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'Natal Briar' rose Reviews & Comments
Discussion id : 20-655
most recent 31 JUL 07 HIDE POSTS
 
Initial post 31 JUL 07 by Cass
This is from Ludwig Taschner of Ludwig's Rose Farm in South Africa:

One can safely accept that Natal Briar is a self seedling of Rosa multiflora and a Damask. It is known for a good 100 years to be growing wild in the coastal sub tropical climate of the Natal Province at the Indian Ocean.

It has been used as a rootstock in that region for a long time, and plants budded on it and growing in that region have more vigour and longevity than those on the commonly used clone of R multiflora Brooks’48. I had Jack Harkness and David Austin looking at it when visiting South Africa, and they agreed that it has to be a self seedling that just liked the warm, humid climate.

In the 1960's Dr Patricia Klesser headed the Virology Department of the Horticultural Research Institute in Pretoria, and she added Roses to her field. I believe that she was the first to carry out successful heat treatment to clean virus out of infected roses. She collected all the root stocks used in South Africa at the time, about 28 types, mostly multiflora clones from Dr Brooks and Dr Basye of Texas, but also the one from Natal which she then recorded as Natal Briar for want of a better name. In the eighties some rootstock of this was send by the Institute to Australia, and from there it came to Holland.

The winter performance in heated greenhouses of plants top-grafted onto Natal Briar was a vast improvement to plants on conventional rootstock or own roots, and from then on it became the most sought after rootstock for warm climates and heated greenhouse production. Millions of hardwood cuttings where shipped from SA to the Netherlands in those years. Plants went from Holland to all rose growing regions of the world. It suckers considerably and soon fields of them were growing in Colombia, Ecuador, Zimbabwe and Kenya.

I saw many plants growing wild on the island of Mauritius which has a similar climate, and I am sure that it must be growing wild in India since there has been a heavy traffic between our two countries for the past century.

It is very frost sensitive. This winter we had a few cold nights with minus 4°C for a few hours in the morning. The exposed arching canes all showed frost damage a few days later. The cambium layer was brown right down to the wood. A field of Brooks’48 rootstock was fine, and flowering rose bushes next to it had the flowers burned but no further damage.

If left alone in warm climates it becomes huge 5m (15’) high and 10 m (30’) wide. Cut back every year it makes 10 feet long canes. It flowers on the old wood in spring time with 2 inch diameter, double blooms of a light pink colour. I have never seen any hips on them.
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