Trees & Shrubs of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

There are six species of wild perennial rose on the current Garden Census. Details of each are given in comparison chart referenced below. Smooth Rose will be frequently encountered.

Stems: It grows erect, 1 to 3+ feet high, with little branching and mostly without thorns, except on the bases on old stems - which is where the name "smooth rose" comes from.

Leaves are pinnate with 5 to 9 (usually 7) elliptic to ovate leaflets with coarse teeth. Larger leaves on new growth can have an extra pair of smaller leaflets below the other leaflets. Teeth do not go all the way to the base of the leaf. Each leaflet has either a very short stalk or no stalk but the terminal leaflet has a longer stalk. The leaf has a stipule, with two elongated flaring teeth, at the base where it joins the stem. The stipule, particularly the margin, and lower leaf stalk may have glandular hair.

Flowers appear on branches of new wood from last years side branch buds, either as solitary flowers or in a cluster of up to 5 (a corymb) at the tip of the new branch. The central bud of a cluster opens first. The hypanthium is ovoid or globose with 5 long-pointed sepals which usually have stipitate-glandular hair on the outside surface. The flowers are 1-1/2 to 2-1/3 inches wide when open and have very short pedicels (stalks). The 5 petals are pink with streaks of darker color. In the center of the 5 petals there are numerous stamens with white filaments and yellow anthers surrounding a short, but wide column of yellow to orange pistils rising from 32 to 55 carpels. The sepals persist on the rose hip and become erect once the petals fall.

Seed: The flowers mature into a round reddish rose hip containing a number of achenes (the seeds). Wild Rose seeds should be sown outside in the Fall. They will germinate in the 2nd year as they need a cold moist period followed by a warm moist period followed by another cold moist period. If seed has been stored for the proper sequence of periods then it should be scarified before planting. Fall planted fresh seeds should not be scarified. While seed is cheap, bare root plants are usually available from native plant nurseries.

Habitat: Smooth Rose grows from a crown, preferring full sun in meadows, prairies and dry hillsides. There is some variation in the species in flower size, color, and the amount of prickles; also a number of roses that were once classed as separate varieties of this species have been consolidated into this species allowing for significant variation between plants.

Names: The genus Rosa, is from the Latin for 'rose'. The species name blanda, is from the Latin blandus which has meanings such as 'mild' and charming', and refers here to the lovely flower of this species. The author name for the plant classification, of 1789, - ‘Aiton.’ - is for William Aiton (1731-1793, Scottish botanist, succeeded Philip Miller as superintendent of the Chelsea Physic Garden and then became director of Kew Gardens, where he published Hortus Kewensis, the Garden’s catalogue of plants.

Comparisons: This species has many of the characteristics of several other wild roses. See this comparison chart of the six species of wild rose in the Garden.