Home » Explore Brooklyn Botanic Garden » Roses at BBG
Map of the Cranford Rose Garden
The Cranford Rose Garden is divided into two sections by a stone-and-latticework pavilion. The larger, main section (shown on the left of this map) is composed of 15 rectangular central beds devoted to modern roses—such as hybrid teas, floribundas, and polyanthas—flanked by border beds devoted primarily to wild and old garden roses. The smaller section (on the right of the map) is composed of beds filled with miscellaneous roses.
Eight BBG Roses: An In-Depth Look
The Cranford Rose Garden is a repository of the genetic heritage of roses. It is particularly rich in the historic old garden roses that over the years have become rare in cultivation. Here we highlight eight specimens from the Garden's diverse collection. Two are wild roses. The other six exemplify one of the following breeding traits: repeat bloom, desirable fragrance, or interesting color. The roses featured here are numbered 1 though 8 and keyed to the map.
Wild Roses
1. Rosa gallica
This European and western Asian species is believed to be the oldest cultivated rose in the West. It was grown so extensively by monks throughout the Middle Ages that numerous accidental crossings took place, resulting in many different gallica roses. The most famous is Rosa gallica 'Officinalis', the apothecary's rose, which was used in medicinal preparations for centuries.
2. Rosa carolina
One of the first roses Europeans must have found in North America is Rosa carolina, the pasture rose, native to the East coast and ranging from Nova Scotia west to Kansas and south to Texas. This hardy, carefree wild rose is an early bloomer, producing its simple, pink, fragrant flowers throughout the month of May.
Repeat-Bloomers
3. 'Souvenir de la Malmaison'
The wild roses and most of the European old garden roses flower only once a season. In the late 1700s, ever-blooming roses from China were brought to Europe. They were crossed with the once-blooming but hardier European roses, producing Noisettes, Bourbons, and other new repeat-blooming varieties. 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' is an early Bourbon rose.
4. 'Baronne Prevost'
Gallicas, Bourbons, and other old garden roses contributed to the development of another class of repeat-blooming roses, the hybrid perpetuals, which were the rage in the 19th century. Called the Victorian roses, they are hardy shrubs with large, extremely fragrant, many-petaled flowers. 'Baronne Prevost' is one of the oldest hybrid perpetuals still in commerce.
Fragrance Roses
5. 'Kazanlik'
The fragrance of many wild and old garden roses has often been a casualty of modern breeding programs. The damasks are the most fragrant of the old garden roses. 'Kazanlik' (Rosa x damascena trigintipetala) has extremely fragrant pink flowers that have long been used to make perfume.
6. Rosa x alba 'Semiplena'
The albas are another group of old garden roses notable for their fragrance. They were grown by the Romans and introduced into England at an early date, possibly before A.D. 100. One of the albas, Rosa x alba 'Semiplena', has been used for centuries in the manufacture of rose attar, a perfume oil.
Color
7. Rosa chinensis 'Mutabilis'
China roses, the ancestors of all our repeat-bloomers, are also important because they brought new colors to the rose world. Before they were introduced into Europe, roses were pinkish red, fading to mauve. Chinas are scarlet red, sometimes infused with yellows and apricots. This China rose starts out creamy white, and then goes through several color transformations before finally becoming vivid scarlet.
8. Rosa foetida 'Persiana'
In 1900, a hybridizer in Lyons, France, used this rose to produce the ancestor of all our modern yellow roses. Unfortunately, the new descendants of Rosa foetida 'Persiana', which is native to arid western Asia, are susceptible to blackspot disease, the bane of many modern roses grown in more humid climates.