In a way, Gertrude was right, since all roses are from one huge plant clan, Rosaceae, and most share the essential floral characteristic of having five petals (or a multiple of five), though some species have four or six. Most have thorns, few are even vaguely evergreen some have huge flowers, some tiny ones, some have a perfume to knock you down, some none at all; they come in a huge range of colours, (though REAL blue is genetically impossible), and rose bushes vary in size from a few inches high to ones that can climb many yards into large trees.
There is also a sense in which Ms Stein was quite wrong: not all roses are “called” Rosa. Peter Beales’ wonderfully encyclopædic book “Classic Roses” (easily obtainable second-hand for a few pounds) lists four sub-genii (!) within “Rosa” with exotic-sounding names like Cassiorhodon, Platyrhodon and Hesperhodos, while the breeding, crossing and selection of cultivated forms, all derived from species roses, has been going on for something like a thousand years. It is notable that, when trying to discover the ancestry of a particular rose, especially an old variety, such phrases as one parent plant being an “unknown seedling” are frequently encountered.
Nowadays such matters are very well organised, new roses are strictly licensed, and their breeders’ rights rightly protected. Rose growers are still indefatigable in their search for the perfect bloom, the powerful scent, the vigorous growth habit, the disease resistance, the repeat flowering, and other desirable attributes. Plant genetics being the complicated business it is, these will probably never come together in one plant, and in any case what many a rose fancier may find desirable (the perfectly shaped scarlet hybrid tea variety, for example) may not appeal to another plant lover: I much prefer the loosely-organised, full blooms of old rose forms such as the hybrid perpetuals, which were very popular from the mid-nineteenth century, to the more starchily organised modern hybrid teas or floribundas in their almost plastic perfection, often achieved at the expense of any elegance in the bush itself, and, even more importantly for me, at the expense of any scent – if a rose is within “nose reach” and yet has no scent, it has, for me, no point.
With so many hundreds, even thousands of roses to choose from, it is almost invidious to advise on which ones to buy. For ease of growing the rugosa roses are pretty unbeatable, with “Roseraie de l’Haÿ” being a wonderfully vigorous rich pink one (mine grew to eight feet, so I cut it down by half this spring, and it’s growing away like mad already), and the white form R. rugosa alba, though it takes a few years to settle, is as strong-growing as any. Rugosas make excellent (and very thorny) hedges, and cope with very rough “chainsaw” pruning if necessary.
I don’t have room in my garden for many climbers, but recommend “Climbing Étoile d’Hollande” highly – it’s a lovely dark red semi-double with good scent, and this year is already in flower (writing about roses in May could seem a little premature, since they’re “supposed” mainly to flower from June onwards, but this year mine had its first flower open on April 25th). Another excellent climber is “Crème de la Crème” (cream-yellow), and somehow I have found room for two ramblers “Alister Stella Gray” (pale yellow clusters) and “Wickwar” (a small-flowered white with attractive grey-green foliage).
Of smaller bushes try “Gabriel Oak” or “Munstead Wood”, both richly red and richly scented, both from the wonderful David Austin range. I also grow his “Gertrude Jekyll”, which has two forms, a bush and a climber, both very good doers, with scented flowers of a splendidly blowsy pink. In my small plot I mainly grow repeat-flowering roses, but could not resist “Fantin-Latour” and “Isfahan”, two old, pink, deliciously-scented roses, once-flowering around midsummer. If scent matters to you as much as it does to me, try to find a place for one or both of these two grand old French ladies: “Madame Isaac Pereire” (pink) and “Madame Pierre Oger” (white) – the French know about perfume …
At the other extreme, why not grow the extraordinary Rosa cymosa “Rebecca Rushforth”, a Chinese rose which has no scent (it’s in a part of my garden that my nose cannot reach), tiny white flowers in clusters that barely look like roses at all, and lovely dark red young foliage – it also scrambles to 10 metres or so – mine is taking over a tree, a fence and a wall as I write.
That’s the trouble with roses: once you start, you don’t know how to stop, and neither do they.
Three further points: few roses enjoy a situation that gets less than six hours’ sun per day, most like a good feed now and again (horse manure always acceptable, if well rotted), and roses are NOT difficult to prune - they’re very difficult to kill. As usual, the RHS web-site has excellent advice: rhs.org.uk/plants/roses/pruning-guide
Lastly, three suppliers if you can’t find a variety locally:
David Austin Roses [not least for his own range of “English Roses”]: davidaustinroses.co.uk
Peter Beales [an unrivalled selection of roses old and new]: peterbealesroses.com
Trevor White [if you love old roses and good value]: trevorwhiteroses.co.uk