Untitled Document

The Book of Roses 1838
Mrs Gore (translation of Boitard)
Rosa Hibernica

The environs of Belfast produce an insignificant shrub, known as the Rosa Hibernica, for the discovery of which Mr. Templeton received a premium of fifty guineas from the Botanical Society of Dublin, as being a new indigenous plant; though since discovered to become the Rosa spinosissima in poor soils, and the Rosa canina in loamy land.

[According to Modern Roses V, R. x hibernica is a hexaploid with 42 chromosomes.]

English Botany 31, t. 2196
Rosa hibernica
Irish Rose

ICOSANDRIA Polygynia

Gen. Char. Cal. urn-shaped, fleshy, contracted at the orifice, terminating in 5 segments. Petals 5. Seeds numerous, bristly, fixed to the inside of the calyx.

Spec. Char. Fruit nearly globose, smooth, as well as the flower-stalks. Prickles of the stem slightly hooked. Leaflets elliptical, smooth, with hairy ribs.

Discovered many years ago in the county of Down, about Belfast harbour, where it grows abundantly, by our often-mentioned friend John Templeton, Esq., who consequently found himself entitled to the reward of 50£ so liberally offered by the patrons of botany at Dublin for the discovery of a new Irish plant. We adopt the name by which Mr. Templeton has communicated wild specimens to us, for the singularity of the anecdote, and that we may not rob him or his countrymen of a particle of their honours. Otherwise we profess ourselves totally adverse to geographical specific names, except of the most comprehensive kinds, like borealis, eurpoæa, americana, &c.

This is easily known from every described Rose with a globose germen, by the above characters. The fruit indeed is slightly elongated upwards, so as to approach an ovate figure, but is always round and broad at the base. The stem is 6 feet high, upright, much branched and very prickly. Prickles scattered, slightly hooked or deflexed. Leaflets broad-ovate or roundish, smooth, their ribs and veins hairy at the back, as in R. collina and scabriuscula, t. 1895, 1896. Flower-stalks often solitary, often 2 or 3 together, smooth. Petals pale blush-coloured. Styles distinct at the base. It is remarkable for continuing in blossom from the early part of June till the middle of November. The scarlet fruit distinguishes this species from every variety of R. spinosissima, t.187.

Hesslop Harrison found duplicates of this rose in the F2 progeny of R. sherardi x R. spinosissima.

R. hibernica has been the parent of some reblooming garden roses:

Innocence
Irish Elegance
Irish Fireflame