Hi campanula,

I am always thrilled by the sight of wild roses and have visited several that grow near my home in collections near San Francisco, California
My favorites include these;
the 'Apothecary Rose'. Such a beautiful rose, and very floriferous. Small enough to make me feel that I feel I really must make space for it.
R. arvensis, syn. 'Shakespeares Musk'. This is very charming plant when grown on a pole, or rebar, as it has slender supple stems that easily twine around a small diameter. One thing I especially love about wild roses as a group, is that nearly all show great beauty in their entire canopy; leaf, growth habit, and bloom.
Rosa moschata. There is something so poetical about a Musk rose in full bloom, spreading its scent upon the breeze through Autumn.
Rosa primula. The Incense Rose. I smelled this rose before I saw it. I did look around the area to see where the Japanese temple was that was burning such sweet incense, then I saw this rose, arching with no laterals to speak of, with red-green foliage forming a dramatic background to its small primrose yellow blossoms and the leaves smelling strongly of incense. Utterly lovely.
Rosa chinensis. Full of artless charm, and shows a beautiful selection of hues from light pink, to watermelon-pink to rose-red.
Rosa foetida bicolor, Austrian Copper. A wowser of a plant. It grows to be 8 feet in all directions, here.
Rosa Helenae: small blooms and gorgeous foliage that has a bit of glossiness to it.
Rosa woodsii, pretty all over. A graceful plant.
My housekeeper brought me a branching cane of Rosa gymnocarpa last summer. It was, along with Rosa moschata, one of the most deeply fragrant of all the wild roses I've ever smelled. I hope to drive to Marin county to see the plant in situ when it comes into bloom.
Rosa roxburghii: so many things about this rose attract my interest, the richly hued blooms have almost a rosette shape. Its leaves are textured and it can show what appears as "bark" on its canes. Lots of character.
Rosa californica has a long bloom season, a full flush in June and scattered blooms through October. I deadheaded my plant in July and was surprised to see it re-blooming on new wood in October.
I'd love to see every wild rose species, perhaps I'll start a "life list" such as Audobon birders make. I especially wish to see R. pendulina, R. majalis, and R. canina.

Thanks for your posting,
Luxrosa

We grow R. palustris, the swamp rose, which is our only native rose in central Florida. In addition, R. laevigata is very good here, often with several months of bloom. Then of course the musk rose, R. moschata. As far as we know, Florida Southern has the most nearly complete collection of accessions of that rose of any garden. We also grow R. rugosa rubra, which is surprisingly good in our hot climate, as long as we graft it to 'Fortuniana' roots. We grow all 4 forms of the banksias, but they really are not well-adapted here, and they give far less bloom than they would in a bit cooler climate. We grow 3 forms of R. roxburghii -- the standard double, a double one that lacks the calyx spines, and a single form grown from Chinese seed a number of years ago. We have a seedling of Santa Clara University's R. abyssinica, which has not yet flowered for us.

You have some gorgeous US natives, especially the Cherokee rose

Um, according to Graham Thomas the Cherokee rose is an Asian rose that escaped garden cultivation in the USA and is now an established alien species.......

:)

I love the smell of R. eglanteria (Eglantyne), but I don't have a place for it. Unfortunately its growth habit is not really "refined" or "restrained", and I don't have a yard where I could get away with growing a hedge of it. Its leaves have that lovely apple smell, but it definitely reminds me that roses are briars!

I'll second R. palustris, which appears to adaptable, since it grows decently in my clay soil (neutral or alkaline) with summer drought, as well as in acid-soil, wet-summer Florida. It's pretty and interesting all round: flowers, hips, canes, foliage, which colors in the fall (very few plants do, in our garden). I agree the species and their hybrids have a lot to offer in the garden in the way of subtle beauty and variety.
Melissa

I too love species and their hybrids. I grow or have grown the following:
Rosa arvensis
Rosa californica, my local selection with deliciously scented foliage
Rosa californica plena, prolly not a Californica at all
Rosa chinensis f. spontanea, the Quarry Hill clone
Rosa clinophylla from India
Rosa davurica (doesn't love the hot California summer)
Rosa fedtschenkoana
Rosa foliolosa, a cutie
Rosa gigantea (croaked)
Rosa glauca (sunburns)
Rosa gymnocarpa, antoher cutie
Rosa hugonis flore plena
Rosa laevigata (it scares me and I refused to put it in the ground)
Rosa longicuspis (croaked)
R. x macrophylla 'Doncasteri'
R. x moyesii 'Geranium'
Rosa mulliganii (may be rubus; whatever it is, it will by enormous)
Rosa nitida
Rosa nutkana, pretty mauve blooms
Rosa omeiensis pteracantha (prob. sericea pteracantha and one of my favorites)
Rosa pisocarpa (in my dreams. Forest Farm bites again)
Rosa pomifera Duplex
Rosa setigera
Rosa setigera serena
Rosa soulieana (wonderful here...and very tall, almost 16 feet in Quarry Hill)
Rosa soulieana 'Wickwar' (looks just like the species, but I'll be patient)
Rosa tonquinensis Crepin
Rosa woodsii
Rosa x Cantabrigiensis
Schoener's Nutkana
"Vina Banks," a found white Banksia
Alba Odorata
Assorted Hybrid pimps.
Assorted Hybrid multifloras
Nevada and Marguerite Hilling

I'm with you, luxrosa. I working my life list, but I sure don't want to grow them all. I could settle for the American species and for the tropical species. I have a fatal attraction to Section Synstylae, not very practical.

I love species roses for their subtle beauty and year round interest and variety. Now that I have reached the point of having way too many roses, their toughness is also appreciated. When established I don't water them in the summer(for me this is a big deal) My favorite is Wolley Dod's Rose(Duplex) It's so big and beautiful and I love all parts of it.

oh berndoodle - lucky you - got me salivating. I especially want Scheoners nutkana and R.woodsii - what amount of space do you have- 1000 acres? I really must get Fedschenkoana (when I can pronounce it) as I believe it is implicated in the damask ancestry - if it has the scent. wow!
York rose - I have read that the cherokee rose (species name I can't recall) is a bit of a nightmare for you but I think it would be better behaved in E.Anglia - I love the look of it. True, Eglantyne can be a beast but it grows well in our local graveyard - my favourite place in Cambridge where I have walked everyday of my life - and the smell in spring is gorgeous.
Luxrosa, R.primula was one of my first and to my great dismay. I have never been able to really detect any scent from the leaves - this doen't matter too much as it is my herald of spring - always the first to flower and so delicate despite the prickles. True, the growth habits of many of nature's roses are beautiful in all aspects - I would not buy a rose which had ugly leathery foliage - and heps are always a bonus. R.arvensis is one I would like to try as a weeping standard (although I constantly change my mind about standards).
Malcolm - am surprised you are growing a rugosa in your climate - they are great roses though I am not keen on the foliage. I have scabrosa and have also just bought an Austin - Wild Edric which looks to have a lot of rugosa in its heritage. My friend is trying to get me to grow Blanc double de something (I am sure you know what I mean).
Finally, I am really interested in the persian rose - I think Harkness bred one called Euphrates but I think it is classed under Hulthemica (or something - apols for dreadful vague spelling) - I love the darker blotches in the petal centres...but. have heard it is tricky. Also R.helenae has been difficult for me but would like to have the space for R.cantabridgensis, just cos I live in Cambridge and the botanic gardens are part of my 'hood'. By and large, health and vigour of wild roses has always been good and many of them seem to do OK in not very good soil and even a bit of shade.

Campanula -- R. fedschenkoana has a strong scent, but it's not at all damask-like; Some would say it's rather "stinky," but I like it. It does give a bit of repeat bloom, notable among the species.

campanula, Schoener's Nutkana is truly a spectacular rose...tho I have to wonder about the Nutkana component of its ancestry and whether it is a first generation hybrid. I'd love to see a chromosome count on that one.

You might be disappointed in the scent of Fedschenkoana. It smells like Foetida. Some people detect sweetness in its scent, but I get lost in the linseed oil.

Cantabridgensis provides year long interest here. The reddish surface of the canes is as interesting as Pteracantha, a must-have, IMO.

Woodsii....are you sure? Section Cinnamomeae roses sucker and colonize, and Woodsii is no exception. They can be rough on a garden. Nutkana also wanders, excessively. We keep Californica in check locally because it like water and won't leave summer irrigation willingly. But with your annual rainfall, you'd find it covering 15 feet in no time.

I'd love to have Primula, but it's tough to find locally, available only budded through a Canadian source.

Arvensis on a standard....now there's an image. You'd better use an 18 foot whip for that. The canes are 15 to 20 feet long. The foliage is fairly bad. No telling what's wrong with species available from nurseries as clones. Many arrive from overseas budded and are repeatedly budded, to the point they are undoubtedly infected with every virus know to rose and mankind. I do my best to get American species grown from seed and overseas species from botanical gardens, but it isn't easy.

Duh, I'm a dimwit. meant Ayrshire ramblers as possible standards. Thanks for the info on woodsii - my son lives in a housing co-op with hug a tree mentality - which means it is basically a woodland of birch, planes and bloody robinia so was hoping to get an understorey going with wild roses. They are next to the railways as well so some suckering would'nt be too bad - also E Anglia is classed as semi-arid, even our winter rainfall is low.I have seen nutkana semi-plena on a rustic arch and it was just fantastic - if I can just have the one, I think a nutkana has to be it. My dad was a painter and decorator and I find myself really liking some of these tarry, linseedy. camphor, turpentine sort of smells.Malcolm M said Fedschenkoana was like a foetida but I (perversely) like the scent. Burnet roses are rather lovely, especially the Dunwich rose - sort of similar to R.primula and it has nice little black heps

There's a beautiful Cherokee Rose at the Ft Worth Rose Gardens.

It's so huge that I didn't even notice, the first couple of times I visited, that there's a covered wagon inside it.

York rose,
Eglantyne?
could you mean eglantine? :)
Lux.

I hace small yard, so not that much:
Rosa primula
Rosa hugonis
Rosa x Cantabrigiensis
Apthecary rose
Rosa Palustris
Rosa virginiana
Rosa Sancta
Rosa canina (in the past)
Rosa glauca
Rugosa Rubra
Alba Semiplena (not species, but close enough for me)
Rosa moschata (not anymore)

If I had more space, I would grow many more.
Olga

Gymnocarpa is the perfect understory rose, though I don't know if you can get it in the UK. The plant at Kew is not Gymnocarpa. I took the time to inform one of the gardeners of the error. It happens to be one of those rare species roses that cannot be mistaken for anything else, at least in its native habit.

There are three species roses that I would like to get and cannot find a source: Rose Xanthina, Rosa Ecae and Rosa Koreana. If anyone can help I would really appreciate. I will trade or purchase them. If these roses grow from cuttings - some do not - cuttings would be fine.

olga, R.sanctus - I just love the look of that. I think luxrosa's idea is spot-on. I wouldn't actually tick off a list but it would be a lovely ongoing project -to see as many wild roses as possible.
Berndoodle - my rose book says Schoerner's nutkana is R.nutkana x Paul Neyron (is that a HP?) I will check out our botanic gardens for R.gymnocarpa although the roses are the worst part of it - it is a bit shameful in fact that a well-respected botanics has left the roses to get into such a parlous state. Gah! I am feeling ill now that the thought of it is in my brain. The trees are fabulous, loads of money spent on glasshouses, still has a few national collections (hardy geraniums) and there are some new projects but truly, the roses are ancient, diseased, mislabelled and poorly displayed. Heartbreaking. Ooops, sorry to wander off topic while ranting.

According to the Combined Rose List, Rosa Xanthina is carried by Forestfarm in Williams, OR. www.forestfarm.com. The CRL also says it is carried by Hortico, but I would try Forestfarm first.

Forest Farm's Rosa xanthina isn't true to type. They sent me some kind of Hybrid rubiginosa with pink blooms, twice. Seems fairly clear their source plant reverted to rootstock, and they aren't any more the wiser.

I always knew R.Xanthina as 'Canarybird'. Is this something different?

Canary Bird is a seedling or selection of the species or maybe R. hugonis.

Here is a link that might be useful: Graham Stuart Thomas on Canary Bird

I grow Rosa majalis and R. majalis plena , which are are both found in cemeteries and abandoned homesites in my area (NE Pennsylvania). They are known by other names including May Rose and Cinnamon Rose.

They are both very hardy and have dark red canes. The name Cinnamon Rose is taken from either this red color or the fragrance. (I vote for the cane color.) I find the single majalis to be sweetly fragrant although it shatters quickly.

R. majalis plena is one of the oldest double roses.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rosa majalis

High Country Roses offers Rosa xanthina spontanea (Manchu Rose). Could this be R. xanthina or is it Canary Bird? There still seems to be confusion between Canary Bird and R. xanthina. I have Canary Bird. I no longer trust Hortico as a source. Two years ago I ordered 10 roses and 4 were not what I ordered.

Rosa majalis plena is a real beauty. I'd love to grow it. I've never seen it offered by Vintage Gardens, even though it's on their plant list as R. cinnamomea plena. Does it grow easily from suckers? I've had amazing luck growing other Section Cinnamomeae species from the smallest pieces of suckered plants, with as little as a 3 to 4 inch piece of root. I've treated them like cuttings or bareroots, and they prosper. I'd love to find a North American source.

berndoodle...
In my state of New Hampshire I find our version of R. cinnamomea plena growing everywhere from roadsides, old cemeteries, to old homesteads. I obtained my specimens of it from suckers which rooted easily. It blooms in June here.
If you are interested, come spring, I could send you some suckers, or root them for you before sending.

Celeste

{{gwi:224834}}

How vigorously does it sucker? Is it a problem to keep within garden bounds?

Celeste, I've seen other pictures of this rose and have always thought it was lovely, but yours is by far the most beautiful photo of it I've ever seen. Thank you for showing us this little-known rose.

Ingrid

It's not invasive for me, very manageable. It suckers but not aggressively like a Gallica.

Thank you, Ingrid. It really is an adorable little rose, so often overlooked by people going on about their lives. Around here it is considered something of a 'weed' because it grows in fields and along roadsides and most people never even notice it. The blooms are petite but very frilly and charming. I also love the buds with their elongated sepals. I agree with belmont....in the garden it isn't invasive. It does sucker, but it is very 'polite' about it and doesn't overtake the garden.
There is a small thicket of it down the road from here along the roadside that gets mowed down each summer but keeps bouncing back. The road salt that gets thrown down all winter long doesn't faze it either.
Here's another photo to illustrate the lovely little buds....

{{gwi:224835}}

Celeste

I'm in love!!

Celeste, I'd love to take you up on that offer! A sucker or two would be fine. We'll be gone the last have of June, so July would be best if that works for you.

Rosa majalis plena (or foecundissima) is *extremely'* prone to suckering in my garden. It was in the garden when we moved in 16 years ago but the neighbours had put their large wooden deck over it when repairing their house (with permission from the previous owners of our house) so we didn't realize the rose was there. When the deck was removed the Cinnamon rose came back with a vengeance and now forms a large thicket. Some rose historians believe it may have originated in Sweden. The single form is native here. My clone looks just like in Celeste's photo but there is also another clone with darker flowers.

'foecundissima' kind of gives the game way, doesn't it?

A few years ago, someone on this forum commented that R. majalis plena has naturalized in Michigan and that its introduction there had been related to Swedish immigrants. Has there been any research to confirm that it is a R. rugosa hybrid? R. majalis flore plena was described as a hybrid rugosa back in 1902.

Suckering in our Mediterranean climate is quite a different thing because of our rainfall patterns, which are the inverse of those in Sweden: dry during the 6 month growing season, wet only in winter. Sunburned canes are a more likely problem.

British sources now consider R. californica 'Plena' to be R. nutkana 'Plena'. A good garden plant either way.

Dime-sized flowers of R. gymnocarpa smell of cinnamon. Unlike most roses, including the two other species native here redwood rose is adapted to comparatively poor soils in shady conifer forests.

One on the property here has flowers a bit on the large and strongly colored side, I should try rooting it. It is right next to one of the roads, cannot grow out too far without some day getting in the way.

'foecundissima' kind of gives the game way, doesn't it?

LOL!

berndoodle, I've never heard the theory that majalis should be related to rugosa. It's not very probable as the double cinnamon rose has been in cultivation here since 1596 and rugosas didn't arrive in Europe until 1796.