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'Will Scarlet' rose Reviews & Comments
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Trying to track down an ID: Does anyone know if this rose was ever available in Australia? I have a rose that looks very much like it. It was used as an understock and appeared after the top died off. Mine is extremely thorny. Was this rose ever used as an understock?
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Have you looked at Dr Huey, Simon? It's favoured as an understock for alkaline soils and dry conditions, eg the Adelaide plains.
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It's not 'Dr Huey'. This one repeat flowers. I was thinking (hoping) at one stage that it may have been 'Gloire des Rosomanes' but the flowers come out more pink than red. I'll take some better photos tomorrow of the various diagnostic features. I've had this rose for about 15 years now and recently moved it from the NSW Central Coast down to NW Tasmania when we bought this place. I don't remember where the original one came from or what was budded onto it ... this rose has the honour of being the most difficult rose in my garden to weed in and around because the thorns are so bad. It doesn't form OP hips that I've ever noticed before. There is a photo on page 630 in Botanica of 'Will Scarlet' that I keep coming back to because the similarity is striking. I only wish I could see more diagnostic features. This photo (below) is a poor one because it was the last bunch of flowers during winter and is much smaller than normal and you can't see anything else. It gets black spot quite badly. The flowers often have white stripes on them.
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I have an eleven year old 'Will scarlet' on its own roots. Provenance Zephyr Brook, W.A., bed 7, site 30. My bush has probably a few more than the normal supply of thorns, but for 10 inches below the cluster, it is completely smooth and thorn free.
I believe 'Will Scarlet' first came into Australia in November 1965 but only received two mentions in the Australian Rose Annual - once in 1989 and again in 2000.
I have never investigated this rose so don't know whether it was ever widely used as a rootstock or not, but I would say it seems unlikely. However, gardeners (and some nurserymen) are go-ers. "Let's have a go at that or this". And they might have had a go at using 'Will Scarlet' as an understock. I once knew a gardener who had a go at using 'Queen Elizabeth' as an understock and she gave me lots of foundlings that she had budded. Trouble was, she wasn't a very good budder and I had a wonderful forest of 'Queen Elizabeth' at one time.
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I wouldn't mind a forest of 'Queen Elizabeth' :)
Patricia, I don't remember much about the original rose that was budded onto it, except that it was purchased as a bare root rose from a nursery on the NSW Central Coast and the top died off, resprouting as this.
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Yes, there are some surprises out there. I thought no-one was using R indica major as an understock here any more, but one of Bxxxings' backyard growers does, judging by what's come up in the middle of my Apricot Nectar.
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Here are some better images:
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