RESTORATION OF THE ROSE GARDEN AND THE COLLECTION OF ROSES AT HBG

RESTORATION OF THE ROSE GARDEN AND THE COLLECTION OF ROSES AT HBG

by Elena Zappa, Stefano Ferrari, Mauro Giorgio Mariotti

The restoration of the rose garden at Hanbury Botanical Gardens started in 2009 and was supported by the funds from MIUR (the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research) – for the popularization of scientific knowledge.

The work was undertaken in three stages:

historical research into lists of the plants cultivated in the garden (Cronemeyer, 1889; Dinter, 1897; Berger, 1912; Ercoli & Lorenzi, 1938; Campodonico et al., 1996) and on old documents (Zappa, in press);
checking the roses still growing in the garden and making a list of the cultivars to be re-introduced;
obtaining material for propagation from specialist collections.

The focal points within the collection are:

historical aspects of the Hanbury garden itself;
the Hanbury connection with the horticultural industry in the Riviera di Ponente, a collection of the Tea roses that were grown in Liguria for the cut-flower industry in the late 19th century;
the rose tradition of the Riviera di Ponente, a display of the roses bred by the Ligurian breeders Domenico Aicardi and Quinto Mansuino;
the main groups of the genus Rosa;
a display of Chinese roses, associated with the historical relations between T. Hanbury and China.

These subjects are explained on information placards that will be placed in the Rose Garden.

The rose garden is located in the lower part of the garden known as “Piana”, in the area where historically roses were cultivated – the “Roseto”. A new pergola with wisteria on the side that is exposed to sea winds has been made to shade and protect the climbing roses planted on the opposite side. Such pergolas existed in the time of Thomas Hanbury.

Most of the new plants have been obtained by grafting scions on R ‘Indica Major’, the best stock for budding in this area.

Historical investigation.

The first roses at La Mortola were introduced by Thomas Hanbury from his parents’ garden at Clapham Common in England. Other roses were acquired from other countries. In the Hanbury archives we have documents stating that some had been brought in Sanremo from the nursery of J. Pin and G. Gullino (1878), and others from Nabonnand’s Nursery in Golf Juan in France (1877, 1893, 1896) and from Dieck’s nursery at Zöschen in Germany in 1898. (GBH, AH Quietanze di piante e semi e di lavori per il giardino/Accounts for plants and seeds and for garden works, 1877-1906, busta 62, fasc. 345).

Further information concerning the introduction of roses is recorded in the garden book “Orders to gardeners” (IISL, AH, Orders to gardeners 1869 to 1884/ Istruzioni ai giardinieri dal 1869 al 1884, 1869-1894, busta 11, fasc. 105). In December 1874 Thomas ordered 3,000 rose plants from Nabonnand Nursery: 12 December 1874 “note 241: Roses. The purchase of 3,000 from Nabonnand is authorized.”. In the manuscript Sowing & Planting (IISL, AH, reg. 109, Sowing & Planting, vol.3/Semi e piante vol.3, 1884-1888) the purchase of 57 cultivar of roses is recorded, the majority created bred by Gilbert Nabonnand, but also from others breeders: 1893 20th February, from Nabonnand Golfe Juan Plants. (Zappa, in press)

In the first two catalogues of plants at La Mortola (1889 and 1897), the only horticultural roses mentioned alongside the botanical species are R. × borboniana and R. × noisettiana, both dating from the first half of the nineteenth century. However, in the catalogue of 1912 some horticultural varieties are mentioned that had been introduced some years earlier from Germany such as R. × anemonoides and R. ‘Crimson Rambler’ cultivated in Japan, introduced into cultivation in Europe in 1878 and introduced commercially in 1893. There are many horticultural varieties mentioned in the catalogue of 1937, but we know from our archives that some of these roses were already in the garden in Thomas’s time.

The most common rose in the garden is without doubt Rosa banksiae f. lutescens with yellow single flowers; it originates from the region of Yunnan and Shanxi in Western China.

Among the older roses in the Garden is ‘La Follette’, a hybrid of gigantea raised in Lord Brougham’s garden on the French Riviera near Cannes by his head gardener, Busby, and introduced in 1910.

There is a splendid specimen of this climbing rose halfway along the main pergola.

We should also mention Rosa brunonii ‘La Mortola’ which originated in the garden and flowers well; it is a very vigorous climber and grows to more than 10 m. high up trees and over walls.

We would like to thank P.G. Campodonico, past director of Hanbury Botanic Garden, who contributed to the beginning of the project and Ch. Quest-Ritson, rose and garden specialist, for his advice.

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Reference

Berger A., 1912. Hortus Mortolensis. Enumeratio Plantarum in Horto Mortolensi Cultarum. West, Newman and Co., Hatton Garden, London.
Campodonico P.G., Orsino F., Cerkvenik C., 1996. Enumeratio Plantarum in Horto Mortolensi cultarum. Alphabetical Catalogue of Plant growing in Hanbury Botanical Gardens. Microart’s, Recco.
Cronemeyer G., 1889. Sistematic Catalogue of Plants growing in the open air in the Garden of Thomas Hanbury F.L.S. G.A. Koenig, Erfurt.
Dinter K., 1897. Alphabetical Catalogue of Plants growing in the open air in the Garden of Thomas Hanbury F.L.S. Waser Brothers, Genova.
Ercoli M. & Lorenzi M., 1938. La Mortola Garden. Hortus Mortolensis. Oxford University Press, London.
Zappa E., 2011. Spunti dalle fonti per lo studio delle dinamiche di sviluppo dei Giardini, in F. De Cupis e E. Ragusa (a cura di), La Mortola e Thomas Hanbury, Atti della Giornata di studio del 23 novembre 2007, Torino 2011, pp.125 – 140.