Rose 'Alberic Barbier' growing out of the hedge.
In the heart of Wellington, scrambling over dry banks and rock walls in Mt Victoria, Thorndon, and other inner suburbs, a beautiful old rose has gone wild. One hundred and ten years ago the French rose breeder Alberic Barbier produced this sweet but very hardy rose, and named it for himself.
It is a hybrid bred from the Chinese species rose, Rosa wichuraiana, and R. 'Shirley Hibbard'. It is a rambler with small and very glossy green leaves, not many thorns, and small cream flowers which are lightly apple-scented. It flowers profusely in early summer, and has occasional flowers through to autumn.
R. wichuraiana is a parent of several other excellent climbing roses. The three that I grow are 'New Dawn', 'Sanders White' and 'Albertine'. They are all healthy, hardy roses, and 'Albertine' has an especially delicious scent.
When I lived in Mt Victoria in the early 1980s I did not know what 'Alberic Barbier' was called. I just enjoyed it immensely, wherever it beautified an otherwise neglected spot. Even better, because it was wild, and so prolific, I could take a few buds home for a vase without feeling like I was depriving the plant, or my neighbours.
Eventually I found out what it was called so that I could grow it in my own garden, as soon as I had one large enough for its rambling ways. I planted it under the Olearia paniculata hedge, beside the garden gate, and now it scrambles happily up through the hedge and covers it in a shower of cream flowers in early December. When the hedge gets its annual cut, so does the rose - and it comes back even stronger the next year.
I would not, of course, advocate that anyone tries to naturalise a rose in the wild (even the suburban 'wild) in NZ these days, but given that 'Alberic Barbier' is so beautiful, and pretty well-behaved, I am glad that it enhances the old parts of Wellington at this time of year.
'Alberic Barbier' covers the hedge.
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