The large rose bed

Rose pages

Now as I finally don’t have to weed, there is time to browse the pages of gardening. Let us begin with roses.

Rosenmeile: The page of Christine Meile, rose gardener and photographer (as well as a dog fan). Wonderful and rich in information.

Helpmefind: Everything that is rose. They publish several photos of each plant (and eventually links to gardens where the respective rose can be found), give very precise data about their height and width, and often also about their tolerance of shade. They provide detailed information about special sorts like the completely cold hardy Canadian roses which had been developed in the last decades. This is the site I use the most about roses.

RogersRoses: The web version of that fabulous English book whose illustrations incited us ten years ago to establish our rose garden and that I have been regularly browsing ever since. The internet version has a very good search function.

EveryRose: One of the largest rose databases with an advanced search function. Its composite searches were a great help to me as a beginner.

RoseFile: Another rose database with many good images and information, and with a special page on roses for cold climate.

JustOurPictures: The most beautiful rose photos I have ever seen.

David Austin Roses: In my opinion the most beautiful roses of the world. They look as marvelous as historical roses, but in contrast to them they are remontant. They have fantastic colors, some of them smells wonderfully, and some are extremely sturdy. In my experience, however, we in Central Europe should better import his roses from more nearby regions, Germany or Austria, because they are stronger and develop better at us.

Peter Beales Roses: The other world famous British rose nursery alongside with Austin’s. They sell more than 1300 classical roses, and have a quite fantastic offer concerning wild roses and historical roses. The page has a very good advanced search function that also includes the roses’ demand of light and soil, an information otherwise hard to obtain. (Nevertheless, take with caution the periods of blooming reported by them.) Their roses curiously tolerate better the change of climate between Britain and Hungary than those of Austin.

Rosen von Schultheis: The doyen of German rose nurseries with a large offer and good quality. It sells a lot of English roses, and also a number of such specialties like the Canadian and Estonian hybrids which are surely cold hardy at us.

Erinnerung an Brod

This is a rose by Rudolf Geschwind.

Rudolf Geschwind was one of the most famous rose breeders of the 19th century. He was the first to produce frost-hardy roses in Europe.

His name is associated with such world famous roses like for example Geschwind's Nordlandrose or Geschwind's Schönste, Gipsy Boy or Grüss an Teplitz.

When I have seen his roses the first time in Praskac, I have thought: well, that’s famous old German rose breeding!

A little later, when I have seen a list of his roses with names like Corporal Johann Nagy or Julius Fabianics de Misefa, then it became a little bit suspicious: perhaps he has some Hungarian relation?

In fact, he had. His nursery was in Hungary, on Korpona. Help Me Find registers him as a Hungarian rose breeder.

There was a time when we lived in the middle of Europe.

class: wild rose hybrid (Rudolf Geschwind 1886)
height: 150 - 245 cm
width: 150 - 245 cm
American hardiness zone: Z4(down to -34 ºC)
bloom: once
At us it is planted on a sunny place, but according to Help Me Find it tolerates part-shadow.

Frühlingszauber

I have seen this rose blooming in Praskac. It had wonderful large ethereal flowers. Unfortunately, at us it does not love something. It only produces flowers half so large and always gets some illness. I have just seen that Help Me Find classifies it in Z6. Perhaps this is the reason.

class: wild rose hybrid (Rosa spinosissima), shrub (W. Kordes & Sons 1942)
height: 150 - 215 cm
width: 150 cm
American hardiness zone: Z6 (down to -23 ºC)!
bloom: once, then producing hips
At us it is planted on a sunny place, but according to Praskac it tolerates part-shadow.

Kiese

This rose also belongs to my favorites. Not only its flowers are beautiful, but also the shape of its shrub and its twigs of a purple tint. And in addition it produces enormous hips that remain on the shrub until springtime.

class: wild rose hybrid, shrub (Hermann Kiese 1910)
height: 250 cm
width: 250 cm
American hardiness zone: According to Help Me Find it is Z6, but even at us (Z5) it survives well without any winter covering.
bloom: once, then it produces hips
At us it is planted on a sunny place, but according to Praskac it tolerates part-shadow.