I’ve noticed that too, their roses are especially lovely.

I don’t understand why that surprises you, Moses. My grandparents were Germans from Russia and came here from Germany and Russia more than 100 years ago. All were amazing gardeners and farmers. They passed that on to my parents who passed it on to me. My farmer grandmother grew a huge garden in the 1930’s and shared it with her less fortunate relatives. My rose growing grandmother grew gorgeous flower gardens. I am sure she shared it with people of the Church where my grandfather was a minister. All was learned and passed down through generations, and continues to be passed down.

I would think they had access to roses in Russia long before we did in this country. I copied this from Antique Rose Emporium’s web site on Souvenir de la Malmaison.

Souvenir de la Malmaison

1843

Originally known as 'Queen of Beauty and Fragrance' this rose received its present name when on of the Grand Dukes of Russia obtained a specimen from the gardens at Malmaison for the Imperial Garden in St. Petersburg. 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' produces large, flat, quartered blossoms with petals of pale, almost flesh colored pink and a delightful fragrance. The compact bush rarely grows more than three feet, seemingly spending all its energy on blooming rather than growing.

3 to 4 feet Z6-9 R Fr

Rebecca

Answer: Our perception that the climate is inhospitable for roses - Dr Zhivago a la David Lean.

Ah, rifis, I understand. I live in zone 4 and routinely get temps to -25 to -30 F for days in winter. You just have to be creative. I grow roses that are tender and have no problems with them. I make sure that they are close to the house, and the graft is buried 4-6 inches down. The own root roses are buried 2 inches down. If canes are not hardy, they are cut off and grow up again. However, I do not attempt to grow tea roses or tender climbers. I have grown very tender roses in pots in my covered window wells over winter, but that is getting to be too much bother. :) Right now, I have 5 roses from cuttings growing there, though, just waiting for Spring to be planted.

I have found that when I am searching for a rose in HMF, I try to find one that has been photographed in the countries mentioned. The colors seem to be more accurate to what I achieve in my climate.

Rebecca

Hardiness zones in Russia vary considerably. If you look at the hardiness plant maps for Europe, China or Russia, roughly equivalent to the USA zone designations, for Russia they range from 1 (Siberia) to 8. Having in mind how rough Russian winters gave trouble to both Napoleonic and invading German forces in big wars (besides of course heavy fighting), I was surprised when I read that Chekhov personally planted and grew over 100 roses in his famous "white dacha" in Crimea, most of which were teas, noisettes and chinas. But then when I looked up this zone map, that particular area (now disputed between Ukraine and Russia) is designated 7b. Here is the link to the list of roses he grew in case anyone else likes his plays and stories, as I do:

http://roses-crimea.com/node/37