Roses of Beepea Gardens

Duchess de Brabant Rose


Roses of Beepea Gardens  

Over the years we have had a number of the old roses, most of them coming from the Antique Rose Emporium.  We especially like the Polyanthus class of roses because they are smaller and seem to hold a good bush shape and bloom quite well.  Some of the old roses have done well as described and others we did not like the performance.

Reasons for this may be that we garden in limestone soil, and they would probably prefer more acidity and we seldom amend the soil, feed the roses or spray for problems and more than anything, may not give them enough sun as we have a great amount of shade in the garden.  In our garden they must survive on their own. Most of the old roses do not have the problems of the newer roses but they must be placed in the full sun for much of the day to get the most out of them and to keep them healthy.   We have found even the old roses do not like the heat and humidity we have in our area and seem to do much better in the early spring and fall to get the best blooms when the temperatures drop about ten degrees and the humidity is lower.  

Roses are very easy to take cuttings...leave cuttings in a gallon container for two years before planting in the garden. These are the roses we have had in Beepea Gardens over the years and the results we had with them.

Mrs. Dudley Cross, 1907 Tea rose...this is a lovely rose with nice rounded full blooms that are creamy white with a touch of pink and even more pink showing when the humidity is low in the fall.  It usually blooms up until Christmas.  It does not keep a bushy shape but prefers to be a pillar rose.
Old Blush 1752  China rose...one of the oldest roses...a lot of the modern roses have Old Blush in them...this rose did not bloom as much as we liked and required too much trimming...we shared it with a gardner that was willing to give it more care.

Cramoisi Supérieur 1832  China rose...a very fragrant rose, with a nice bush shape.  It blooms rosy red and continues blooming up until Christmas. One draw back of this rose is the stems are very thin and do not stand up straight but they drape nicely in a bouquet.
Souvenir de la Malmaison, 1893 Bourbon rose...cabbage type...this rose looks like one out of an English garden, and the aroma is great.  It did not like the humidity and heat and died away in our garden...may try it again some day in a sunnier spot.

Duchess de Brabant 1857  Tea rose...cabbage type...beautiful shell pink blooms with good aroma (see photo above).  This rose does not like our heat and humidity but still seems to hold up well.
Cecile Brunner 1881,  Polyanthus rose...a small perfect pink bloom...nice bushy shape. It is referred to as the "Sweetheart Rose" because it was frequently used in corsages.
Mutabilis, prior to 1894, China rose...also called the "Butterfly Rose" because the different colors of the blooms look like butterflies moving in the wind...the colors range from pale yellow to pink to rose.  This rose gets over six feet tall and did not bloom as much for us and required too much trimming so was removed and shared with another gardner who was willing to give it more care.
Katy Road Pink...Found rose near Katy, Texas...it was later identified as Carefree Beauty from about 1932.  It seems to have no insect or disease problems.  It is a large petaled semi double bright pink bloom with long buds.  This is a striking rose and can be seen from a great distance. In our garden the rose lived only about ten years and seemed to just rot away on the lower branches.  We still have a small one in the garden that was propagated from the first one.

Marie Pavie, 1888  Polyanthas rose...a small bush that holds a nice shape...walk near this rose and you can smell the aroma...pale pink nice small bloom.
La Marne, 1915,  Polyanthus rose...small bush with small pink blooms.  This rose did not like the humidity in our garden and did get black spot.  We once saw it planted near the grape vineyards in Fredericksburg where they used it as a guide for spraying for black spot on the grapes.
The Fairy, 1932,  Polyanthus rose...small rose with cascading limbs...very pretty in the landscape.  One draw back to this rose is a lot of thorns which made it hard to work around...because of this it was removed and shared with another gardner.
Pinkie, Climbing, 1952  Polyanthus rose...a small climber or pillar rose...we planted one on each side of a tall arbor and it was beautiful when in bloom; however it did not bloom as much as we expected and needed too much trimming.  They were removed and shared with others.
Belinda's Dream, 1988, shrub rose...this is a new rose in our garden.  After observing it in another garden for several years, it appears to be a good rose for our area with large pink blooms good for cutting and does not seem to get black spot; however I did read where some gardeners had trouble with black spot.  We planted it in a full sun area and will hope for the best.  Much to my surprise we found it listed in the Antique Rose Emporium Catalog called Belinda's Rose and was hybridized by Dr Basye...it is a cross between Tiffany and Jersey Beauty.
Update on Belinda's Dream...this rose only lasted 3 months in the garden...every week or so another part of the rose was dying away...even though it was planted in full sun it had a lot of black spot...I recently saw the garden where I had observed this rose for several years and their rose has now died away with only one thin branch remaining...it was also planted in full sun.
Ballerina, 1937, shrub rose...a beautiful unusual rose. with cascading branches and six inch clusters of tiny open blooms.  A good rose for pegging.  It lived a few years in our garden and then died away.
Buff Beauty, 1939,  Noisette heritage rose...a small climber or pillar rose with beautiful apricot blooms. This rose lived only a few years in our garden but we think it was because we did not give it enough sun even though it indicated it did well in the shade.
Caldwell Pink, found rose near Caldwell...a small compact rose with tiny pink nice blooms. It keeps its shape well and is a favorite of landscape designers.
Martha Gonzales, found rose from a Mrs. Gonzales garden near Navasota...this is a very small rose with reddish leaves and rosy red blooms...easy to keep in shape and lovely in the landscape.
Margo Koster...1931, a polyanthus rose...We bought this tiny pretty miniature at the grocery store and it only lived one year, but it was a beauty and perfect little pink/salmon blooms...research showed it was not a good rose for our area and indicated they no longer sell it in England because they do not consider it a good rose there.
Maggie...found rose in 1980 in Louisiana, a Tea rose...may be Eugene E Marlitt...however, Martin Weingart, a famous rosarian, identified it as Julius Fabianics de Misefa, a rose that does very well in cold areas like Sweden as well as some hot climates. Mike Shoup, of the Antique Rose Emporium, mentioned that this rose is grown in Bermuda and goes by the name of Pacifica.
This is a small rose that is the most fragrant of any we have known...beautiful full rosy blooms...almost thornless.  We did a cutting from this rose and gave it to a friend named Maggie...not sure how well the rose did in their garden, but in our garden it lived only a few years and died away.  If we can find this rose again we would definitely try it in our garden and hope for better results.
Highway 290 Pink Buttons, found rose near Highway  290...this is a miniature rose with tiny leaves and a tiny pink bloom that opens flat and looks a little like a button.  It is a good rose that does well in our area and blooms off and on all year.
Jackson and Perkins...name unknown...it was purchased from Jackson and Perkins about 1965 and was a small modern rose...it seldom bloomed but it did seem to survive and every time we moved it went with us.  During the last twenty years it bloomed only once with a bloom or two.  This year it was moved to a very sunny spot and grew up as a climber or pillar rose with the branches draping down.  We wondered if maybe the grafted part died away and it reverted back to the original rose. Much to our surprise, it was loaded with clusters of  deep crimson  blooms this year.