AT FIRST glance the Chestnut Rose might be mistaken for something other than a rose. A curious shrub with fine pinate foliage almost too nice for a rose and thorny fruit resembling a small chestnut, it has quite a malevolent appearance. It first reached the west early in the 19th century via Calcutta Botanic Garden, having been brought there from China where it had long been cultivated. There is a certain eastern look of charm and elegance to it, the sort of thing that might have appeared as decoration on porcelain or on a screen.
The shrub sports destructive brown stems which peel as they age and the growth is stiff and angular, with the branches twisting noticeably forming elbows as they grow. Like virtually all roses, it is armed with thorns but in a most unusual fashion, the barbs are turned upwards - the opposite to that which we are accustomed. The average growth is about four to five feet in height and spread. The single flowered form of the plant has pink blooms about four inches wide and this is the plant which then produces the chestnut like hips. As these age, they swell to an inch or more, remaining green and drawing comment from the puzzled observer.
This form is properly called Rosa roxburghii normalis. I like it and even in bare winter it has an unmistakable individuality. As a flowering plant the double flowered form R. roxhurghii plena is much superior; however, its fruit does not develop the chestnut or burred characteristic. Here, the flower is a real delight - rich rosy pink opening flat and full, showing white veining and with as many packed petals as any old rose. And it is old, and it looks it, with an air of oriental sophistication. In general it is well behaved and healthy, and given a warm place it performs well, flowering with a good flush after mid summer and then continuing to produce blooms into autumn. It is supposed to have a slight scent but I must admit I am not especially assailed by it. However, that is not something I could condemn it for. In a garden of antique flowers it makes a handsome embellishment.
A rose of Chinese ancestry which deserves to be widely known is Mermaid. This has a reputation for tenderness and so should be of more interest to those gardening in milder parts. I know it can survive average winters in most parts of the country and so it may be worth a gamble on a warm wall where I will get big - up to 20 or more feet in height. The foliage is a rich glossy dark green and the flowers are single, a delightful soft lemon yellow with a distinctive large cluster of orange yellow stamens. There is a disarming elegance and simplicity to the large flowers which are about four inches across. Blooming starts after mid summer and goes on into autumn. The later flowers are generally considered to be of superior quality.
Not having a wall on which to try this temptress, I sought to make it grow into a tree. A severe winter put paid to that short experiment but gardeners in more sheltered and less frosty areas might like to have a go. I once saw it as a great sprawling bush scrambling into a tree, and quite an eye catcher it was too. There is one note of warning - Mermaid is an especially thorny customer, but that will not put the adventurous off. The books say it will not mind a north facing wall so that provides another option in less cold gardens. Never having seen it in such a situation, I might question just how well it would do.
While the Chestnut Rose in single or double flowered forms may not be widely available, Mermaid should be much easier to get hold of. I sometimes think that it would be worth while building a wall just for such delights.