I was down in the shade garden doing summer cleanup, and was admiring the Hybrid Musks growing down there. I planted these way back around 2004 and there they've been ever since. I wanted to share what I've found out about this group: one gardener's experiences, which may be different from what others have learned in their conditions.

These are Pemberton roses: 'Penelope', 'Francesca', 'Vanity', and 'Cornelia'. This part of the shade garden is the only spot on my land I've ever been able to grow Hybrid Musks with any success. They like a relatively loose soil with good quantities of organic matter and good drainage, and part shade, in our climate with its long summer days and beating sun. Most of the garden is dense clay and exposed to all weathers, and they just don't grow. This may be their Multiflora ancestry, as Multifloras seem to have similar requirements. Also typical of Multiflora hybrids, Hybrid Musks require regular removal of old canes to stimulate new growth; if this isn't done, they peter away to nothing. You have to be ruthless.

Some HMs are shrubby, fairly upright roses: 'Penelope' and 'Felicia' (which I do have growing elsewhere, though not very well) are like this for me. Others have lax growth and take kindly to training as restrained climbers, either on arches, or espaliered, or growing through a sturdy shrub. 'Francesca', 'Vanity' (a lanky rose), and 'Cornelia' are like this; so is the lovely 'Pax', and I think 'Kathleen' would be similar if I could find a decent spot for her. The reason I'm writing this is because these roses are beautiful, and perhaps not grown enough, particularly as climbers. Take 'New Dawn', for example. I like 'New Dawn', I think it's a good rose, and I'm glad to have it in the garden. But when I saw 'Cornelia' today, with a scatter of fresh blooms, my first thought was, "that's beautiful". It's a different order of reaction. The Pemberton Hybrid Musks are, to my sensibility, among the most beautiful of all roses, lovely in leaf, bud, and flower. They're fragrant, they're reblooming, they're easy to grow, if you don't garden on acres of droughty clay, and they're easy to propagate from cuttings. They may not be hardy enough for cold climates.

I'm hoping this fall to create a bed that offers decent conditions for Hybrid Musks, and see if I can't get them growing, all the ones I can lay hands on. It's a dream of mine, finally to grow them properly so that they can display their full potential.