In short
- The asset here is the foliage - glaucous grey-green with a purple bloom, decorative all season long; the flowers last barely a fortnight.
- Flowers once a season (June-July), with single, five-petalled blooms 2.5-4 cm across.
- Do not deadhead - otherwise no dark red hips will set, and they are ornamental through autumn and much of winter.
- Minimal pruning: it flowers on stems from previous seasons, so it is not pruned like a hybrid tea rose.
- Very hardy, tolerant of a wide range of soils and drought-loving - it grows even on chalky ground, and once established needs practically no watering.
Botanical data
- Family
- Rosaceae (Rosaceae)
- Height
- 1.5–2.5 m
- Width
- 1.5–2.5 m
- Habit
- Spreading
- Growth rate
- Moderate
- Position
- Full sun, Partial shade
- Soil
- Sandy, Loamy, Humus-rich, Chalky
- pH reaction
- pH 5.5–7.5
- Moisture
- Dry, Moderate
- Bloom
- June–July
- Hardiness
- USDA 3a–8b
- Propagation
- From seed, From cuttings
Characteristics
A shrub with arching, red-brown stems covered with a glaucous, waxy bloom, usually reaching 1.5-2.5 m in height and roughly as much in width. The stems are only sparsely prickled: the prickles are small, few and slightly curved, which makes the shrub far more comfortable to handle than most garden roses. The leaves are 5-10 cm long and made up of 5-9 oval leaflets with simply toothed margins; their colour is a glaucous grey-green ground overlaid with a coppery-purple bloom, and the intensity of the purple depends on the position - in full sun the leaves are distinctly purple, in part shade more blue-grey, in deep shade simply green. In autumn the foliage turns shades of orange. The flowers are single, made up of five petals, small (2.5-4 cm across), clear pink with a pale, almost white centre and a fan of yellow stamens, borne several together in loose clusters. Flowering is once-only - usually in June, in cooler regions at the turn of June and July - and is not repeated for the rest of the season. The petals are loosely held and drop after a few days under wind, rain or even a jet of water from a hose. The scent of the flowers is faint - botanical descriptions call them slightly fragrant - and is not one of the species' assets: this rose is not planted for its perfume. After flowering, rounded hips 10-15 mm across are set and ripen to a dark red; they colour from August, and those the birds do not eat stay on the stems through autumn and much of winter. The species is exceptionally hardy (RHS rating H7, that is below −20 °C) and undemanding as to soil: it grows on sandy, loamy and chalky ground with a reaction from acid to alkaline, provided it is free-draining. It tolerates dry soil and, once established, long rainless spells, but it will not put up with standing water. It also tolerates part shade and north-facing positions, but then flowers less freely, sets fewer hips and loses the intensity of its purple. It is propagated from seed (after stratification) and from hardwood cuttings, so nursery stock is usually grown on its own roots - which does away with the problem of suckers pushing up from below the bud union, typical of the highly bred garden roses.
Growing and care
Watering
The figures given apply to the first two or three seasons after planting and to prolonged droughts - and even then the shrub is watered infrequently but generously. Once rooted in, it grows in the open ground practically without watering. It will not tolerate permanently wet ground or standing water.
Fertilizing
The species grows well on poor soils and does not need a feeding programme like the highly bred garden roses. Heavy nitrogen feeding produces lush, soft growth prone to mildew and improves neither flowering nor fruiting.
Planting
Free-draining soil of any reaction - from acid to chalky. A sunny position gives the best leaf colour and the heaviest crop of hips; part shade is tolerated at the cost of flowering and colour. Bare-root plants should be planted in the leafless season.
Pruning
It flowers on stems that grew in previous seasons, so not all the stems are shortened. One or two of the oldest, bare stems are cut out at ground level and the rest left untouched, and dead and broken stems are removed.
Companion plants
Good companions
Niebieskofioletowe kwiaty i szarozielone liście kocimiętki podbijają sinopurpurowe ulistnienie róży, a obie rośliny mają te same wymagania: słońce oraz przepuszczalną, raczej suchą glebę.
Srebrzyste pędy perowskii rozjaśniają ciemną plamę liści róży i znoszą to samo suche, słoneczne stanowisko.
Żółte i pomarańczowe odmiany krwawnika tworzą z sinopurpurowym ulistnieniem najmocniejszy kontrast barwny, przy zbliżonych wymaganiach glebowych.
Bad companions
Sadzone bezpośrednio obok znoszą cały efekt: dwie ciemne plamy zlewają się w jedną, a kolor liści róży przestaje być czytelny.
W cieniu liście tracą purpurę na rzecz zieleni, krzew słabiej kwitnie i zawiązuje mniej owoców, a konkurencja korzeniowa dodatkowo go osłabia.
The evidence level indicates whether the relationship is backed by research, observation, or gardening tradition.
Diseases and pests
Black to dark-brown spots with ragged margins on rose leaves, surrounded by yellowing of the leaf blade. Infected leaves drop in large numbers, weakening the plant and reducing flowering. The disease intensifies in wet seasons and where air circulation is poor. The spots are usually round, from a few millimetres to about 1-1.5 cm across, and their most important diagnostic feature is the radially fringed, feathery margin - the mycelium spreads beneath the leaf cuticle in all directions, producing the characteristic 'star-shaped' edge (hence the German name Sternrußtau). Under heavy infection the spots merge into larger, irregular patches, and the surrounding yellowing spreads across more and more of the blade until the whole leaf turns yellow and drops. Small, dark conidial fruiting bodies (acervuli) appear on the upper surface of the spots, while the underside of the leaf remains free of any coating. Symptoms appear first on the lower, oldest leaves and gradually move up the shrub, because the spores are carried by water splashing up from the soil and from lower leaves. Small, purplish-red discolorations and blotches may appear on young, green shoots. Prolonged wetting of the leaves for several hours is required for the spores to germinate and infect, which is why the disease breaks out after warm, rainy spells. Repeated defoliation exhausts the shrub, limits flowering and worsens winter hardiness.
RustRusty-orange to brown, powdery clusters of spores on the underside of leaves, matched on the upper side by yellow spots. Heavily infected leaves turn yellow and drop prematurely, and the plant weakens. It affects roses and mallows among others, and some rusts have an alternate host (for example pear rust and juniper). The pustules (clusters of summer spores, the so-called uredinia) break through the leaf skin and release an orange-rust powder that rubs off onto the finger - this is the most reliable identifying feature. In high summer they appear mainly on the underside of the blade, along the veins and on the leaf stalks, and in some species also on green shoots and sepals. In late autumn the clusters darken to brownish-black - these are the overwintering spores (telia) by which the fungus survives winter on plant debris. Rusts are highly host-specific: a given rust usually infects only one species or genus of host, which is why the rusts of rose, mallow and marsh mallow, bean, leek and garlic, mint, pelargonium or lawn are different, non-interchangeable fungi. The general symptom - yellowing and premature leaf drop - weakens the plant and limits flowering and yield, though it rarely kills it within a single season.
Powdery mildewA white, powdery coating on leaves, shoots and buds. The leaves turn yellow, become deformed and drop prematurely. The coating develops on both sides of the leaf blade, is often clearly visible from above, and can easily be rubbed off with a finger — it is the superficial mycelium of an ectoparasite that draws nutrients from the epidermal cells by means of feeding structures (haustoria). At first single, round, white spots appear, which in time merge and cover the entire leaf surface and the young growth. Young leaves and the current season's shoots are the most susceptible; heavy infection causes them to pucker, stiffen and stop growing, and on buds it leads to deformation or death of the flowers. On the fruit of some species (gooseberry, apple, cucurbits) the coating leaves russeting or a corky skin. Towards the end of the season, small, dark fruiting bodies (chasmothecia, formerly called cleistothecia) — the pathogen's overwintering structures — appear within the coating. The disease affects many plants, including roses, oak, privet, lilac, cucurbits, cereals, grapevine, apple, gooseberry, phlox and coneflowers, with each of these hosts being infected by a specialised species of fungus.
AphidsSmall (1–3 mm) soft-bodied insects, green, black or pink, feeding in clusters on young shoots and the underside of leaves. They excrete sticky honeydew. The diagnostic feature that distinguishes aphids from other small sucking insects is the pair of siphunculi (tubular projections) at the rear of the abdomen together with a tail-like cauda; a single colony usually holds wingless forms (parthenogenetic females) alongside winged migrants that fly onto new plants in summer. In summer aphids reproduce parthenogenetically and viviparously over many generations, so the population builds up explosively; in autumn many species produce a sexual generation that lays overwintering eggs on the host, and host-alternating species move between a winter host (often a tree or shrub) and a summer host (a herbaceous plant). Feeding symptoms include curling, crinkling and distortion of young leaves, stunted growth, yellowing, and the shedding of buds and fruitlets. Abundant honeydew coats the leaves, and the sooty mould fungus that develops on it forms a black film which limits photosynthesis; the honeydew is fed on by ants, which in return defend the colony against predators. Aphids are also important vectors of plant viruses (mosaics among them), transmitting them from plant to plant even during a brief probing puncture.
SawfliesThe larvae strongly resemble the caterpillars of butterflies and moths, but have more pairs of abdominal prolegs (six and more) and single ocelli on the sides of the head, by which they can be told apart. They often feed gregariously, skeletonising the leaves or eating them down to the veins, and can strip a gooseberry or currant bush bare within a few days. The host plants are gooseberry, currant, rose, plum and pine. Symptoms: besides the defoliation of leaves, the larvae of fruit-dwelling species (e.g. on plum) bore into the young fruit set and cause it to drop. Adult sawflies are small (a few millimetres) hymenopterans without a distinct 'wasp waist' — the abdomen is broadly joined to the thorax, which distinguishes them from wasps and bees; the females have a saw-like ovipositor (hence the name 'sawflies'), with which they cut into the tissue of a leaf or fruit set and lay their eggs inside it. The larvae are most often green, matching the colour of the leaf, in some species with dark warts or spots; their prolegs lack the grasping crochets that the caterpillars of moths have, and when disturbed the larvae of many species raise the rear end of the body into a characteristic 'S' shape. The most damaging groups are: the gooseberry sawfly (Nematus ribesii) on gooseberry and currant, stripping the bush from the inside out; the slug sawflies (genus Caliroa) on pear, cherry and plum, whose slimy, slug-like larvae graze away the upper skin of the leaf (windowing), so that the leaf turns brown as if scorched; the fruit sawflies of the genus Hoplocampa on plum and apple, tunnelling galleries into the young fruit set and leaving moist, foul-smelling droppings; and the conifer sawflies (Diprion, Neodiprion) on pine, feeding gregariously on the needles. Life cycle: the adults emerge in spring, the larvae feed for several weeks, after which they descend into the soil or leaf litter, where they pupate in a cocoon and overwinter as a larva (prepupa); depending on the species, 1–3 generations develop in a season.
Toxicity
| For whom | Level | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Humans | None | The hips are edible, as in other roses. The hairs surrounding the seeds irritate the digestive tract - preserves have to be strained. |
| Dogs | None | The plant's tissues are not poisonous. The only risk is mechanical: the prickles can cause minor scratches. |
| Cats | None | The plant's tissues are not poisonous. The only risk is mechanical: the prickles can cause minor scratches. |
History and origin
The species comes from the mountains of central and southern Europe - from the Pyrenees through the Alps and the Carpathians to the mountains of the Balkans and Bulgaria. It has two Latin names with a tangled history: Rosa glauca was published by Pierre-André Pourret in 1788, and a year later Dominique Villars described the same plant as Rosa rubrifolia. Priority goes to the older name, so the correct name is Rosa glauca and Rosa rubrifolia remains a synonym - even so, nurseries and catalogues still offer it as Rosa rubrifolia to this day, and the Polish and German names (Rotblättrige Rose) refer to precisely that later, descriptive epithet. Although it is a European plant, it came to gardens late - it was planted more widely only from the end of the 19th century, once border design began to value leaf colour as highly as flower colour. Today it holds the Award of Garden Merit of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). For Poland, the POWO database records the species as introduced, of uncertain status and probably tied to cultivation alone, so occurrences outside gardens are treated as garden escapes. A cross between the red-leaved rose and the rugosa rose (Rosa rugosa) produced 'Carmenetta' - but this is an interspecific hybrid, not a cultivar of the species itself.
Uses
In the garden the red-leaved rose is first of all a foliage-colour shrub rather than a flowering plant - it is reached for wherever a dark, grey-purple mass of background colour is needed that holds all season. It is at its best as a specimen against greenery, in groups in large borders and in naturalistic plantings and informal hedges, where the arching stems can grow without being trained. The grey-purple foliage is a graceful foil for yellow, orange and strong blue flowers; planted next to other purple-leaved shrubs it loses that contrast and merges with them into a single dark mass. The position should be sunny - in shade the plant grows, but flowers less freely, sets fewer hips and turns green. It is planted in spring (March-April) or autumn (October-November), spaced about 1.2 m apart in an informal hedge and 2-2.5 m for single shrubs; bare-root specimens need the leafless season. After two or three seasons, once the shrub has rooted in, watering is needed only in long droughts - and it is better to water infrequently and thoroughly than often and shallowly - while feeding comes down to compost in spring on poor soils. The hips have two roles: they are the ornament of autumn and winter and food for birds, which is why the spent flowers are not removed after flowering. Cut stems with hips hold well in wreaths and winter arrangements, and leafy stems are sometimes used as foliage for bouquets. The hips are edible like those of other roses, but small and sparsely fleshy - in the kitchen they are no match for the hips of the rugosa rose or the dog rose, and preserves have to be strained, because the hairs surrounding the seeds irritate the digestive tract. The shrub is also ecologically valuable: the single, non-double flowers give pollinators easily accessible pollen (roses produce no nectar, so insects come for pollen alone), and the spreading, densely branched shrub gives birds cover and winter food.
Trivia
- It has two Latin names and both are in circulation: Rosa glauca (Pourret, 1788) is the correct name, but nurseries still sell it as Rosa rubrifolia (Villars, 1789) - a name a year younger and therefore no more than a synonym, though a more descriptive one.
- Although it grows wild in the mountains of Europe, it entered gardens more widely only towards the end of the 19th century - several hundred years later than the roses brought in from the Near East and from China.
- The petals are so loosely held that they fall not only in wind and rain, but even under a jet of water from a garden hose. That is one of the reasons the species is planted for its leaves rather than its flowers.
- 'Carmenetta', sometimes met with as a cultivar of the red-leaved rose, is in fact a hybrid with the rugosa rose (Rosa rugosa) - the species itself is grown almost exclusively in its wild form.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between the red-leaved rose and the hybrid tea rose?
Practically everything apart from the genus. The red-leaved rose is a wild species grown for its grey-purple leaves; it flowers once a season with small, five-petalled blooms 2.5-4 cm across and sets ornamental hips after flowering. The hybrid tea rose is a group of garden hybrids with large, double flowers, repeat-flowering from June to September. Their care differs too: the red-leaved rose flowers on wood from previous seasons and needs minimal pruning, while the hybrid tea flowers on the current year's growth and is pruned hardest of all the groups in spring. The red-leaved rose usually grows on its own roots, so it has none of the trouble with suckers pushing up from below the bud union.
How do you prune a red-leaved rose?
Minimally. It flowers on stems that grew in previous seasons, so shortening all the stems removes the wood on which it would have flowered. Every few years one or two of the oldest, bare stems are cut out at ground level to encourage new growth from the base, and dead and broken stems are removed. The timing depends on what matters more: pruning in late winter is easier on a leafless shrub and falls after the ornamental season of the hips, while pruning right after flowering is gentler on next year's display but costs the hips. For comparison: hybrid tea roses are pruned hardest in spring (stems down to about 10-15 cm), floribundas (cluster-flowered roses) a little more lightly - to about 15-20 cm, with some stems left longer to form the framework of the shrub.
Why are the leaves of my red-leaved rose green rather than purple?
The commonest cause is too little light - the species tolerates part shade, but it colours up in full sun; the deeper the shade, the more the foliage turns green. It is also worth remembering that the basis of the leaf colour here is a glaucous grey-green ground, with the purple only as a bloom over it - even a well-coloured shrub is not uniformly red. The second cause is genetic: plants raised from seed differ from one another in the intensity of the purple, because the species is propagated mainly from seed. If a particular shade matters to you, it is worth buying a specimen seen in the flesh during the growing season rather than leafless, bare-root stock.
Are the hips of the red-leaved rose edible?
Yes, they are edible like the hips of other roses, but they are more of a curiosity than a kitchen ingredient: they are 10-15 mm across with little flesh, so they are no match for the hips of the rugosa rose or the dog rose. Preserves have to be strained through a fine sieve or muslin, because the hairs surrounding the seeds irritate the digestive tract. In practice it is better to leave the hips on the shrub: they hold from August through much of winter, are the ornament of that season and food for birds.
Does the red-leaved rose suffer from disease the way garden roses do?
It is markedly less troublesome than the garden hybrids, but it is not immune. Among the threats listed are rose blackspot, rust and powdery mildew, and among the pests aphids and sawfly larvae. Since the shrub is not grown for its flowers, some leaf damage can simply be ignored - it is not given a spray programme in the way hybrid tea roses are. The basis of prevention is an airy, sunny position, generous spacing and raking up fallen leaves in autumn.
Sources
- Plants of the World Online (POWO) — Rosa glauca Pourr.Database (GBIF, POWO…)
- RHS — Rosa glauca (red-leaved rose)Institution / botanical garden
- Missouri Botanical Garden, Plant Finder — Rosa glaucaInstitution / botanical garden
- Trees and Shrubs Online — Rosa glaucaWebsite
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