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UPDATE:  24 February 2005

"Jolly Good Sports"

 By Fiona Hyland, TRN New Zealand Correspondent

 

Moss and Crested roses arose as sports of Centifolia roses. I have explained these variants, and other sports affecting rose flowers, bush size, and leaves, in great detail to my husband, and he has concluded that Centifolia roses could well be Kiwis (New Zealanders) as they seem to give rise to more good sports than any other species.  In this he is correct, and admirably patriotic, yet charmingly ignorant: there are no species of roses endemic to the southern hemisphere.

 

A plant sport is a genetic mutation in a bud which results in a shoot that differs in some way from the parent plant.  Where the mutation is stable, the shoot may be propagated by cuttings or by budding, and the new plants will resemble the sport.  In the case of roses, should the resulting sport have fertile flowers, the genetic variation may be passed on to further generations of roses through hybridising. Roses that arise as sports can, in themselves, give rise to further sports and/or revert; i.e. throw a shoot identical to their progenitor, which is all very confusing to the home gardener who wonders if they’ve found a new rose in their garden.

The phrase ‘natural selection’ is used to describe how the environment acts to determine which specimens of plant species survive.  With cultivated roses however, it is usually selection by rose breeders/growers - short and simple - which determines its fate.  In periods of history where the fashion is for the unusual or bizarre, such strange rose sports and hybrids are more likely to survive than in more conservative (or superstitious) times.  Sports in roses are not unusual, and many of our favourite old and new roses arose as sports rather than seedlings.

Centifolias, the gold medallist of sporty roses, have been used in this article to illustrate the variety of sport types that can be thrown, and how the production of sports can contributes variety both directly and indirectly to a class of roses. Rosa x centifolia was known before 1600, and probably arose in the East, moving west with travelling rosarians (as roses do).  Known charmingly as the Provence Rose, it is also known as the Cabbage Rose, at which point it does well to remember that the French call their children petit choux, little cabbages, as a term of endearment.

 

Often listed as a species, Centifolias probably arose as a complex hybrid of R. canina, R. gallica, R. moschata, and likely of some others.  Known for their distinctive scent, their very full nodding globular flowers usually hold rather less than the advertised hundred short petals.  As the extra petals occur at the expense of the flower’s sexual organs: the Centifolias, with the exception of the single sports, are infertile.  Not suckering as well as the Gallicas, nor striking from cuttings/layers as well as the Damasks, Centifolias are unlikely to survive and increase in the wild, although individual specimens are known to be remarkably hardy, with reports of a hundred year old specimen in Boston.

Originally, all variation within the class of Centifolia roses was the result of sporting, as their infertility precluded the introduction of variation through genetically diverse seedlings.  In this way, they differed from other species roses, which are, on the whole, fertile and capable of creating viable pollen and/or seed.

 

The 1806 Bon Jardinier listed just six Centifolia cultivars, all sports, although not Simple, a single, little-known Centifolia that appeared in 1754 and quickly disappeared.  At a time when the rose-growing public was eager for novelty, Dupont chiefly, but also Descemet and Vibert, began collecting Centifolia sports.  The second arrival of a single Centifolia, À Fleurs Simples, raised by Dupont in 1804 from a seedling secured from a semi-double Centifolia sport, paved the way for breeding and hybridising Centifolias.  Crossed with literally every other available rose, with little to no attempt to record breeding crosses, the classification of Hybrid Centifolias is problematical to say the least.  Due to the collecting and hybridising efforts of these men, by 1820 Vibert was able to list two dozen Centifolia sports, plus seventy hybrids, and today we have our favourites Fantin Latour and the Taffeta Rose syn. Tour de Malakoff.

 

Roses often colour-sport, producing new cultivars with flowers of varying shades of the original colour, or new and different colour(s), and R.x centifolia has sported to give shades, from White Provence to the Burgundian Rose.  Souvenir de la Malmaison, not generally regarded as a ‘sporty’ rose, has nevertheless colour sported to give Marie-Thérèse de la Devansaye (pure white), Kronprinzessin Viktoria (milk white), Capitaine Dyel, de Graville (deep pink), Mlle Malmaison Rouge (red), and even more surprisingly, Mme Cornélissen (yellowish pink) and Mlle Berthe Clavel (yellow and pink). 

 

Sporting to a give a variegated flower is also fairly common among roses, and indeed the variegation of R.x centifolia variegata, Village Maid, resembles the splashes and stripes of the well known Gallica sport Rosa Mundi. A very few roses have a picotée edging to the flowers – Roger Lambelin, a sport of the Hybrid Perpetual Fisher Holmes, is one such charming example, although another Hybrid Perpetual sport with a picotée edge, Baron Girod de l’Ain, is often recommended in its place as being a more stable sport.

The frilly Rugosa roses Fimbriata and F.J. Grootendorst arose as hybrid crosses; however, a similar rose form has arisen as a sport. At a time when genetics was poorly understood, the cutting from the Tea rose placed in a cold frame right alongside carnations that resulted in a rose, named Fimbriata à Pétales Frangés, with flowers resembling Dianthus, caused much consternation and amazement.

A sport in which the overall size of the entire plant and all its parts is altered to give a dwarf is rarer, although Little White Pet is a dwarf sport of the Semperviren rose Félicité et Perpétue.  The Centifolias have, however, thrown several differently-sized sports, from the half dwarf Spong Rose to the true dwarf R.x centifolia pomponia syn. Rose de Meaux, which in turn threw a colour sport, White Rose de Meaux.  Adding to the confusion here are R.x centifolia minor syn. Petite Hollande, and R.x centifolia major syn. Rose des Peintres.  While the former is indeed a rose of half-dwarf proportions, the latter is described by Peter Beales as ‘a more refined Centifolia’ of identical proportions to R.x centifolia. 

The most notable sport of the Centifolias, which eventually led to the creation of a new class of rose, is the Moss Rose.  The exact genesis of the first Moss rose was unobserved, but it is known that, in 1696, a moss rose was found by Ducastel in Carcassorine, in the South of France; where it had apparently been known for half a century.  In all aspects, this new rose was identical to the R.x centifolia, except that the simple glands of the progenitor had become multiple-branching, compound glands; adding a soft green mossy appearance to flower buds and stalks, and adding a rich aromatic scent to the underlying perfume.

“A happy accident that Art has fixed” is how Vibert described the Moss Rose, and indeed this happy accident occurred twice more within the Centifolias; from R.x centifolia pomponi and R.x centifolia alba, to give two further moss roses, Moss de Meaux (1801) and Unique Moss (1844).  These two occurrences were happily observed, and the class of roses awarded the name R.x centifolia muscosa.  The propensity to sport carried through to the Moss Roses, and the variants sported by R.x centifolia muscosa very closely parallels those sported by R.x centifolia.

The sporting of a moss variant is not, however, unique to the Centifolias: R. damascena bifera, the Autumn Damask, a pink flowering remontant rose, threw as a sport Perpetual White Moss (1835).  As our hospital geneticist says, “When things start going wrong, they don’t always stop.”  Despite its brown bristly moss and indifferent flowers, as a moss rose of remontancy and fertility, this rose attracted the attention of rose breeders, and it is through this rose and its seedling Blanche Moreau that many of our Moss roses descend. 

Viable sports in which leaf colour are affected are particularly rare; the resulting plant being materially disadvantaged through the loss of chlorophyll. The sum total appears to be two Hybrid Tea roses, one with white leaves, Silver Wedding, and one with gold, Kaiserin Goldifolia, and a Noisette Souvenir de Mme Ladvocat, with striped leaves. 

 

While Centifolias appear to have produced no coloured leaf sports, they did produce several sports in which the leaf shape was altered.  Dupont appears to have had a particular fascination with the curiously-leaved sports of the Centifolias, and all of the following came from his nursery:  R.x centifolia bullata syn. the Lettuce-leaved Rose, with its extra-large puckered and crinkly leaves, is familiar to many through its famous Redouté portrait (see the media review of, {and accompanying photo gallery image of Rosa centifolia bullata from} the new "Les Roses" CD-ROM in the current issue of the eJournal's "Bookmarks" section), and is still grown today, undoubtedly right alongside its Cabbage Rose progenitor, with curly kale and Crambe cordifolia to complete the vegetable theme.  Lost to gardeners today are the Centifolia sports with leaves that were scalloped, and those with leaves resembling live oak, celery, and hemp leaves.  With a reputation for being very stingy with their small flowers, some of which had difficulty opening at all, and “an extreme susceptibility to aphids”, it is little wonder that, after the novelty wore thin, they were banished from rose gardens.

The first of the sports in which the sepals were affected is the Moss rose Sans sepales, although rather than being absent, the sepals were instead merely extremely diminished. The second, R.x centifolia ‘Cristata’, Chapeau de Napoléon, continues to perplex rosarians as to its classification, and it appears variously alongside the Centifolias or the Moss roses.  Released commercially by the Vibert nursery, the rose arrived in France following its chance discovery by a Swiss botanist, who found it growing in a crevice of a stone wall at the top of an old tower that was part of a former fort (although many accounts have placed the wall in a nunnery), in Friborg.  Having fewer thorns than the Moss roses, the Crested Rose has a charming ‘frilled parsley’ edging to the sepals.  Despite this rose having, as all roses do, five sepals, this rose does indeed bear a passing resemblance to the three-cornered hats of Napoléon’s portraits, due to the pattern of sepal leaflets common to all roses.

Further occurrences of this particular sport type on other Centifolia roses have not been observed, and the fullness of the Crested Rose prevents the ready production of pollen and/or pollination.  Additional crested roses have arisen through the persistent – over 35 years – and inspired hybridising program of American rose breeder Ralph Moore, who has, to date, released the two miniature, spring -flowering shrub/climbers, Crested Jewel and Crested Sweetheart.

It would appear that the only sports the Centifolias have disappointed us in not throwing are the climbing and remontant forms.  Many of us are vaguely aware that most, but not all, roses with ‘climbing’ as part of their name, e.g. Climbing Cécile Brunner, Climbing Lady Hillingdon, arose as sports of their bush forms, but few would be aware that the propensity to throw climbing sports appears to be a characteristic of Tea roses.  Indeed, of the Bourbon roses, Souvenir de la Malmaison and Hermosa - both with substantial Tea ancestry - are the only roses to have thrown climbing sports.

While remontancy has been conferred on a rose sport, it is fairly unusual: Awakening, the sport of New Dawn, itself the sport of Dr W Van Fleet, and the aforementioned Little White Pet are some of the few examples listed.  Remontancy is, however, often adversely affected in a climbing sport, although Climbing Cécile Brunner is an acknowledged exception.

Finally, no discussion of rose sports could fail to mention Parsons’ Pink China, the rose that sepal-sported to R. viridiflora, the Green Rose.  You may love it, or agree with Jack Harkness, “an engaging monstrosity”or with the great sentiment “more at home in Barnaby’s circus than in the rose garden of a normal person.”  The Green Rose certainly provokes people: should we then refer to it as the soccer hooligan of the rose world?

Fiona Hyland, Dunedin, New Zealand

 

 

Bibliography

Brent C. Dickerson, The Old Rose Advisor (Timber Press, Oregon, 1992).

Peter Beales, Roses (Harvill, Great Britain, 1992).

Michael Gibson, The Book of the Rose (Macdonald General Books, Great Britain, 1980).

Ralph Moore, ‘Miniature roses of the future’, Rose Ezine (August 1999).
http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/ezine.html  Accessed April 29, 2004

William Grant & Botanica (Eds), Botanica’s Roses (David Bateman Ltd, NZ, 1998).

 

Table 1  Examples of classes of sports, and the roses they have produced.

Affected part		Year           Rose
Proliferation: one flower growing through another		1820          Prolifera de Redouté  (Centifolia)
Petal number	fewer more	1950          Souvenir de St Anne’s  (Bourbon) 1980          Camaieux Fimbriata  (Gallica) in NZ!
Petal shape	fringed	1831          Fimbriata à Pétales Frangés  (China)
Petal colour	white paler darker	1775          R.x centifolia alba, White Provence pre 1838   R.x centifolia major, Rose des Peintres  1789          R.x centifolia parviflora, Burgundian Rose
	variegation picotée	1845          R.x centifolia variegata, Village Maid 1890          Roger Lambelin  (Hybrid Perpetual)
Moss	glands prickles	1696          R.x centifolia muscosa, The Moss Rose 1835          Perpetual White Moss  (Autumn Damask)
Sepals	prolific crested diminished	pre 1833   R. chinensis virdiflora, The Green Rose. 1820          R.x centifolia ’Cristata’, Chapeau de Napoléon 1840          San sepales, Asepala  (Moss rose)
Leaf shape	shape	pre 1804   À feuilles Crénelées       scalloped leaves pre 1802   À feuilles de Céleri          celery-leaved pre 1811   À feuilles de Chêne         oak-leaved pre 1811   À feuilles de Chanvre      hemp-leaved pre 1815   R.x centifolia bullata       lettuce-leaved
Leaf colour	white golden	1921          Silver Wedding  (Hybrid Tea) 1909          Kaiserin Goldifolia  (Hybrid Tea)
	variegation	1899          Souvenir de Mme Ladvocat  (Noisette)
Plant size	half-dwarf dwarf	c. 1800      R.x centifolia minor, Petite Hollande pre 1789   R.x centifolia pomponia, Rose de Meaux
Remontancy:	reblooming	1930          New Dawn  (Hybrid Wichuraian)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ed: Our TRN South Africa Correspondent, Lynette Keppler, shared two letters with us a few months back. We had intended on including a photo gallery of South African roses, Jameson Park, and Lyn herself. Unfortunately, our computer difficulties made that impossible until now.

Particularly as Lyn is now President of the South African Rose Society, we feel it worthwhile to reprint exerpts from her wonderful musings about Jameson Park, her rosarian friends and colleagues, and some of the roses and work being done in her country. An introductory letter she sent can be found below, followed by a link to her article in THE WORLD section of the eJOURNAL:

 

from LYNETTE KEPPLER,
TRN SOUTH AFRICA CORRESPONDENT; PRESIDENT, SOUTH AFRICAN ROSE SOCIETY

 

THE LATEST FROM SOUTH AFRICA

Dear Clair and Jef,

I love combining old roses with modern roses, and we have no alternative as most of the local gardens are extremely small.  Ludwig Taschner, our biggest rose grower in the country, is going to reestablish his Heritage roses, so we will all be able to obtain stocks again in about a year. He supplies the whole of South Africa. In the meantime, I will let Gwen Fagan and Wendy Kroon from the Cape know of my good news.

There are many gardens in the country with extensive collections of Heritage roses, and our largest collection comes from Fay Clayton in the Hilton area of Natal. Her garden is at its best in November.

I have managed to get about 50 'Mutabilis' into our local rose park in Durban - Jameson Park. This rose has become a firm favourite, simply because I have made a few hedges in our own public garden in the Heritage Market in Natal.

Yours sincerely,
Lyn. Keppler

 

 

* TO VIEW LYN'S ARTICLE ON JAMESON PARK *
AND THE ROSES OF SOUTH AFRICA, CLICK BELOW

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