Rosa x rugosa 'Hansa' - Rugosa Rose

The  'Hansa' Rose is a sturdy, disease-resistant shrub rose with a fearless character. Its vigour has allowed it to be planted on a large scale by landscapers tasked with designing large spaces, as it can thrive on its own once well-established. Its beautiful wrinkled and luxuriant foliage, typical of rough roses, is adorned with large, fragrant flowers in May, which are more or less double and crumpled, with a rich violet-pink colour turning to purple. The bush continues to produce roses in October alongside large, pulpy red-orange hips, which are very decorative. In the garden, it is splendid in a flowering hedge or at the back of a border.

Rosa x rugosa 'Hansa' inherits the genes of Rosa rugosa, a vigorous rose from the Far East, forming impenetrable thickets due to its dense and thorny vegetation. It is a curious botanical species, low-growing, with prolific suckering and armed with prickles, native to the eastern part of North America. 'Hansa' is a Dutch creation by Schaum and Van Tol, dating back to 1905. The plant forms a large, bushy and dense shrub, reaching a height of 1.5 to 2 metres (5 to 7 feet) with a width of 1.5 metres (5 feet). It often tends to spread laterally by suckers, making it valuable for forming impenetrable hedges. The foliage, semi-evergreen, abundant down to the base of the plant, is composed of wavy-edged, dentate leaves divided into 5 to 9 leaflets of very bright green. Its beautiful double and solitary flowers, 10 to 12 cm (4 to 5in) wide, are magenta violet, maturing to purple-lilac, and have a silky appearance. They bloom from May June to November in successive waves, favoured by rain. Their wild rose fragrance is well-structured. Its large red-orange fruits are fleshy and edible, rich in vitamin C.

Very hardy and almost maintenance-free, a must-have in a garden without a gardener. If the passion for botanical roses and their direct hybrids is not widespread, it is fully justified, especially in difficult soils or climates. These roses are not only the ancestors of our modern roses, but also generally more robust and reliable. The Rosa x rugosa 'Hansa' is a floriferous rose with beautiful exuberance, capturing attention from spring to late autumn. It will find its place in a bocage or defensive hedge, a slightly wild garden, accompanied by a mauve rose, a colour that suits its dramatic style so well. It can be accompanied by cotinus or euonymus for autumn colours, lilacs for their fragrance in spring, mock oranges for the same reason, and viburnums, which, like it, exhibit a very accommodating nature.