Plant Patent #12,055. Cultivar name: 'JACrulav'. If we had to limit our garden to just one Rose, we might select this remarkable R. rugosa cultivar. It has everything a gardener wants in a shrub, and everything a Rosarian desires in a rose. From its strong clove scent to its two long seasons of bloom and its pumpkin-orange hips all winter, it is beautiful. But perhaps it is the complete resistance to blackspot that makes it most remarkable and appealing.
Covered in forbidding thorns, this extremely cold-hardy rose redefines "vigor". Not only does it banish blackspot, it sneers at environmental stresses from heat and humidity to cold and wind. Very well-branched for its compact size, it is clothed in leathery, semi-glossy deep green foliage from spring until frost, and would be a handsome landscape accent even without its blooms. But oh, those blooms!
Single flowered and boasting just 5 petals, they measure 3 inches wide, with glowing plummy-lavender color and a small yellow center. This is the way wild roses should all look, if only they had Wildberry Breeze's superior breeding! Very abundant, they release a strong, delicious clove scent that will put you in mind of Thanksgiving and pumpkin pie, even if it's only May when they begin to open! Expect them to keep coming from late spring until hard frost; Wildberry Breeze is tireless in any climate.
As each bloom passes, it is replaced by a fat pumpkin-orange hip, absolutely adored by birds and very ornamental on the shrub. Even after winter arrives and the last of the foliage has fallen, the hips glow like tiny Christmas tree ornaments in the bleak landscape, offering a treat for hungry birds and a spirit-lifter for all who pass by.
Just 3 1/2 feet high and 2 1/2 to 3 feet wide, Wildberry Breeze is ideal as a low hedge, front of the border or foundation standout, or even a container subject, though its wild heritage indicates a natural setting might be best. Fear no nibbling pests; the thorns see to them. Fear no blackspot, even in humid or rainy climates. Here is a rose as all roses should be: beautiful, fragrant, healthy, and long-lived. Enjoy. Zones 4-9.
