odorata 22449’, and used as stock, but he gives no date. See also the Rose Annual where ‘Indica Major’ is recommended as stock for countries with a Mediterranean climate and long summer droughts. Gisele de la Roche doubts whether Redoute’s ‘Grand Indienne’ is the same as the stock ‘Odorata’. I think they resemble each other very closely, but it is difficult to compare a painting with living material.

In the Cape ‘Indica Major’ used to be known as the ‘Jacob Cloete rose’ but it is not recorded whether the name refers to the Jacob Cloete who arrived at the cape in 1652 with the first settlers and who, five years later, became one of the first Cape farmers when he was granted land along the Liesbeek River. He and his wife Fytje Raderootjes had two daughters and two sons, progenitors of numerous Cloetes, today still spread throughout the country. Amongst these there have been many Jacobs, but I have been unable to establish which one is associated with the Chinese garden rose which was to become such a useful plant, giving much and asking for little in return.

p85. Caption for smaller pcture of a five-petalled rose: The species from which ‘Indica Major’ was probably derived.

p85. Plant. This loosely arching vigorous shrub or climber grows 3-5 metres high and has many sharp hooked thorns.
Foliage: Five oval pointed leaflets, about 30cm long, with dark-green shiny smooth surfaces, slightly paler underneath. The stalk is glandular, especially towards the stem, and has prickles on the underside. The stipules are very thin with longish loose ends, glandular on the slightly fringed edges.
Flowers: The oval buds have short sepals and open into full, loose flowers. The pale pink silky petals with white shanks bend back and roll outwards on the edges. Many hidden stamens surround a number of short white stigmas. The calyx is cup-shaped and smooth; the oval, short sepals are rough on top and velvety on the edges and under surface. The flowers come out in very early spring and are sweetly fragrant; the glandular flower stalk has short bracts at its base, also with glandular edges.
Inflorescence: usually only one flower appears on a short leafy branchlet along the main stems.

(1988)  Page(s) 258.  Includes photo(s).
 
Souvenir de Madame Léonie Viennot
This is another of those Tea roses which presents one with copious flowers throughout the year.....'Mme. Viennot' hates to be pruned, for flowers are produced on the mature wood and I have seen flowerless plants being thrown out of gardens in which all the roses are severely cut back every year for the sake of 'tidiness'.....