Rosa brunonii Lindley Himalayan Musk Rose. A tall, climbing rose with stems to 15m or more, with hooked thorns, especially near the tips of the long shoots. Leaves sometimes partly evergreen; leaflets 5-9, usually 7, 2-6cm long, 1-3cm wide, pale green, ovate to elliptic, very short-stalked, coarsely double-toothed with large and small teeth, finely hairy above and especially on the veins, and glandular beneath, the rhachis with a few hooked rhorns. Stipules narrow and glandular at the apex. Flowers in a large, loose corymbs, creamy-white or rarely pale pink, well-scented; petals 1.5-3cm long, 1-2.5cm across. Sepals sometimes with 2-3 pairs of appendages. Styles exserted from the hip, united into a column 8-10mm long. Pedicels glandular. Hips to 1.5cm long, pubescent when young with stalked glands, reddish, obovoid, with the sepals soon falling.

Scrambling over shrubs by rivers and climbing on trees at 1200-2550m, flowering in April to July according to altitude. From Afghanistan and Kashmir, eastwards to Bhutan, Burma and southwestern China, north to Sichuan. Zone 6.

Rosa brunonii is a fine sight when in flower, the display lasting about two weeks in mid-summer. A good form grows at East Lambrook manor, the garden of Margery Fish in Somerset.

Rosa brunonii was named after the botanist Robert Brown in 1820, and introduced to cultivation in Europe in 1822. It is sometimes found under the name R. moschata var. nepalensis Lindl. and was sometimes confused with R. moschata Miller, which is very similar, but has shorter leaflets, fewer thorns and flowers in autumn. ‘La Mortola’ is an exceptionally large and splendid clone or hybrid of R. brunonii, named after the famous Hanbury garden on the French-Italian border near Ventimiglia in 1954. The leaves are much larger and greyer than usual in R. brunonii, with usually 7 leaflets 6-8cm long, 2-3cm wide, and grey-pubescent on both sides, finely toothed with impressed veins. The flowers are large, to 7.5cm across. Only very few hips are formed in my own garden in Devon, and it would be interesting to know if they are formed better in warmer climates. Lack of hips would suggest that the plant is a hybrid.

The origin of this rose is uncertain, but it may possibly be an introduction from the Tsangpo gorge by Kingdon Ward or a form introduced from Wa Shan in western Sichuan by E.H. Wilson; Wilson’s account however, says that most Chinese collections of R. brunonii have leaves glabrous on the upper surface. It was brought to England from the garden at La Mortola by E. A. Bunyard, and introduced into cultivation by Graham Thomas at Sunningdale Nurseries in 1954. It grows exceptionally well in the warm climate of southern France, and there is a fine specimen in the garden of Odile Mesqualier near Lyon. Photographed here at Knightshayes Court, Devon, where the shoots are carefully trained against a wall to protect them from winter rain, and it also grows well in the warmer climate of Kiftsgate Court, arching over a building. Zone 7, or perhaps the warmest parts of Zone 6.
Zone 8, will survive down to –10°C.