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HEIRLOOM ROSES
 
By Grace Fedor
 
The Stone House in Liberty Park now has Old Roses growing around it.
 
In the back yard around the edge of the patio we have a hedge of pink June blooming roses that came from the Harry Post Farm, a mile north on Liberty Road, donated by Steve and Beth Markusic, the current owners of the farm.
            In front of the house we have two climbing roses, one of which originally came from Marion Peterson’s home on Darrow Road via Elsie Peel (the roses would have been destroyed when a sidewalk was installed across the front of the yard). Marion was the great-granddaughter of Luman Lane, one of the first settlers of Twinsburg. Her grandmother, I was told, probably planted the rose bush. It has white to pale pink blossoms, maybe descended from the Alba English roses, which are mostly disease free, very winter hardy and wonderfully fragrant.
            The other climber is from the old Burridge home on Ravenna Road, also rescued by Elsie Peel after the home was demolished to make way for new development. Elsie was told by a visiting Englishman that it is an English rose.
            There is a book, entitled 100 Old Roses for the American Garden, by Clair G. Martin, which is available at the Twinsburg Public Library. The book defines the term “old roses” and traces them back hundreds of years to England, France, the Netherlands, and China. The main ones being:
 
  • Gallica (French):  Among the most ancient.
  • Damask:  Almost as old as Gallica – the crusaders probably brought them back from the Holy Land.
  • Alba:  See them illustrated in Renaissance paintings.
  • Centifolia:  Or cabbage roses from 17th century France or Holland, possibly a cross between Damask and Alba.
  • Moss:  Mutation of Centifolia in the 17th century.
  • China:  Appeared in European gardens between the middle of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century. These were the first rebloomers; the former were only spring-blooming.
  • Tea: With pointed buds. Originally called the Tea Scented China Roses.
 
The book lists mail order sources for Old Roses and botanical gardens throughout the country where these roses may be seen as well as Old Roses organizations and publications.