Old Cemeteries: Where Roses Keep On Living

Like so many other things, roses often fall victim to changing tastes: a certain variety, or color, or class comes into fashion, and all else is forgotten, sometimes for years and years. The unfashionable varieties may quickly go out of commerce, and disappear for good. But sometimes, if we are lucky, they can be still be found growing near old homes, or in old cemeteries, often surviving in complete neglect, without water, or fertilizer or pruning or any of the cosseting we tend to give the plants in our gardens.

R Fortuniana growing in an old cemetery in Northern California

Recently, we took a trip to an old cemetery located along El Camino Real, the King's Highway connecting Alta California's Spanish missions. I made the trip because I wanted to see an over 100-year old specimen of Devoniensis, a beautiful Tea rose with lovely cream blooms and a strong tea fragrance.

A Tea rose believed to be Devoniensis

How awe-inspiring it was to see such a gorgeous old rose that became a tree taller than I am with a gnarled moss-covered trunk and blooms weeping all the way to the ground.

Looking at these delicate blooms nodding at the graves beneath them I was thinking of the person who planted this rose over a century ago. It was comforting to know that something might endure so long after we are gone.

This cemetery has several other old roses, but one more I was delighted to see is Rosa Fortuniana, a vigorous once-blooming rambler that is often used as an understock for grafting.

This rose has beautifully shaped creamy white blooms with a strong fragrance of violets.

It is a very big rose (it is the one in the first picture) and can be easily grown scrambling up a tree. It would eat my whole house and garden in one gulp, so I dare not grow it, but it is a treat to see it rambling unrestrained and blooming with such abandon.

While rosa fortuniana is well-known and still widely grown, not all found roses can be identified right away. Many of them still only have "study" names, such as a beautiful family of hybrid perpetual roses, 'Grandmother's Hat', 'Larry Daniels' and 'Tina Marie'.

'Grandmother's Hat' (Hybrid Perpetual, found)

Their real identity may be discovered one day, or perhaps they will live on with their study name, appreciated by discerning gardeners for their unique beauty enduring beyond the whims of fashion.