Unlike the oldest China roses, no European rose cultivar can be traced back before about 1400. There is nothing to link the simple Gallicas and Albas that can be identified in late medieval paintings to the roses of ancient Greece, Rome, or Persia. Gallica roses may indeed have been cultivated 2,500 years ago, but we can put no names to them. They are selections and hybrids of Rosa gallica, a short suckering rose which is native to southern and central Europe from Spain to Slovakia and eastwards to Turkey. They were greatly developed by French hybridists in the early years of the 19th century, and their large, sweetly scented flowers place them among the most beautiful of all garden plants. They make medium-sized bushes – very hardy, once-flowering, and tolerant of poor soils.

The development of rose breeding started with the import into Europe of a handful of Chinese garden roses some 200 years ago. These roses were crossed with European cultivars to produce the great variety that emerged in the 19th century. The unsung heroes of rose breeding are the gardeners of ancient China who made it all possible.

The most important cultivars for the history of roses were called ‘Hume’s Blush Tea-scented China’ and ‘Parks’ Yellow Tea-scented China’; both were introduced to Europe from southern China early in the 19th century. They get their name from their characteristic scent of China tea leaves, which is also found in many China roses. They tend to be very tender (only a few are hardy in Zone 7), but are tolerant of drought.

They do, however, have a convenient and practical logic which it is worth trying to understand. One of the most useful divisions, though rather arbitrary, is between old roses and new, or modern, ones. Old roses are those introduced before 1867, or 1900, or 1945, according to an individual’s point of view.

Sometimes they are called Old Garden Roses, Old-fashioned Roses, Antique Roses, Heritage Roses or Historic Roses. Many types are onceflowering, including the Alas, Boursaults, Centifolias, Damasks, Gallicas, and Moss roses. The repeat-flowerers are the Bourbons, Chinas, Hybrid Perpetuals, Noisettes, Portlands, and Tea roses.

They vary enormously between the classes and it is worth studying the characteristics of each class, so that you know what to expect of them. The ancestors of our garden roses are the wild roses from which all our cultivated varieties are descended.

Noisette roses are hardy climbing roses or semi-climbers, with masses of small flowers in large clusters, produced all through the growing season, or continuously in hot climates.

They are naturally variable, even within a single species. Rosa canina, for example, can have flowers of dark pink, mid-pink, pale pink, or white. Old roses tend to make bushy plants, and their flowers are often most beautiful when fully opened out. They also have thinner petals and do not stand up so well to rain. Opinion is divided on whether they are naturally healthier than modern roses or not, and whether they are more strongly scented, and there are exceptions to every rule – old roses excite passion. Almost every country has a society or group dedicated to them.