In most regions of Canada, roses used to be humorously referred to as "annual shrubs". There were a few cold tolerant roses among heirloom varieties (such as 'Stanwell Perpetual'), and especially among the Rugosas, but the vast majority of cultivars, including all hybrid teas, required gardeners to take drastic measures to protect them against the winter cold and these measures only worked sometimes.
Then came Felicitas Svejda (pronounced SWAYda) who was born in Vienna in 1920 and passed away on January 19, 2016. For 33 years, she worked at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa where she developed hardy shrubs, especially the "Explorer" series of roses which are now grown in many countries with cold winters.
 |
| Henry Kelsey, an Explorer rose |
Most roses are hardy in mild climate, but very few survive temperatures of -20C. Ms Svejda, who had an European engineering degree in agricultural science (PhD), emigrated to Canada in 1953 and was hired by the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa.
Apparently she would have preferred to work on cereals, but women were not given such key jobs. In 1961, she moved to the ornamental plant division where she was asked the impossible - to develop garden-worthy roses that would be hardy in northern Canada. She said that at the time she did not know anything about roses. Had she been better informed, she might have balked at the enormity of the challenge.
 |
| 'John Davis’ (1986) a fragrant, thornless Canadian Explorer climbing rose created by Felicitas Svejda |
|
She crossed roses that were cold hardy and vigorous including Rosa acicularis, known as the Arctic rose and R. kordesii with more garden-worthy species and did not provide any protection to her seedlings contrarily to the gardening norm of the day.
Rosa Kordesii, is a1940 cross introduced in 1952 by Wilhelm Kordes which has been used extensively in the breeding of hardy roses. She also used roses that had been bred by amateurs like Georges Bugnet (of "Thérèse Bugnet" fame).
Eventually her breeding program produced 25 roses that are hardy to -35C. Some are fragrant, all are vigorous and completely or mostly resistant to fungal attack. They are as well repeat bloomers. These 25 roses make up the majority of the hardiest garden roses in the world.
 |
| Felicitas Svejda 1920-2016 (photo from the Montreal Botanical Garden Archives) |
Another series of roses developed by the Canadian government for cold hardiness is the Parkland series. However Parkland, like Kordesis roses, are not as cold hardy or as disease resistant as Svejda's Explorers.
According to one of her friends, she had to fight to insure that funding for the rose breeding program was not cut off. However she was up to the task. This might explain why her only rose not named after an explorer (J. P. Connell) was named after a deputy minister of agriculture!
 |
| A Parkland rose - Prairie Dawn |
If you are interested in growing cold-tolerant roses, ideally they should be grown on their own roots to make sure the whole plant is hardy. The root stock on which Explorer roses are grafted might not be as hardy as the graft.
 |
| Jens Munk (1974), another Svejda introduction, shows its Rugosa parentage |
In my opinion, Svejda's best rose is "John Cabot" which was bred from a cross of Rosa kordesii and a hardy seedling originating from Masquerade and R. laxa which she got from Robert Simonet, an amateur breeder.
In 1985, Svejda received a certificate of merit from the Royal National Rose Society in England for John Cabot. In 1998, the Montreal Botanical Garden carried out a survey of its roses' resistance to black spot,
powdery mildew and rust. John Cabot was one of the best performing varieties which
showed a 0% to 5% infection rate.
At Roche Fleurie John Cabot's only problem is rose slugs (rose sawflies).
 |
| John Cabot (1978) |
I wonder if her success is not partly due to the fact that, as she indicated herself, she was not particularly interested in roses to start with. Surely, this is not the case of most rose breeders who, even when they are looking for hardiness, are perhaps more easily swayed by attractiveness than she was. No matter how she did it, she managed in a relatively short time to create more truly hardy roses than anyone else.
With reason I think, the Canadian Rose Society website declares "The Explorer Roses are Canada's greatest contribution to the world of
roses."
I tend to think of most roses as quite hardy, but then we don't really get much below -15C in Denmark, and obviously even 5 extra minus-degrees can make a huge difference. In my garden there seems to be a fair number of roses, and I look forward to discovering what they look like in summer...
ReplyDeleteThank you for highlighting Felicitas Svejda; I had never heard about her, but she seems to have been quite a competent woman. In a way it's a shame she wasn't allowed to work on agricultural plants, since that might have made a bigger difference on the world's food supplies - but then, who knows if she would have done such impressive work with wheat? Some times the right scientist and the right topic produces amazing work because an accidental match is created. And the world needs to be fed, but surely we also need beauty...
My reaction was the same as yours - it is a pity they did not let her work with cereals. But then, we would not have these roses. With Svejda and roses it must have been what you refer to as accidental match. As we say in French, it was a case of atomes crochus.
DeleteSome of these Roses are familiar to me--John Cabot and Rosa Kordesii. The coldest we get is about -29C/-20F, but that's the extreme and doesn't drag on for long (usually). Still, these Roses would be good ones for my part of the continent, too. I do have a few Roses here. One is a cross my great-grandfather developed, crossing a Minnesota wild rose with a hybrid tea, I believe. The blooms don't last long, but they're incredibly fragrant. And the shrubs are extremely cold-hardy. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHow lucky to have a rose your great-grandfather developed! Have you given it a name?
DeleteInteresting post. I never give much thought to who is behind the breeding of plants. My sister lives in a much colder area of the country and her Explorer roses survive well.
ReplyDeleteShe seems to have been an interesting woman.
ReplyDeleteMy brother had a giant William Baffin rose in his old garden in Minneapolis. I think it was part of the same series that included 'John Cabot'.
ReplyDeleteYes, William Baffin is one of the best known climbers in the Explorer series. In my garden it does quite well but is not as vigorous as John Cabot.
DeleteI'm surprised that roses were considered as annual bushes in Canada! Wow! I think that we are willing to put up more effort on those beautiful plants, as roses have been long in our gardens here in Estonia. We also have some nationally noted breeders and range of Estonian cultivars available.
ReplyDeleteIn our zone 4-5 we earth up our roses for winter and cover with springs of norwegian spruce. It helps to collect snow and keep mice away.
We also pile up soil around roses, use the special Styrofoam cones designed to protect them against the cold, or make wooden boxes you fill up with straw or leaves but, when as it did the last two winters, go down to -30C, it is not much help. That is why the Explorer roses are such a godsent. You don't need to do all this work. Still, I pull down the climbers in the fall. Fortunately this present winter is quite mild.
DeleteI've taken out so many roses because I can't keep the blackspot at bay in our humid climate without using chemicals, which I refuse to do. But maybe one of her roses would work. Thanks for the inspiration! :o)
ReplyDeleteThat must be the drawback to warm humid climates. However you can grow a greater diversity of plants than we can in our rather dry summers/very cold winters.
DeleteIt's amazing the things we gardeners in other climates take for granted. I had never hear of Felicitas Svejda before and found this post fascinating.
ReplyDeleteHow times have changed. Employers would not dare nowadays would they?
One hopes they would not dare! Greater transparency would help.
DeleteFascinating post, interesting lady Alain, we pretty much think of roses as being hardy perennial shrubs here in the UK so there is no particular need for such hardy plants however the resistant to fungal diseases would be a big plus. David Austin take note!
ReplyDeleteI see that David Austin recommends "Thérèse Bugnet", as "totally disease resistant". It is one of the hardiest rose ever bred (by an amateur).
DeleteIt's amazing what a dedicated and talented breeder can accomplish! The hardiness of these roses comes in handy here as well, but it's the disease resistance which I really love!
ReplyDeleteThey are disease resistant, I wish they were not palatable to rose sawflies. These are my main problem.
DeleteI new many interesting things about this woman, thank you Alain. And I'm very glad growing two varieties of Canadian roses in my garden they are Martin Frobisher and Therese Bognie. They are very hardy and don't need any covering for winter.
ReplyDeleteI am glad these are available in Russia. They are ideal for very cold areas.
DeleteHello Alain, the flower of Prairie Dawn looks almost like that of Camellia. Just as you're pushing the boundaries with hardy plants in your climate, I'm pushing the limits of more tender plants here. We have Banksiae Rose, which is mediterranean, but becomes hardy once established and against a warm wall. Phoenix Canariensis can also be winter hardy if kept on the dry side in winter, much like Wintersweet. I like the thought of having a garden full of plants that shouldn't really be there but somehow just about manage to make if through the winter with being established, a sheltered micro-climate and luck.
ReplyDelete