Shakespeare famously penned, ‘that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.’ He could have used any other flower to make his point, but he chose rose because he knew it would evoke a familiar sensory experience in his 16th Century audience. So it is true today – the rose is one of the most recognized flowers and floral scents in the world and has been since ancient Greek and Roman times. As both a cut flower (especially on Valentine’s Day) and garden plant, roses are big sellers. The drawback for Prairie gardeners in the early days was a lack of cold hardiness and repeat blooming. And roses can be particularly susceptible to leaf diseases, especially in wet years.
Early Prairie rose breeders like Percy Wright, George Bugnet and Frank Skinner made important hardy rose introductions, some of which are still available. However, the better-known Canadian hardy roses came from two Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC; then Dominion Department of Agriculture) breeding programs that produced the Parkland Series (e.g. ‘Morden Fireglow’, ‘Winnipeg Parks’) and the Explorer Series (e.g. ‘John Cabot’, ‘John Franklin’, etc.). The goal of AAFC’s program was to develop hardy, long-blooming and disease resistant climbing and bush roses that resembled tender European hybrid tea and floribunda roses. The Parkland roses were especially adapted for life on the Prairies, while the Explorer roses were better suited for hot, humid Central Canada (i.e. ON and QC); there were several cultivars that would survive in both regions.
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