On 26 June 1998 I published my impressions from my first visit to Sangerhausen on the old usenet forum rec.gardens.roses and it will perhaps be interesting to compare it to the recent essay by van Haage. I visited before the German Rose Society become involved, and it was not yet the Europa-Rosarium but very much a local affair. It was before the euro and the entrance fee was ridiculously cheap. I went back in 2001 and much had already changed because of the BUGA 2001 in Potsdam, an all-German garden show.
My visit to Sangerhausen
I got back from Sangerhausen on Monday and have needed a few days to digest my impressions. It is an overwhelming place. 15 hectares of 50,000 rose bushes of 6083 varieties and 528 species planted in a very beautiful setting among 300 kinds of mature trees, both rare and common varieties. The town is also interesting in its way, a medieval copper mining town on the southern slope of the Harz mountains. It is very rundown. The old city center is almost empty except for shops and restaurants while people live in depressing housing estates from the 50’ies and 60’ies on the outskirts. The newest buildings in the old part seemed to be built around the middle of the 18th century, the majority were 16th century or older. One of the churches is in the Romanesque style, unusual for these parts of Germany. There are stencilled roses on the sidewalks and most houses had newly planted climbing roses outside. People were extremely friendly and helpful, and they seem slightly dazed still by the fact that DDR is no more and foreign tourists are free to visit. Surprised also that we should choose to visit their old rosarium when we could so easily have gone to the Canary Islands or Mallorca instead. I hadn’t been to this part of Germany in 32 years and it has certainly changed since the fall of the wall, but it is still different from the west in appearance and attitudes. Dangerously so in some respects, because the new nazis are quite strong in these parts and won 20 % of the votes in the latest polls. Not only the new nazis are strong in and near Sangerhausen, the new communists also have a stronghold there. The newly elected Oberburgermeister is a "new" communist. (The town is called the "Capital of Unemployment".) The rosarium is a museum. It is not very educational and it is not commercial. One can buy the Rosenverzeichnis, a list of the varieties, printed in 1976, and a pocket book on the history of the rosarium, with a little on roses and rose growing, and a small selection of souvenirs and postcards. There was a pavilion with graphics on the development of the rose and an educational bed of roses from albas and gallicas to modern roses. It was almost as far as possible from the entrance where I think it would have been better placed. There were few visitors, almost none on Friday and two coach loads of senior citizens on Saturday. One can get coffee and icecream on the premises and there is a large beer garden just outside the main gate. The entrance fee is only 5 DM and one is free to come and go all day on the same ticket. There were signs next to the ”Green Rose” and the ”Black Rose”, the only attempt at flirting with the public I could detect. The green rose was Viridiflora and the black rose was ’Nigrette’ (M. Krause 1933). There was no mention of the existence of any other so-called ”black roses”. Apparently this was it. Hybrid teas, Hybrid Perpetuals and climbers seem to dominate the collection. The beginning of Sangerhausen is the early donation of 1,100 roses from the private collection of one of the founders, Albert Hoffman, in the later years of the last century. I suppose his own garden would have contained many ”Remontanthybriden” if it reflected the taste of his time. The roses are planted in numbered areas but the plan is obscure, probably because the garden is so old. Many roses must have died and others been moved. At least three plants of the same variety are planted together and many are grown in several places. ’Fragezeichen’ is a leitmotif, it appeared four times. All climbers and ramblers are planted on pillars and tied in only with rose twigs. Whether they were twigs from the roses themselves or from some especially pliable variety, I don’t know. The HTs were mostly not planted according to any obvious plan but in the newest beds they were colour coordinated. Old and new roses, from breeders from all corners of the world and of every conceivable colour were planted together in semi-circles. I found this instructional. It was easy to spot particularly good varieties that stood out from the crowd. There was some blackspot and some mildew but very little. I am not especially interested in HTs but I remember ’Radiance’ (Cook 1908) a perfect pink and absolutely healthy HT. The sickest rose of all 50,000 was a wretched specimen of ’Conrad Ferdinand Meyer’, a rose I have been contemplating, but now wouldn’t want for free. The flowering was two weeks early so all species were over, including the Americans, generally later than the European species roses. Several of the old roses were also past their prime because of an untimely hot spell a few weeks ago. Now it was rather cool so the air was not as scented as one could have expected. It had rained the night before so it was also too wet to examine the huge old bushes too closely and try to find a hidden label. The old roses were less well kept and allowed to spread freely. None were deadheaded and it would have been an impossible task anyway. The staff seemed quite small for such a large establishment, we saw about 10 gardeners. All were preparing for the ”Berg- und Rosenfest” next weekend, the biggest event of the season, edging the lawns and raking the beds. By the way, walking on the grass was forbidden, ”except for the closer inspection of the roses”, which I found rather cute. My husband and I are looking for hardy climbers and ramblers and some that stood out from the crowd were ’Le droit humain’ (Vilin 1907), a pink multiflora hybrid, ’Jean Lafitte’ (Horvath 1934) a pink setigera hybrid, ’Bijou des Prairies’ another setigera (Schwartz 1880), very like ’Geschwinds Orden’, a multiflora favourite. Another favourite was ’Johanna Röpke’ (Tantau 1931), a wichuraiana. Then I think we must have tired of all the bland pinks because from then on we noticed only the darkest climbers, ’Corporal Johann Nagy’ (Geschwind 1890), ’Trompeter von Säckingen’ also a Geschwind rose, and then we got hooked on Geschwind roses of any colour. My husband developed an eye for them and in the end could spot them from a distance of 30 meters. ”I’ll be damned if that isn’t a Geschwind rose” said he and rushed to a group of pillar roses in the middle of a distant lawn and sure, one of them was ’Walkure’, a pale pink wichuraiana from 1909. Other roses that made an impression were ’Etna’, Haddington (a foundling gallica, very dark red), ’Duc de Cazes’ (Touvais 1861) a HP. I have to quote the German description from the inventory: ”samt. dunkelpurpur mit braunviolett”. (velvety dark purple with brownish violet), a very accurate description. Best white rambler was ’White Flight’ (Koster 1923) a multiflora, incredibly beautiful. ’Leander’ was the only Austin rose that I noticed, a sturdy shrub rose covered in apricot flowers. I missed the new German alba hybrids from Weihrauch although I found the bed they were supposed to be in. Near this bed and near the entrance was a large bed of roses bred in former DDR. It had a rather sad sign saying this was ”a historical collection of roses now propagated by noone”. They were all from the ’70ies and ’80ies and looked just as good as any western hybrid teas or floribundas, white, pink, red, yellow, strong orange, salmon; self or with a different coloured eye, striped, blended or with paler reverses. They were bred either by ”VEGS. Baumschulen Dresden” or by the ”GPG Roter Oktober” in Bad Langensalza not far from Sangerhausen. There was a Salza series, ’Salzagold’, ’Salzaperle’ and ’Salzaquelle’. Also a rose called ’Sacramento’ a name I don't think has been used by anyone else? All were from 1977 to 1987. But there were so many more. There is now a privately owned rose nursery at Bad Langensalza that specializes in old roses. Not far from the DDR roses were the old Sovietbred roses together with a few Norwegian hybrids. (I fail to see the connection.) Many of the Soviet roses were bred by one Klimenko and had names like ’Korallovyj Sjurpriz’ Coral Surprise), ’Krymskaja notsch’ (Crimean Nights, Schtanko 1958) and ’Jasnaja Poljana’ (named after Leo Tolstoy’s home). Most of them were red HT’s, naturally, I suppose. All the world loves a red rose. These beds were located in the more decorative department where the roses were underplanted with perennials. This was an inspirational part of the garden and I have learnt the importance of mass planting of perennials. I was familiar with many, if not most of them, but where I have 3 here there were at least 33 of each kind which makes some impact. Not that I have space for so many but I shall try to avoid the spottiness I have now. Two new roses were mass planted, both pink shrubs, called ’Rosario’ and ’NDR1 Radio Niedersachsen’ (I made no note of this name so I am not quite sure it is correct, it is named for a radio programme). They are both wonderful roses and part of the proceeds go to the rosarium. I shall try to find them, the radio rose probably has another name in Sweden. We left at noon on Saturday, exhausted. Spare roses are sold at the entrance gate, but they are not propagated for sale, they sell what they happen to have that day. On Friday there were only 3 old roses for sale, none very interesting so I was hoping the choice would be larger on Saturday. But there was only one, ’Souvenir de Beranger’ (Bruant 1857) a dark rose HP, so I had to buy it to have at least one souvenir rose.
I see I have to go. It could be part of my project of renewal of my acquaintance with the German language. It sounds magnificent, and as though the gardens are now receiving their due.
Mariannese, thank you for posting your essay. I was one of the attendees at the recent conference, and I'm happy to say that the garden has improved greatly since then! Of course, I'm sure you knew that already.
I was quite genuinely amazed at the scope of the roses, but honestly, what really impressed me was the incredible collection of mature trees, quite lovely to see. The town also pleased me. Here in America we are rapidly losing our walkable towns. It was a joy to stroll from shop to cafe to park without getting into a car.
Sangerhausen is really a national treasure. I was lucky enough to visit last year and I have another trip coming up in July. I hope to share my experiences here when I return.
What I am looking forward to (beyond the roses of course) is the rose ice cream! I have never had anything like it, and it was incredible. I really have been dreaming of it for an entire year.
porkpal zone 9 Tx
mendocino_rose
Related Discussions
2006 Official Rose List Supplement, February 2007
Q
2006 Official Rose List Supplement, March 2007
Q
2006 Official Rose List Supplement, September 2006
Q
2006 Official Rose List Supplement, December 2006
Q
mariannese
mendocino_rose
melissa_thefarm
rosefolly
User