Vivacious Vanguard

'Vanguard'

As the first flush of roses dissipates here on the prairie, I've been disappointed by a few "new-to-me" roses and surprised and delighted by several, but there have been none yet that I've been happier with than a little-acclaimed Hybrid Rugosa named 'Vanguard'.

'Vanguard' is a 1932 rose bred by  Glendon A. Stevens, a little-known rosarian from Pennsylvania.  'Vanguard' is a breeding of  a seedling of R. wichuraiana and R. rugosa 'Alba' crossed with the old Hybrid Tea 'Eldorado'.  Although there have been two recent more roses named 'Eldorado',  the parent of 'Vanguard' must have been the orange-blend 1923 Pernetiana Hybrid Tea by Howard and Smith.  'Vanguard' was introduced by Jackson & Perkins and is officially described as salmon-orange, with pink edges.  I can't figure out why the rose is not better known, but perhaps it is because little is written about it and some of that is not positive.  Peter Beales, in Classic Roses, describes it as "a vigorous shrub, rather untypically Rugosa, and well-foliated with glossy, bronze green leaves." Suzy Verrier, in Rosa Rugosa, doesn't say a lot that is complimentary about the rose, claiming it is barely hardy in her climate and has excessive winterkill. In a comment on helpmefind.com, Paul Barden said "it leaves a great deal to be desired, in my opinion."   Osborne sand Powning do list it in Hardy Roses, but hardy to only zone 5.  Helpmefind.com lists it as hardy to 4B.  I can only add that it had no winter die-back at all here in 6A in its first winter.

Truthfully, to my eye, the rose is a blend of pinks, oranges, and yellows, varying with the weather. Flowers seem to be more pink in colder and wetter weather and yellow as the day warms.  The blossoms start out with Hybrid-Tea form, but then open up huge, just huge, about 5 inches across, borne singly or in pairs, and mildly double with about 25 petals.  It has a strong and sweet Rugosa-type fragrance and sparse but sharp thorns.  It is labeled as once blooming by Verrier, with rare rebloom by Paul Barden, but repeat-blooming by Beales and in Hardy Roses.  The websites of Rogue Valley Roses, from which I obtained my rose, and Vintage Roses also both list it as a mild rebloomer, so I do have some hope that Verrier and Barden were, for once, wrong and that I'll see late summer blooms of 'Vanguard'.  Perhaps this rose varies rebloom by the climate.  I don't know yet if 'Vanguard' forms hips, but some Rugosa-type large red hips would be a perfect Fall finish for the rose.

I think 'Vanguard' is going to become a very large rose here in Kansas, living up to its reported 10 foot height in the references.  My one-year-old specimen is already almost 5 foot tall, much taller than the 7 other roses planted in that bed at the same time.  It has a nice vase-like structure at this age and I can already see several new canes starting for next year.

One of the biggest assets of this rose is surely going to be the mildly-rugose light green and completely disease free foliage. In fact, when a local professional horticulturist toured my garden looking for peonies to divide for the KSU rose garden, this rose's foliage caught his eye quickly and he had to stroll over to examine it closer.  'Vanguard' is reported to be rust susceptible, which could be an issue in some climates, but I've never seen rust on any rose in my garden. 

'Vanguard' won the ARS Dr. W. Van Fleet Medal in 1933 and the David Fuerstenberg Prize (ARS) in 1934.  It may not win any awards in your garden, but it has the "best of show in its first year" award from me this Summer.

Misc. Garden Crap

No, literally; "Miscellaneous Garden Crap."  ProfessorRoush collects and archives many garden photos, and sometimes, when I am wanting to provide readers a break from my unstoppable barrage of rose worship, I pull up something else to talk about.  For today's blog, I actually have two photos linked by a common theme.

'Earth Song' Rose and Caterpillar Frass

The first, shown at the right, was taken in mid-May at the Kansas State University Rose Garden.  It is a picture, if you look closely, of a partially-eaten 'Earth Song' bud, complete with the "frass" manufactured as a result of digestion of this former beautiful bud.  If you look closely, you'll also discern the green side of the responsible
rose caterpillar visible in the large hole in the center and presumably still happily munching away.  For those unfamiliar with the word "frass", it is defined as "debris or excrement produced by insects."  In plain words:  insect poop.  I cannot identify the culprit species since there are lots of caterpillars that eat rose buds and since I am far from expert at soft-bellied immature insect identification.  My control method for this infestation, after I took the photos, was to remove the affected bud en masse and smash it under my heel.  Hey, sue me, most of these rose caterpillars are unexciting small brown moths and I'm more partial to the roses, myself.  Anyway, I submit this photo as the prime internet source for a photo of rose caterpillar frass for those who need a picture.

Evidence photo related to pending cat-icide

On a similar theme, I've seen a lot written lately about the supposed devastation of garden birds by resident and feral cats, but I learned this morning of perhaps a better reason to keep cats and gardeners apart.   I had left a sizable bag of potting soil open in my garage and Mrs. ProfessorRoush's calico cat had, well, let us just say it decided it was too lazy to leave the cool garage for the hot afternoon sun and sought out the nearest convenient litter pan.  Sorry about the slightly fuzzy hand-held picture but I was not about to drag this bag out into the morning sunlight to get a faster exposure at 6:00 am.   I haven't decided yet if I'm going to keep using this bag of potting soil.  On the plus side, Mrs. ProfessorRoush's stupid cat has probably only increased the nutrient value of this soilless mix.  On the negative, I'm just worried about what I might find buried deeper in the bag.


 

Plentiful Panoramas

ProfessorRoush recently joined the technologically-addicted Mrs. ProfessorRoush and her diminutive clone and upgraded from my archaic iPhone 4 straight to the iPhone 5.  It wasn't, if you are wondering, because I was jealous that I couldn't talk to Siri, nor was it because I thought the i5 was an actual improvement for web-surfing.  I was simply envious of the picture quality improvement over the iPhone 4 after witnessing several rose photos that Mrs. ProfessorRoush has been furtively taking and then posting to Facebook.

What I didn't know before purchase, but quickly discovered, was that panoramic collages can be produced by the iPhone 5 by any idiot able to stand still and swivel their hips.  Now, I'll admit that the images are not perfect, being an iPhone and all, but they do serve to tell a tale.  Witness a panorama of my back landscaping taken last night:

Blooming left to right are 'Morden Centennial' (barely glimpsed), 'Christopher Columbus', 'Jeanne Lavoie', 'Zephirine Drouhin', 'Morden Blush', Prairie Joy', 'Carefree Beauty', 'David Thompson',  'Fantin Latour', and 'Madame Hardy'.  I've used the original 5mb files so you can blow them up and look closer.  Neat to get it all in one picture, eh?

My "East Rose Berm," pictured above, starts out on the left with the last few first flush bright red flowers of 'Robusta', then orange 'Alchymist', 'Adelaide Hoodless', a pink mislabeled rose that I bought as 'Charles de Mills' but which I suspect is 'Constance Spry', 'Pink Grootendorst' with darker pink 'William Baffin' in the background, 'Madame Hardy' and 'Cardinal de Richelieu' on either side of my "Aga Marsala" statue, and finally another 'Robusta' that has finished blooming.  There is a small bed to the right in which can be seen 'Belinda's Dream' in front of 'Westerland', Purple Pavement', 'Salet', and 'Golden Princess'. 



'Banshee', first bloom of 2013

In essence, I think the iPhone 5 takes some decent pictures and some not-so-good images, depending on what you're looking for, but the panoramas are a nice option.  The iPhone seems to be hideous on reds; red roses turn out both poor in color tone and in focusing, but it can take some very nice photos of whites and blush pinks.  I thought the photo of 'Banshee', on the right, came out just perfect on the first try!  It's not ready to replace a good Canon or Nikon yet, however.

Calling Docteur Jamain

'Souvenir du Docteur Jamain'

There are many, many new roses blooming in ProfessorRoush's garden and I am fairly giddy about most of my acquisitions from last year.  I have some exciting and fabulous roses blooming for the first time on this Kansas prairie and I'll feature them each as I gain more information about their hardiness and response to the Kansas climate.  A handful of the new roses have been disappointments as well, and I will, in turn, reveal their sins by exposing them on this blog sometime after I finally decide I don't like them.




One new rose that I already like very much is 'Souvenir du Docteur Jamain', an 1865 Hybrid Perpetual bred by Francois Lacharme.  My own-root specimen was planted in the Summer of 2012 and at its first birthday it stands three feet tall on several canes, with healthy dark green foliage and no blackspot yet, although it is too early for me to really judge the disease resistance of this rose. The BLOOMS are the strongest reason, if you need one, to grow this rose.  The canes are covered with these very double-formed and very dark red or wine-red colored blooms that are fairly large, perhaps four-inches in diameter, but yet the canes are stiff enough to keep the whole bush upright in the Kansas wind.  No slouching for Dr. Jamain!  Blooms are incredibly fragrant too, with odiferousness on a par with the fragrance of the best Bourbon roses, as one would expect from a seedling of 'General Jacqueminot' and 'Charles Lefebvre'.  I've been extremely pleased that every day since the first blooms, I've taken a picture of it, each day thinking the bush could not possibly sprout more blooms, and each day it is yet more covered.  The good Docteur is supposed to be remonant in flushes, but I don't know how often I'll see repeat bloom, since it didn't bloom at all last year.   'Souvenir du Docteur Jamain' does have a few thorns in defiance of references that say it is "nearly thornless," and I'm told that my 3 foot rose will eventually be difficult to keep under 7 feet tall, which may cause some problems in the Kansas tornadic wind storms.   The bloom color darkens with age, becoming more violet, like arterial blood fading to venous over time. In that, I suppose, it mirrors life and death, vitality and senility all on one plant.  Several sources state that this rose may burn in hot sunshine and I'm waiting to see if that will be the case in the Kansas sun.  So far, I've seen only deep purple, not brown from this rose.

A number of references attributed the revival of this rose to the infamous 'Vita Sackville-West', who reportedly discovered it growing in Hollamby's Nurseries (as named by Graham Thomas) and distributed it.  If that was indeed the case, then Vita, a pioneer in so many aspects of gardening, is also one of the earliest documented Rose Rustlers.  In the end, I expect to agree with Peter Beales, who, noting the problem of sunburn on the petals, nonetheless said "At its best it is of rare beauty and even at its worst can still be enjoyed."  I'm going to keep enjoying it as long as the bloom and the fragrance grace my garden.

Update 6/6/13:  Now I understand the notes about this rose "burning" in sunlight.  One day of harsh sun (it's been cloudy here for 6 days, very usual, and the rose turned into this: 

A number of dark old garden roses (Cardinal de Richelieu for example) do this so I didn't think about it being unusual.