A Walk Through The Garden, 2007

Rosa woodsii ultramontana, Rosa woodsii woodsii (a.k.a. fendleri)

North American Native Species

What is a rose which is normally found only above 1600 meters (in Zone 3) doing down here at our paltry 1560m? I have a theory about that.

R. w. ultramontana, also known as the "Mountain Rose" or the "Fragrant Rose," is considered a nuisance plant in the mountains directly west of me. She is regularly plowed over, snowed under, dug up and poisoned, all to no avail. Her hips—a delightful concoction smelling powerfully of strawberry and watermelon—are favorites of birds and deer, and me (they make a marvelous tea).

I found this rose growing in my West Rose Ditch three years ago. Two years before that, we had an abnormally bad fire season (due largely to the idiot who decided to burn his mattress, and the teenagers who decided to set a forest fire because it was fun). Enormous patches of coniferous forest just west of us were lost. Suddenly our lower areas were filled with wildlife we don't normally see. Deer come sometimes, but mountain lions and Stellar's Jays are very rare here indeed. But that summer, we had them all; there was no place else for them to go. No doubt, the deer and the jays brought seeds of this rose with them. I'm thrilled they did, because the "Fragrant Rose" lives up to her name!

I collect roses from everywhere, and some friends of mine who live up at R. w. ultramontana's usual altitude dug up some of their roses for me and brought them down for my garden last year. The leaves were of a slightly different color, but on the whole I was sure it was just a regional variation of ultramontana.

Then, this year, it bloomed. The color was quite different: the buds were a warm pink (Prismacolor "Pink Rose" to be exact) and quite light, whereas my old stand-by's color was deep pink (Prismacolor "Process Red"). Between that and the different, more glaucus color of the second rose's leaves, I began to wonder if I had a different rose. The answer came in an article I found about R. woodsii; the "Fragrant" or "Mountain Rose" had gland-tipped leaves; "Wood's Rose" does not. So, I ripped off a couple of leaves and put them under the microscope. Sure enough, the rose from the mountains was R. woodsii woodsii (formerly called R. fendleri or R. woodsii fendleri). Yahoo! Another native species (or subspecies, in this case) added to my collection!

Before I obtained 'Persian Yellow,' R. w. ultramontana was the first rose to break and bloom in my garden. She still holds her place as the first to go dormant each year, generally by the first of September. In her natural habitat, the growing season is only four months or less, and R. w. ultramontana does everything in a rush; her hips turn orange by the end of June.

Last year both roses bloomed for the first time on 19 May, the birthday of a very dear old friend of mine, a magnificent Thoroughbred Hunter, now departed. Ultramontana bloomed for the first time on this same date last year. I think I will plant one of these on Chewbacca's grave. He did rather like to eat roses. This year (2008) there were no blooms until almost two weeks later, but once they came, they came in profusion. I'm taking pollen from them to hopefully transfer their winter tolerance and delicious fragrance to other roses.

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