(25 Dec 2002) Page(s) 1.
[From "The Journal of the American Medical Association", Vol. 288, December 25,2002, No. 24:]
The Rosa arnoldiana (cover), a watercolor by well-known botanical painter Esther Heins (1908 - ) evokes the season's colors, as well as its songs and legends. The rose shown here, known as the Arnold Rose, is a hybrid, developed from a chance seedling found on the grounds of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and first described in 1893. In the words of Richard Howard, former director of the Arboretum, "Selection of chance seedlings on the grounds, as a result of growing many species of plants, have yielded many interesting plants to American horticulture, including Rosa arnoldiana..." This rose is a cross between the exceptionally rugged Rosa rugosa, a native of the Far East, and 'General Jacqueminot', a hybrid tea rose cultivated in France, which were planted together on the grounds of the Arboretum, located in Boston's Jamaica Plain. The offspring is valued for its bright showy single roses and deep green attractive foliage - although admittedly the foliage of the rose is often overlooked.
The R rugosa parent provided some of its hardiness; a native of the dunes of northeastern Japan and korea, it was first introduced into Europe in 1779 when brought back on the last voyage of Captain Cook; it was thereupon neglected and reintroduced in 1845 - and at some point thereafter escaped cultivation. Continuing to make itself at home, it now thrives here on the sandy dunes of Cape Cod and Long Island. Sometimes known as the seaside rose, it spreads into dense thickets in exposed positions and somehow withstands surf, salt, wind, and storms. The other hybrid tea rose parent, itself introduced in 1853, contributed its vivid showy color - bright, nonfading red petals accented by yellow stamens. The plant propagator at the Arnold Arboretum, Kackson Dawson, is credited with developing the Arnold Rose, which flowered for the first time in 1891; he quickly won several medals with it at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Rosa arnoldiana continues to grow on the grounds of the Arnold Arboretum, after which it is named and where it amde its first appearance.
Esther Heins, whose botanical painting of a cactus first appeared in JAMA in 1981, celebrated her 94th birthday in November; she continuesto live and paint in Marblehead, Mass. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation at Carnegie Mellon University. Her book, Flowering Trees and Shrubs: The Botanical Paintings of Esther Heins, shows many plant introductions from the Arnold Arboretum. She has had one-person exhibitions at the Schlesinger Library at Harvard, the W. Graham Arader Gallery in New York City, the Boston Public Library, and the Arnold Arboretum, mong others. She also participated in group shows at the Smithsonian, including its 150th Anniversary Exhibition.
Judith Leet
