Rosa damascena Ispahan - Damask Rose

The old rose Ispahan, also marketed as Pompon des Princes or rose of Ispahan, is a wonderful descendant of the Damask rose. It stands out with its long-lasting spring to summer flowering, spanning six weeks, and is remarkably fragrant. Its double roses, in shades of true pink, are gathered in generous bouquets on disease-free foliage. The bush is upright, vigorous, and very robust. Its roses perfume a whole area of the garden in hot weather and they make excellent cut flowers. In the garden, this rose will integrate perfectly into a free hedge. 

The Ispahan rose has been cultivated since 1832, it is quite possible that it was imported from the Persian city of Ispahan. This variety was introduced to England by Norah Lindsay. Its ancestor, the Damask rose (Rosa x damascena), is a botanical species of unknown origin, perhaps brought back from the Holy Land in 1254 by Robert de Brie during a crusade. Nowadays, the original Damask rose can be found in Syria, Morocco, Andalusia, and the Caucasus. Specialists believe that this hybrid has three main ancestors: the Gallic rose Rosa gallica, Rosa phoenicia, or Rosa moschata, and Rosa fedtschenkoana. Among its descendants, we can mention the Bulgarian rose with fragrance 'Trigintipetala', Rosa x damascena 'Versicolor' (synonymous with 'York and Lancaster'), Madame Hardy, the rose 'Celsinia', and our Ispahan (synonymous with Pompon des Princes).

The old Ispahan rose is a beautiful bush with fairly fast growth, with a rather upright, even slightly spreading habit, which reaches about 1.8m (6ft) in height and 1.3m (4ft) in spread. When regularly pruned it will be more bushy. Its branches bear strong curved prickles as well as small prickles. The foliage is divided into leaflets of a fairly light green, and it is remarkably healthy. This deciduous foliage falls in autumn. This rose blooms from June to July, abundantly, with bouquets containing up to 15 buds that open one after the other into flowers measuring 8-9cm (3-4in) in diameter. Each flower is composed of 17 to 25 petals arranged in quarters. The centre of the flower is a fairly deep pink, while the edges are lighter. The fragrance of Damask roses, precisely studied, reveals more than 400 constituents. It is strong, pleasant, and remains impregnated in dried or faded flowers. The fruits are almost ovoid, red, and ciliate. This variety tolerates very hot and dry summers as long as it is planted in partial shade, in deep soil.

Subsequently neglected for remontant hybrid varieties, botanical roses are nevertheless sturdy plants full of history. It is bushy plants like the Ispahan rose that have built the reputation of these plants. This rose has its place in the garden of a lover of old and botanical roses, in a scented garden, and even in a flowering hedge. It contributes to the exuberance of summer-flowering shrub borders, landscape hedges, mixed with buddleias, white spireas, abelias, or lilacs. Its vigorous growth deserves careful planting, respecting a distance of 1 metre (3 feet) between each bush. If you have enough space, English, Old or Shrub Roses are magnificent when planted in groups of three. They will grow together to form 'one' opulent bush that will bloom even more generously.