nature

Rose Portrait: Commandant Beaurepaire

/ Heyjude / 4 Comments

Commandant Beaurepaire 2An old rose (Bourbons) with large double, fragrant light-pink flowers striped and flecked with deep-pink, purple and scarlet.

This Bourbon rose is named for Nicholas Joseph Beaurepaire, a retired colonel in the French army who, after the Revolution and on the invasion of France by Prussia and Austria, was called to defend the town of Verdun with a few hundred untrained conscripts against 60,000 Prussians. Refusing all calls to surrender, even from the town council and his own officers, the Commandant declared “I prefer death to life under despots” and promptly shot himself.

Verdun surrendered, but Beaurepaire became a national hero. This glorious striped rose was dedicated to him in 1874 after another war with Prussia left France in need of her heroes.

Rose Portrait: Complicata

/ Heyjude / 1 Comment

This is one of the finest single roses. It is probably a hybrid of a Gallica Rose and R. canina, although it is very much a wild rose in character. R. ‘Complicata’ bears large, single flowers, about five inches across, of brilliant pure rose-pink, paling to white at the centre.

Rose Complicata watercolour

Rose Portrait: Graham Thomas

/ Heyjude / 1 Comment

Another double flowering English Rose from David Austin. Their colour is an unusually rich, pure yellow. There is a medium-strong, fresh tea rose fragrance, with a cool violet character typical of its colour group.

Graham Stuart Thomas OBE (3 April 1909 – 17 April 2003), was an English horticulturalist and garden designer, best known for his work with garden roses, his restoration and stewardship of over 100 National Trust gardens and for writing 19 books on gardening, many of which remain classics today. It is Mottisfont Abbey – a creation that he himself described as a “masterpiece” – where his rose collection found its final home, and where his garden design skills can be best appreciated.

Graham Thomas
Graham Thomas roses
A Graham Thomas Rose