Ralph's Striped Rugosa

Third time is, indeed, a charm!  Or the fourth, or the fifth attempt, perhaps, I've lost track.  I've tried and tried to establish a 'Moore's Striped Rugosa' in my garden, but I failed a couple of times to even get it to the end of summer and only once was able to overwinter it.  Until now.

I have coveted this rose for more than a decade, and ordered it a number of times, planting it out at various sites in my garden and hoping to see it bloom.  I would like to blame all my failures on the seemingly-weak constitution of this rose, but truthfully, it is not likely to be the fault of  the rose, but that of its gardener. At least once, I recall that a rodent pruned the rooted band to a leafless twig before I could even plant it and another time deer consumed it down to ground level.  And more than once, I recognize that I should have watered it more during the hot Kansas summer, which is my failure, not the rose.  As I stated, I lost one specimen that made it through a Kansas winter, only to die in its second winter.

But, last year I ordered it again (from Rogue Valley Roses, I believe) and planted it close to the house where I could watch it, and in a spot of full sunshine with a little evening shade, and I surrounded it with a sturdy chicken-wire cage to provide some deer protection, and I gave it plenty of extra water.  It gave me a few stingy blooms and it sulked, but it stayed alive into fall.  And then I waited anxiously through the first winter.

Now it is blooming for the 2nd time this year, and it looks healthy, so I'll tell you about it.  'Moore's Striped Rugosa' was a 1987 breeding by the esteemed rosarian Ralph Moore, known to many as the "Father of Miniature Roses" because of his many miniature rose introductions and his Sequoia Nursery breeding program.  It wasn't introduced to commerce until 2005 as 'MORbeauty' and it is too new to be mentioned in Suzy Verrier's Rosa Rugosa or other rose anthologies.  Once I learned of it though, I had to try it.  You know my love of striped roses!

The fully double, 25-35 petal blooms are striped magenta and cream, with a magenta-red reverse side to the petals, and, according to helpmefind/rose, it is hardy to Zone 5B, so it could be, and likely is, of marginal survivability in my garden in a bad winter.  Blooms come in clusters, and, at least for my young bush, repeat blooms are slow to develop.  The bush grows to 4 feet wide and tall, but mine is only at 1.5 feet midway into its second season.  In its favor, the mildly rugose foliage of 'MORbeauty' is blackspot free, dark green, and healthy.  The only downside I can see to its Hybrid Rugosa heritage is that it inherited the delicate, crepe-y texture of a Rugosa's petals, making them easily susceptible to sun and rain damage.  You can see the slight damage I'm talking about on the photos displayed here if you look closely.

As the very first striped Hybrid Rugosa, 'Moore's Striped Rugosa' certainly is a novelty, but I sincerely hope it grows better and blooms more floriferously for you than it has for me.  As for me, I will just wait again, anxious through a 2nd winter, and then the next, and the next, and so on.

Striped and Rugose

I have Scott Keneda of Red Dirt Roses to thank for alerting me to the fact that my lust for striped roses was missing a key player;  a striped rose that would rebloom consistently, wouldn't get blackspot, and would stand up to colder climates without blinking.  That rose is Ralph Moore's 'Moore's Striped Rugosa', a 1987 introduction with the registration name of 'MORbeauty'.

Ralph Moore bred 'Moore's Striped Rugosa' from a complex seed parent named "9 stripe" crossed with 'Rugosa Magnifica'.  According to rosarian Paul Barden, the stripes come from 'Ferdinand Pichard' four generations back in the seed parent.  It was not released until 2005, when it was introduced by Sequoia Nursery, Moore Miniature Roses Historic Archive, a long time to wait for such an exceptional rose. 

'Moore's Striped  Rugosa' is slow growing for me, about a foot high in its first full summer, but healthy, with nice dark green Rugosa foliage.  It has been an almost continual bloomer since it was just a single stick with leaves, those beautiful uniquely striped and fully double flowers popping up again and again.  The petals have a red and white striped upper with an almost completely red reverse; the red itself is slightly to the blue side, much like 'Ferdinand Pichard' in hat regard.  Blooms average about 3.5 inches in diameter for me, and have a mild Rugosa-like fragrance.  They start out with hybrid-tea form and end up a mildly disheveled cup form, and so far they stand up well to the worst heat of summer.  Most references tell me that the bush will grow 4-5 feet in diameter and the mildly rugose foliage tells me that it will be blackspot free here.  It certainly has been so far, and it survived winter unprotected and cane-hardy.

The nicest thing about 'Moore's Striped Rugosa' is that it is a welcome change from the strong Rugosa genes of mauve-rose-purplish roses and single or semi-double blooms.  I think this one will be quite a show piece when it reaches it's mature size.  Does anyone know if it sets hips?  Oh, that's probably too much to ask for, isn't it?   No rose is perfect.