Is it possible to have a discussion about roses and mildew without talking about Dorothy Perkins?
Just over a century ago Jackson and Perkins introduced the wichurana hybrid
Dorothy Perkins. It was a vigorous - almost rampant - climber that gladly clambered up over arches and pergolas and produced acres and acres of light pink flowers. People designed whole gardens around it, erecting rustic wooden structures just to give Dorothy Perkins a place to live. Inside of about a decade
Dorothy Perkins had transformed how people thought about rose gardening. Beds were out. Pergolas were in. Jackson and Perkins sold millions of plants. Everyone was fat and happy.
Then mildew struck. In a short period of time virtually every Dorothy Perkins harbored the blight. Plants shriveled up, looked ugly, died. The pergolas aged and started falling apart. People throughout the anglophone world angrily tore down the pergolas and tore out the roses. Instead they planted pansies or marigolds or else they just laid down sod. That was pretty much the end of the artful use of rambling roses in the garden in the US. In Britain the story was similar but a little less exaggerated. Roses such as Chaplin's Pink and Albertine still arch high over many thousands of British gardens. A number of Barbier's wichurana ramblers are in distribution in the US. Then there is New Dawn, not quite a rambler, but often as big as one and enriched with wichurana genes.
In the intervening century more robust roses have been introduced such as Super Dorothy. And the popularity of rambling roses that were more mildew resistant has grown slowly. Lots of roses have been bred from the tough wichurana climber New Dawn. And there has been some small interest within the rose growing community in other good old climbers and ramblers. Smart people who understand the great decorative advantages that ramblers can bring to the garden - such as Zuzu - have been undeterred by the trend of eschewing climbers, using them generously to decorate their gardens. Perhaps it is wishful thinking or projection on my part, but I seen climbing roses playing an increasing role in the garden.
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P.S. There are many things we can learn from the story of the rise and fall of Dorothy Perkins, but the one I think about first is the danger of monoculture and its built-in susceptibility to blight. See also the Irish potato famine.
PPS. It's never been clear to me why it was Dorothy Perkins that stole the show. Even at the time of Dorothy's popularity there were a lot of other good wichurana ramblers. And a lot of good multifllora ramblers, too. The ARS rates a number of ramblers more highly than Dorothy Perkins.
Newport Fairy, for example, has an ARS rating or 8.6 vs. Dorothy's 7.4.
PPPS. I guess we need to better understand how to control mildew in our gardens. Overhead pressure washes with a little soap and a light potassium bicarbonate rinse starting at 10:00 AM, blow dry at 11:00?
