We are all aware of the way fashions change and what was good last year is now outdated. So it has been with roses.
When the hybrid teas and floribunda roses came on the market back in the mid 1800s, there was a rapid move towards them. The old roses were out and no one was buying them. A rose nursery is in the business of making money and will not stock items which are unpopular and will not sell, so their growing fields and catalogues deleted the older varieties.
Recent times have seen strong and growing groups identifying and rescuing these old roses from old homesteads, backyards, cemeteries and roadsides. They are often referred to as “Rose Rustlers”. If they can, they identify the roses and get them back into commerce. If not commercially viable, then they arrange to have specialist gardens adopt the roses and create a pool for future use. If the rose is not immediately identified, it is given a study name (always shown with double quotation marks) and is usually referred to as a ROR – Renamed Old Rose.
Where we have the garden space the VSRG is assisting in the saving of these rare roses, so that the world pool is not lost from any single disaster. A current example of potential loss of rare roses is the pending sale of Ruston Roses in Renmark. David Ruston had set up a special area within his Nursery for the preservation of many rare roses. Now there is a team of volunteers taking cuttings and budding as many of these as they can before the new buyer’s embargo runs out.
See one of the Heritage Team to take a walk and see some of these rare beauties in our Garden.
