Unlike many of its compatriots, R.palustris proves itself a worthy display year round. Its foliage is medium-green. During the summer, it blooms continuously with mild fragranced, single petaled, and violet colored flowers. The red hips it sets are a sight to behold. A species rose worthy of precious real-estate in PNW gardens.

Reply to this comment

The Latin scientific name means "Rose Swamp;" of course, Swamp Rose in English with the adjective first and then the noun; the opposite of Latin and such languages. It has a large native range from Nova Scotia through southern Ontario into Minnesota down to Louisiana to Florida in bogs, swamps, and wetlands in organic, acid soils. It can be grown in regular landscape situations with moist, well-drained soil that can be slightly alkaline. It has compound leaves of 5 to 9 leaflets, usually 7, about to 2.5 inches long and with the leaflet pointed at each end. The fragrant, pink flowers about 2 inches wide bloom in June and July. The pea-sized red hips (rose fruit) are about 1/2 inch long. It makes a lovely shrub rose that tends to suffer less than many cultivated roses from various insect and fungi problems, and it should be resistant to the new rose virus disease of Rose Rosette Disease that seems to be native of North America. Some native plant nurseries sell Swamp Rose.

Reply to this comment

Noted by Antique Rose Emporium:
"Architecturally beautiful at all times of the year, the Swamp Rose has graceful, arching, and nearly thornless branches with narrow, willow-like leaves. This is a native American rose, growing across the South and East in moist, swampy ground. Its ability to grow in poorly drained soil as well as in normal garden conditions make it an anomaly among roses, but very versatile in the landscape. No plant could be more beautiful weeping into a stream or reflecting pond. The flowers appear in late spring, after most species have finished blooming. They are vivid pink, double, and very showy. Redout painted this rose in the garden of Empress Josephine of France."

Reply to this comment