Rosa x richardii / , SANCTA, SAINT JOHN’S ROSE gallica x? Abyssinica Roses
This is an ancient Damask-type rose described from Tigré in Ethiopia in 1847and introduced to Europe in around 1895 by the firm of Dammann of Naples, from the collections of the botanist Terraciano in Abyssinia, where it was grown around churches and monasteries. Remains of it, or a very similar rose were found forming chaplets on the heads of mummies in Egypt, dating from between the 2nd and 5th centuries AD. It makes a rounded bush up to 1.3 m high with spreading branches. The flowers are produced in loose clusters and have conspicuously exserted styles, indicating that one parent was probably a member of the synstylae roses such as R. arvensis, the other probably R. gallica. Zone 5, will survive down to –25°C