French rose

French rose: how do you recognise it?

Habit

Low, upright shrub about 1 m tall and wide, spreading by suckers.

Stems

Green, with many fine prickles and glandular bristles.

Leaves

Pinnate with 3–7, usually 5 leaflets; dull dark green, firm and slightly rough.

Flower

Single to semi-double, 5–8 cm across, with a ring of yellow stamens; flowers once, in June.

Scent

Strong and sweet, the classic old rose fragrance, which also lasts in dried petals.

Fruit

Round, red to orange-red hips in autumn.

Flowering: June · Harvest and fruit: June–July · Plants: March–April and October–November · Pruning: March and July

Why grow it?

• A historic rose with a wonderful, classic rose scent.
• Bees easily reach the pollen in the open flowers.
• Low and compact: fits in a small garden, a border or as a low informal hedge.
• Tough and hardy, and copes with poor, dry soil better than many modern roses.
• Red hips in autumn if you leave some of the spent flowers.

French rose: where does it grow best?

• Full sun for the most flowers and the fewest diseases.
• Any well-drained soil: sand, loam or clay, acid to chalky; it also tolerates poor soil.
• Dry to moderately moist; it dislikes standing water.
• An open, airy site helps prevent powdery mildew and black spot.
• Plant 80–100 cm apart, or 50–60 cm apart for a low hedge, and allow for suckers.

Light

Sun

Soil type

Sand, loam or clay

Acidity

Not fussy

Moisture

Dry or normal

Size

1 m tall, 1 m wide

Hardiness

Hardy (to -25 °C)

Goes well with

• Catmint: Blue flowers at the base that hide the bare lower stems of the rose.
• Hardy geranium: Flowers for a long time and fills the space between roses.
• Lavender: Purple and silver-grey in the same sunny, dry spot.
• Lady’s mantle: Soft green leaves and froths of yellow-green flowers as an edging at the front.

French rose: when and how to plant it?

Plant in March–April and October–November.

1. Plant in March–April or October–November; bare-root roses preferably in autumn.
2. Soak bare-root roses in a bucket of water for a few hours first.
3. Dig a hole 40 cm deep and wide and mix in compost, but no fresh manure.
4. Set a grafted rose with the graft union 3–5 cm below the soil; a rose on its own roots at the same depth as in the pot.
5. Firm the soil well and water thoroughly straight away.
6. Spread a layer of compost or mulch around the base.

Care

Water

In the first year, a can of water at the base every week in dry weather. After that only in long dry spells, and never over the leaves.

Feeding

In March–April, compost or organic rose fertiliser. Once a year is enough, as it flowers only once.

Mulching

A layer of compost in spring keeps the soil moist and the leaves healthier, as fewer fungal spores splash up.

Suckers

Chop off unwanted suckers with a spade each spring. On a grafted rose, cut off wild shoots from the rootstock.

Spent flowers

Removing them does not bring new flowers. Leave some if you want hips.

Tip: Leave some of the flowers after flowering: that way you get red hips in autumn. To keep it compact, just shorten the flowered side shoots.

French rose: when to prune it?

Pruning months: March and July.

When: Lightly after flowering, in July, and thin out old stems in March. It flowers on last year’s wood and older.

How:

• After flowering, cut flowered side shoots back to 2–3 leaves to keep the shrub in shape.
• In March, remove one or two of the oldest, grey stems at the base.
• Remove dead, diseased and weak stems.
• Do not prune hard in spring: you would lose much of the flowering.

Caution: Wear sturdy gloves: the stems are covered in fine prickles.

Pruning: when and how · Pruning calendar and basic rules

Propagation

Suckers

In late autumn or early spring, dig up a rooted sucker and replant it elsewhere. Only possible with a rose on its own roots.

Hardwood cuttings

In October–November push 20 cm cuttings of this year’s ripe wood two thirds into the ground in a sheltered spot. Transplant after a year.

Seed

Open ripe hips in autumn, sow the seeds in a pot and leave it outside over winter: they need cold to germinate. Seedlings do not always resemble the parent.

French rose: how does it get through the winter?

Hardy to −25 °C.

• Hardy to about −25 °C: in Belgium it needs no protection.
• With a grafted rose you can earth up some soil or compost around the base in a hard winter to protect the graft union.
• In a pot: stand it against a wall and wrap the pot in hessian in severe frost.

Diseases and pests

• Powdery mildew: White powder on leaves and buds, especially in late summer. Water at the base, choose an airy spot and cut off affected parts.
• Black spot: Black spots with a fringed edge and yellowing leaves that drop. Pick up fallen leaves, mulch the soil and never water over the leaves.
• Aphids: On young shoots and buds in May–June. Ladybirds and tits usually deal with them; otherwise hose them off with water.
• Rust: Orange pustules under the leaves. Remove affected leaves and do not put them on the compost heap.

Through the year

• March: Thin out old stems. Give compost or rose fertiliser. Plant.
• April: Plant. Remove suckers.
• May: Buds appear. Watch for aphids.
• June: Flowering with a wonderful scent.
• July: Light pruning after flowering. Watch for powdery mildew.
• August: Water in prolonged drought.
• October: Hips colour up. Plant. Take hardwood cuttings.
• November: Plant. Clear up fallen leaves.

Edible and useful

Flowers (June–July)

Pick the flowers in June and July on a dry morning, when they have just opened fully and smell strongest. Pull off the petals and snip off the white base, which is bitter. The damask rose (like the apothecary’s rose and the cabbage rose) is the classic rosewater rose: for rose petal jelly, syrup, rose sugar, rosewater and in baking.

Storing

Dry the petals in a thin layer on paper somewhere airy and dark and keep them in a closed jar for up to a year. Use fresh petals the same day.

Caution: Only use roses that have not been sprayed: florists’ roses, and often garden-centre ones too, are treated. Let new plants grow for a season first. People allergic to roses or with hay fever may react to the pollen: use only the petals.

Eating and using is at your own risk: see the terms of use.

Recipes

• Rose petal syrup (Syrup · ± 500 ml · 20 min + overnight steeping)
• Rose petal jelly (Jelly · ± 3 small jars · 30 min + 1 hr steeping)
• Rosewater for the skin (Skin and body care · ± 250 ml · 30 min)

Good for wildlife

Bees

Nectar and pollen for honeybees and wild bees.

Did you know?

• ‘Officinalis’ is often regarded as the red rose of the English House of Lancaster in the Wars of the Roses.
• Around the French town of Provins this rose was grown for centuries for its fragrant petals, which is why it is also called the Provins rose.
• Because the scent lasts in dried petals, they have long been used in potpourri.