Trees and Shrubs

A division of the Camden Park catalogues that is not clearly defined. In broad terms it includes all plants with woody stems except conifers and fruit trees and shrubs.

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].

Rosa moschata ‘Superba’

This plant has not been positively identified. It could be R. moschata ‘Plena’, in cultivation prior to 1596, however Catherine Gore and Thomas Rivers [1854] list a number of musk roses that could fit the description superba. See Rosa moschata Mill. for further reference to Rosa moschata.

Rosa moschata Mill.

Rosa moschata Mill. is the herbalist’s rose, described consistently from John Gerard (1597) to Redouté (1817-1824) as an autumn-flowering rose. Nurserymen of the time listed it for its autumn-flowering characteristics. Most notable for us is Thomas Rivers, who, in an article in The Gardeners’ Chronicle of 1843, included it in his autumnal garden. It is a vigorous climber, reaching to 10m or more, with loose clusters of musk-scented, usually single, pure white flowers, displaying yellow stamens, from mid to late summer into autumn. The flowers are followed by small, orange-red hips. [Rivers (1854, 1857, 1863), Gore, Willmot, Paul (1848, 1888)].

Rosa multiflora Thunb. alba

This rose may be synonymous with the variety Thunbergiana described by George Don. The flowers of Rosa multiflora alba are not pure white but a pale flesh colour. Paul describes them as creamy white, small and very double. [Paul (1848, 1863, 1888)]. Rivers describes it as pretty and distinct. [Rivers (1854, 1857, (1863)].

Rosa multiflora Thunb. var. rubra

The Gardeners’ Chronicle of 1841 describes Rosa multiflora rubra growing at Woods and Son’s Nursery at Marsfield as a small, compact bush with rose-coloured flowers, clearly a dwarf form. While possible that both of the ‘multiflora’ roses in the catalogues are dwarf roses, white and pink in colour, they are more likely to be climbers. [See the note on Shepherd’s Nursery in Rosa multiflora Thunb. var. alba].

Rosa odorata Jacq. var. ochroleuca

Probably the rose generally known as Park's yellow tea-scented China. A Tea rose. A spring-flowering climber with red young stems and leaves and sulphur-yellow flowers with an occasional pink flush, large, double and globular in form, with very large petals, the buds long and beautiful in a half expanded state.

Rosa rubiginosa ‘Superb’

The identification of this rose is uncertain. Perhaps the most likely candidate is ‘Superb’, a Rosa rubiginosa, sweet briar cultivar described by William Paul in the first edition of The Rose Garden. Paul describes ‘Superb’ as a robust grower with bright rose-coloured, full and cupped flowers. [Paul 1848]. Click here to see the entry for Rosa rubiginosa L.

Rosa rubiginosa L.

It forms a shrub growing to 2m or more, very branched, the leaves sweetly scented when bruised, the flowers single, usually solitary or 2 or 3 together, pale pink and cup-shaped, borne in summer. [FNSW, Paul (1848, 1888), Gore, Rivers (1854), Don, Willmot].

Rosa rugosa Thunb.

Catherine Gore lists Rosa Ferox, the rose figured by Lawrence. It has large, single red flowers.

Notice