Plants in the Hortus

Many of the plants described here were listed in the catalogues of plants published by Sir William Macarthur in 1843, 1845, 1850 and 1857 and in an unpublished catalogue dated 1861. A large number of additional plants were identified from correspondence, gardening notebooks and other documents surviving in the archives. The Hortus attempts to describe all the plants grown in the gardens at Camden Park and those grown in horticultural enterprises such as orchards and vineyards and includes plants grown outside the gardens in the park-like environs of the Camden Park estate. The Hortus plants served a wide range of purposes in the 19th century household; as ornament, living fences, fibre, dyestuffs, medicines, food and drink from the garden, orchard and vineyard and many others.

Rosa bracteata Wendl.

Rosa bracteata is an evergreen climber with leathery, evergreen leaves and neat, single flowers of pure white with prominent yellow stamens, comfortably growing to 4m. [RHSD].

Rosa canina L. var. montezumae Humb. & Bonpl.

This is a summer flowering single rose with deep blush pink flowers, growing to about 2m, and figured by Redouté as ‘Rosier de Montezuma’ in his famous Les Roses.

Rosa centifolia L.

A Centifolia rose. Gore describes the flowers of the ‘Common Cabbage’ as drooping, large, of a beautiful pink, fragrant and full. Paul describes its flowers as rose-coloured, large and globular in form, on a vigorous bush of branching habit. [Paul (1848, 1863, 1888, 1903), Rivers (1854, 1857, 1863), Amat].

Rosa centifolia L. var. albamuscosa

The flowers of the ‘White Moss Rose’ described by Gore as middle-sized, full, white, usually tinged with flesh-colour in the centre before they are fully expanded. It is considered to be a sport of the ‘Common Moss’, first noted in 1788, and does occasionally revert to pink. Rosa centifolia var. albo-muscosa was beautifully illustrated in Willmot.

Rosa centifolia L. var. muscosa

The ‘Common Moss Rose’ is the original mossy sport of R. x centifolia L., first recorded in the 17th century. It is a large sprawling shrub with highly scented, well-mossed, double pink flowers, to 8cm across, very large and full, globular in shape. [Rivers (1854, 1857, 1863,) Paul (1848, 1863, 1888, 1903), Amat]. Gore describes its flowers as full, middle-sized to large, of a light pure pink colour.

Rosa chinensis Jacq.

A vigorous rose it is continually flowering, its crimson buds opening to silvery-pink, loosely-double or semi-double blooms with a delicate scent, usually in clusters, and darkening almost to crimson with age. In my garden it is almost evergreen, never out of flower, and grows comfortably to 2m. I have one bush growing as a low climber against a partly shaded house wall that has grown to more than 3m tall but is now regularly cut to the ground only to vigorously shoot again.

Rosa chinensis Jacq. var. alba

China rose. Catherine Gore describes ‘White Bengal’ as a semi-double China rose, white, sometimes pale pink or flesh coloured. She describes a further 27 varieties of the China Rose with white or whitish flowers.

Rosa chinensis Jacq. var. odorata

Tea rose. A climber with large, sweetly-scented, somewhat globular, semi-double, almost white, creamy-blush flowers in spring. In my garden, although very productive, the flowers tend to blow very quickly. [Paul (1848, 1863, 1888), Gore, Rivers (1854, 1857, 1863)].

Rosa chinensis Jacq. var. odoratissima Lindl.

Tea rose. George Don describes it as having semi-double, sweet-scented rose-coloured flowers.

Rosa chinensis Jacq. var. purpurea

Dark crimson China rose. Don describes Rosa indica purpurea as a garden variety referable either to Rosa indica Jacq. or Rosa semperflorens Curt., which see for further details. The China roses, particularly those derived from Rosa chinensis Jacq., are repeat flowering.

Rosa gallica L.

Rosa gallica ‘Officinalis’ is a spreading shrub with large, highly scented, semi-double red flowers in summer, fading to a purplish colour. It has characteristic rough, finely-toothed leaves, bending down from the midrib, characteristic of the whole Gallica group. [Gore, Paul (1888), Rivers (1854)].

Rosa laevigata Michx.

A vigorous species with large prickles, attractive, glossy, trifoliate dark green leaves and solitary, flat, single, scented white flowers in summer, to 10cm across, with scalloped petals and golden stamens, followed by bristly, orange-red hips. [Gore, Rivers (1854, 1857), Willmot, Don].

Rosa majalis Lindl.

The pale or bright red flowers of the ‘Cinnamon Rose’ are solitary or 2-3 together and borne in the summer. Shrubby, it grows to 2m. [Gore, Willmot]. George Don reported in his General System of Gardening and Botany that double flowered varieties were more common in gardens.

Rosa microphylla Roxb.

Catherine Gore considered Rosa microphylla Roxb. to be related to Rosa bracteata the ‘Macartney Rose’. She describes its flowers as solitary, very double, pale pink, more vivid in the centre.

Rosa moschata ‘Mr. Bidwill’

Presumably a cultivar of Rosa moschata Mill. but I have found no description of this rose in the Macarthur Papers. It is probably one of the seedlings refered to by Macarthur in a letter to Bidwill: ‘Several dozens of seedlings have been raised from your hybrid hips, some of the forwardest of which, (5 or 6 inches high) show evident symptoms of being crossed.’ 25th November, 1845. [MP A2833-2, p.98].

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