The story of the Champlain rose hybrid

Species name: Rosa "Champlain" (see hybrid discussion below)

Common name: the Champlain landscape rose

Location: Ontario

At the beginning of June I blogged about a rose that we have in our garden, the pink Damask rose. I discussed the modern uses of roses aside from their ornamental use, which you can read all about HERE. One aspect of ornamental roses that I wanted to discuss, is the point that humans go to great lengths to achieve what we consider beauty in nature. This unsuspecting hybrid cultivar, which my neighbours have planted in their garden, is a perfect example of this never-ending pursuit of beauty. In the genus Rosa, there are somewhere between 100 and 150 different species depending on what expert you consult, with each one having drastically different characteristics. If we could find a way to select characteristics from each species to display in different hybrids, we could (in a way) "create" hybrids that would be very successful garden plants. Which we did. Approximately 5000 different times. Yes, there are an estimated 5000 different cultivars of roses of varying hybrid origins. Isn't that incredible?! That's a boatload of determination. So what went into making this hybrid?

To make the Champlain landscape rose, the series of steps to get from beginning to the end product that's planted in my neighbour's garden is no less complicated from start to finish or finish to start. So to be different, let's start with the end product: to create a Champlain hybrid, you must hybridize a Hybrid Tea rose with a Floribunda rose. Seems easy enough.

But, of course, it's not that easy. Because each of those are hybrids within themselves. The Floribunda rose is a hybrid between two different rose species, Rosa chinensis (China rose) and Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose). Easy enough! To get a Hybrid Tea rose, you need to cross a Hybrid Perpetual with a Tea rose. Interesting.

How do you get a Tea rose? This is a hybrid of two rose species, Rosa chinensis and Rosa odorata (scented rose). Again, easy enough. To get a Hybrid Perpetual rose, this is where things start to get a bit muddy. Making a Hybrid Perpetual, an incredibly popular garden rose because of its continuous flowering during the spring, summer and early fall, is incredibly complicated because it's made up entirely of recessive genes. Since most of these genes also carry disease susceptibility depending on species, you need to pick and choose what genes you get from which species. The easiest way to do this? Cross more hybrids to make second-generation hybrids! Yay! So a Hybrid Perpetual rose is created by crossing, in some seemingly random order, Hybrid China roses, Hybrid Bourbon roses, and Hybrid Noisette roses.

Alright, this is starting to get ridiculous. Because now we've got three more hybrids that we need to figure out how to make before we can even begin. To get a Hybrid Noisette, you have to cross Rosa moschata (Musk rose) with Rosa chinensis. To get a Hybrid China, you have to cross various cultivars of Rosa chinensis (can you see why I'm not a rose breeder now? This is giving me a headache). And last but not least, to get a Hybrid Bourbon you have to cross a Damask rose with one very specific cultivar, the "Old Blush" China rose (Rosa chinensis).

This brings us to our last hybrid cross, getting that Damask rose back that I first blogged about: a hybrid between Rosa moschata and Rosa gallica (French rose). Oh, what fun!

So to sum up, the species that go into making the genetic background of one cultivar of Hybrid Landscape rose are: Rosa chinensis, R. multiflora, R. odorata, R. moschata, and R. gallica in what seems like no less than one hundred steps. This doesn't even include the number of times a rose breeder had to cross different Hybrid Landscape roses together to get this specific flower colour, leaf colour, glossy leaves, red border around the leaf edge, red twig coloration, disease resistance, cold tolerance, and odor level. If this sounds like fun to you, perhaps you should strongly consider a career in rose breeding! There are about 5 companies that are giants worldwide for hybrid rose production, and I'm sure they're constantly looking for new staff. I'm not sure what would happen first: a new marketable rose cultivar or insanity...

June's official flower: the Rose

Species name: Rosa x damascena

Common name: Damask rose

Location: Ontario

Most species in the rose family are native to Asia, although a few are native to Europe and North America. This particular hybrid is a natural hybrid of rose originating in Europe from a cross originally of Rosa moschata and Rosa gallica, then the offspring of that cross was mated with Rosa fedtschenkoana (your guess is as good as mine for how to pronounce that one!). It wasn't long after this happened naturally that humans decided this was an unusually beautiful rose hybrid, and it was propagated in gardens across Europe, eventually making their way to North America. Most garden roses would be unlikely to survive in the wild since they have so many petals. This makes it exceedingly difficult for insects to find the stamens and ovaries of the flowers, and sometimes roses have been bred to completely lack sexual organs. For this reason, roses truly are an example of a domesticated crop. Roses are the official flower of June.

In general, there are two different types of Damask roses (named after Damascus): one type that only blooms in the spring, and one type that blooms in the spring and then again in the fall if the rose blooms are "dead-headed" (meaning you pick off the flower head as the petals start to fall off). Dead-heading roses prevents the formation of fruit, which often tricks the plant into flowering again. This isn't always in the best interest of the plant, since this does produce a significant strain on the plant. Dead-heading for a few years then allowing the plant to fruit on its own and produce seeds is the best way to ensure a long life out of your rose bushes. The types of fruit that roses produce (not all, but most ornamental roses do) is called a hypanthium, or a "hyp" for short. This is where we get the term "rosehip," and if you pick the fruit when it's ripe and dry it you can make a wonderful fruity tea. I'm not so sure I would just eat them since they are a bit tart (a "bit tart" is a "bit" of an understatement! They're about the same sourness as a ripe cranberry), but steep with some mint leaves and pour over ice. A great summer iced tea!