Damask Roses

The languid sunset, mother of roses,
Lingers, a light on the magic seas,
The wide fire flames, as a flower uncloses,
Heavy with odour, and loose to the breeze.

Andrew Lang, Grass of Parnassus

Like the classic tales from One Thousand and One Nights, originating from the Arabic speaking world, the Damask Rose is full of mystery about how it came to be. Grown throughout the Middle East for millennia, it has been much revered for its hypnotic fragrance captured in the attar (essential oil) distilled from its petals.

This is the rose that Cleopatra is said to have had made into rosewater to soak her ship’s sails before she sailed out to meet Mark Anthony. It was also a favourite of the Roman Emperor Nero who spent prodigious sums importing petals by the shipload from Egypt and is also likely to be among the roses which his contemporary, Heliogabalus, dropped from aloft onto his banqueting guests, so that at least one was suffocated by the sheer volume of petals.

Origins in the East

So where did such a hedonistic rose come from?
No one knows for sure, but there are clues. Damasks come in two strains, one that flowers just the once in spring or summer and another that after its summer flowering repeats again in the autumn (fall).

The story goes that the spring or summer flowering Damask is truly ancient, reaching as far back perhaps as Neolithic times. It’s thought to have originated in Anatolia, modern day Turkey, from a natural hybridisation between a wild Musk Rose relative (R.phoenicia) and a cultivated, double form of Gallica (R.gallica).

It’s been suggested that the other strain, the ‘Autumn Damask’ is a similar cross, this time between a Gallica and the Persian Musk Rose (R.moschata). R.moschata flowers in late summer or autumn (fall) and it’s thought that this is the quality that the Autumn Damasks have inherited enabling them to flower for the second time – its spring flowering coming from the Gallica parent.

Growth-wise, the Damask Rose is a medium-sized spreading shrub with plenty of soft, deeply veined leaves and plenty of sharp prickles. Its often beautifully double flowers nestle within the foliage and are typically soft shell pink, white, or blends of both.

From East to West

From its origins in the Middle East and its cultivation in Greece and Rome, the Damask Rose travelled across Europe to France. It doesn’t seem too far-fetched to imagine that from Rome it could have spread to Gaul (France et al) well prior to the 13^th century, but according to tradition it arrived in France mid-13^th century after the crusading knight Robert de Brie brought it back from Syria’s capital city, Damascus – hence the name ‘Damask’.

But was it the repeat-flowering Damask the knights brought back, the once flowering, or both? Certainly, whenever the Autumn Damask first appeared it must have made quite an impact.  No other rose cultivated in Europe prior to its arrival had the capability to re-bloom after its first flowering. According to rose historian, Brent C. Dickerson, the origins of the Damask Perpetuals or Damask ‘remortants’ as they became known in France, are misty. Apparently first records of them appeared in Italy in the late 16^th Century. However it wasn’t until the early 1800s, shortly before Redouté began work on Les Roses, that rose breeders used them in more extensive breeding programmes.

Redouté painted the portraits of a number of Damask Roses. Their pictures are grouped at left according to whether they are once or repeat flowering.