This is a very interesting group of roses for various reasons. One reason being that one of the Damasks is recurrent and is known as Rosa x damascena ‘bifera’ or more commonly as ‘Quatre Saisons’.
Another point of interest is that this rose sported to a white MOSSY rose, named ‘Quatre Saisons Blanc Mousseaux’.
Another reason is that some of the damasks were the traditional roses used for obtaining attar-the essential oil obtained from the petals. Rosa x damascena ‘trigintipetala’ syn ‘Kazanlik’ is still grown in various parts of the world for the production of attar and rose water.
Last is that Rosa x damascena ‘versicolour’ syn ‘York and Lancaster’ came to represent the union of the two feuding factions in ‘The War of the Roses’.
The Damasks are not a true species but the result of natural hybridization in the wild which occured many thousands of years ago.
The once blooming Damasks are from R.gallica x R.phoenicea whilst the recurrent form is from R.gallica x R.moschata.
Generally speaking Damasks grow to around 2 metres high,are very prickly and have soft grey/green leaflets. The flowers are borne mostly in small clusters and range from white, pink and varicoloured.
Perfume is legendary and the term Damask is still used to describe the perfume of some modern roses. There are still some very ancient and lovely Damasks available for the discerning gardener.
Rosa x damascena ‘trigintipetala’ syn ‘Kazanlik’-
Grows to around 2 metres or more with arching canes and bears semi-double
(around 30 petals) intensely perfumed pink flowers.
As mentioned previously-this rose was and still is grown extensively for the production of attar especially in Bulgaria.
Rosa x damascena ‘versicolour’ syn ‘York and Lancaster’-
Grows to around a metre or a little more and bears medium large,loosely double flowers.These flowers are not striped but each petal can be either pink or white or the whole flower can be pink or white.
It sometimes reverts to showing all pink flowers with no white at all.
‘Leda’- syn ‘Painted Damask’ has fragrant,white double flowers with petals edged with pink to crimson and is a shorter growing damask to around one metre.
Quatre Saisons-grows to around 2 metres has very beautiful semi double blooms with transluscent petals of great delicacy.Perfume is intense. Blooms for a long period through Spring and is flowering again now(late December) in my garden. She will bloom again in Autumn. A very tough rose and easy care-I recommend her.
There are many other sumptuous and very beautiful Damasks that specialist nurseries carry.
‘Mme Hardy’-The damask that is held by some to be the epitome of perfection. She was bred in France in 1832 and has large, fully double,very fragrant,pure white blooms which have a green pointel in the centre and grows to around 2 metres.
Some others are - Ispahan-pink, Marie Louise-pink, La Ville de Bruxelles-pink, Mme Zoetmans-white, Botzaris-white.