There are some roses which over the years I’ve come to really enjoy for their great growing habits and not giving me a lot of trouble, plus just being plain beautiful and often fragrant!  Different roses not everyone has, roses you don’t see too often but really should!

The first on my list is ‘Lyda Rose’.  I’d have to say she’s my favorite rose.  ‘Lyda Rose’ sends out airy, arching canes, not too long or floppy, just right.  They sway in the breeze, carrying their panicles, their “wands” full of fragrant single flowers, almost unceasingly.  The plant gets to maybe 6’ tall and wide in my Pennsylvania garden, and is just elegant, always.  So far for me, it is very winter hardy.

It is a great plant for the back of a perennial border.  I combine it with perennials and annuals all around it.  It is very disease resistant.  It gets a little bit of blackspot, but never drops all of its leaves.  The dark green leaves are linear and willowy.  Right now in October it is full of leaves and flowers, despite the fact I haven’t sprayed it since July.  Even then, I had only sprayed it a few times.  I would be confident giving a plant to someone that I knew would never spray it.

The flowers are just beautiful…they are single, five petals, maybe an inch across, with yellow stamens popping out from the center.  The petals are white near the stamens, then becoming more and more pink as the color radiates out to the ends.  The pink is a medium to deep pink, same on the back.  They fade to a near white with some pink tints and pink on the edges.  Seeing them in their big, foot long (or longer!) panicles is a sight to behold!  I call them “wands” – they are like living sparklers!  They adorn the ends of the arching canes with true beauty.  Because of the white they fade to, it makes a great “moonlight” garden plant – it just glows when the moon shines on it!

The flowers can be compared to the Hybrid Musk “Ballerina”.  I haven’t grown that rose, but from the times I’ve seen it, I would say ‘Lyda Rose’s’ panicles are longer, the flowers are bigger and spaced apart a bit more.  And the fragrance is much stronger.

Twice a year, in the spring and fall, the plant produces a big display with long panicles just packed with buds and blooms, and the rest of the summer is constant small bursts of flowers here and there all over the plant.  I leave most alone and don’t do much deadheading, and get nice small red hips that last through the winter.  What a full season plant!  I don’t think, except for the winter, I’ve ever seen it without flowers!  The photos you see here are taken in mid October, so you can see it likes to put on a big display in the fall.

‘Lyda Rose’ has a remarkable fragrance.  I don’t think this is a very glamorous comparison, but it’s like that powerful but fresh fragrance when a new box of laundry detergent is opened…I can only compare it to that!  It is a strong, even powerful fragrance, but it is light and fresh at the same time…I sometimes call it “powdery”.  It causes me to sneeze very badly sometimes, because the pollen is right there at the end of the stamens.  It is a wonderful fragrance, and many people not experienced with roses say this fragrance is their favorite, when they get to compare it with other strongly scented roses like Mr. Lincoln or Frederick Mistral.  I listen to people’s comments and some have said it is “sweet”.  I think it is very spicy smelling.  Whatever the description, it is just great and a wonderful pleasure to experience…I think everyone should grow this rose.

 I think it would make a nice restrained climber.  It is not a “rampant” grower.  My plant is about 6’ to 7’ high and about 5’ wide.  It took about three years to attain this height.  I grow it as a freestanding shrub in my perennial/rose border.  I have one of those small trellises I bought at Home Depot, the kind you push in with your feet, about four or five feet high, in the middle just behind the plant, and some bigger canes are tied to it for support, but many canes are on their own and just sway in the breeze!

In the early summer when the rose first starts to bloom I have Forget-Me-Nots growing at the base of the plant, and it is beautiful indeed.  Later I have some Verbena bonariensis nearby, and that too is a lovely combination.

Here is what the Heirloom Roses catalog has to say about ‘Lyda Rose’:

‘Lyda Rose’: Rated the best shrub rose by the American Rose Society. Bred by Kleine Lettunich from ‘Francis E. Leser’,  it was named for her daughter and the song from The Music Man.  The white blooms edged with lavender-pink have an ethereal appearance and the wonderful fragrance can be enjoyed even several feet from the bush.  The apple-blossom-like blooms appear in profusion on a spreading plant with rich green, disease resistant foliage; it  will bloom profusely in shade.  We received a nice note from a couple who had won the shrub rose class at the fall Portland Rose Show with ‘Lyda Rose’.

I have won “Best Shrub” with this rose, too, at the 2006 Philadelphia Rose Society Rose show, and Tom Mayhew won Best Shrub with it at the Del-Chester Show later that season!  So, it’s a great garden rose, and a very good show rose, as well!

I’ve given ‘Lyda Rose’ to two friends who are growing it in mostly shade and so far it is growing just fine there for them.

Photos coutesy of 1) Uncommon Rose,  2) Pam Coath