73 Old Roses: Damask Roses.
Description
This article is from the Rose Gardening FAQ, by Bill Chandler chandler@austin.ibm.com, Jolene Adams jolene@cchem.berkeley.edu, Brent C. Dickerson odinthor@csulf.edu, Karen Baldwin kbaldwin@veribest.com, and many contributors
73 Old Roses: Damask Roses.
Damask Roses are supposed to be from a hybridization between R. gallica
and R. phoenicia which occurred in Asia Minor and became distributed
throughout Syria and the Near East and Middle East generally. The
Crusaders--according to tradition--brought it back to Europe from
Damascus (hence the name) in 1254. However, there is a most daunting
and seemingly impenetrable fog around R. damascena. References can be
found to "the common Damask" as late as the 1820's, and yet what an
author is referring to by this term remains elusive. It indeed
frequently seems that "the Common Damask" is rather a Damask Perpetual!
Worse, cultivars which we today consider as defining the group--`Leda',
perhaps, and 'Mme. Hardy'--seem to have been hybrids. 'Celsiana', a
most beautiful and popular rose, is possibly "typical" Damask; and yet,
even it has its mystery (current research seems to indicate that the
"pre-1750" date usually put forward is whimsical). Even 'York and
Lancaster', frequently considered to be a sport of the original (red?)
Damask, is supposed by one authority to be an Alba on the basis of a
sporting back to something like the Alba 'Semiplena'! The cultivar used
for the rose oil industry in Bulgaria, `Trigintipetala', supposedly a
long-ago import from Turkey, is perhaps dependably R. damascena . . . .
That said, characteristics associated with our concept of what a Damask
should look like are: upright frequently arching canes, grayish-green
somewhat rugose somewhat hirsute leaves, large fragrant blossoms in
few-flowered clusters, delicate in appearance, and ranging in color
from white to deep pink depending on the cultivar. 'Ville de
Bruxelles', `Celsiana', `Mme. Hardy', 'Mme. Zoetmans', 'Kazanlyk'.
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