No other flower such as the rose, has inspired poets throughout the centuries in writing songs and poems. No other flower has been named after so many queens, princesses, famous and great people, large and small towns, palaces, estates, and the family and relations of rose-breeders; in fact, named after everything that people most admire and love.
Through the ages, many other flowers have been compared with the rose and, in Danish at least, many other plants have acquired the name; for example, ‘Stick-Rose’ (Hollyhock), ‘Stone-Rose’ (Garland flower Daphne cneorum), ‘Alpine-Rose’ (some species of Rhododendron), ‘Christmas-Rose’ (also Christmas Rose in English), ‘Rose- Geraniums’ (Pelargonium sp.) and several others. The colour, flower-shape, and scent, together with variation in leaf and growth-form, make roses very exciting to many people. It is likely that roses, aided by rose-breeders, will continue to impress, fascinate, and inspire poets and flower-lovers in the future. Roses are known to have been grown in Denmark since the time of Christian IV (1577 – 1648).
Of course, a large estate-house should naturally have a rose garden in which to display this floral splendour. On the 25th of September 1993, on Frederikshavn’s 175-year anniversary of being a market town, The Rose Garden at Bangsbo was inaugurated by Jette Dahl Møller from The Botanical Institute in Copenhagen. Concurrent with this event, the garden’s own rose, “The Bangsbo-rose” (Rosa ‘Bangsbo’), was named and planted. This rose cultivar, having a light pink colour and delicate scent, is named after the area of Bangsbo, together with its beautiful, old estate-house and was bred by the Danish rose-breeding firm, ‘Poulsen Roser’. Pot-grown plants at the southern wall of The Gardener-house flower until the first frosts of winter.
The centre of The Rose Garden is surrounded by many members of the ’family-tree’ of modern cultivated roses, displaying a wide selection of cultivars resulting from rose-breeding in earlier times. There are many, often now forgotten, ‘old-fashioned’ cultivars, emanating so enchanting a scent that one is involuntarily seduced into a romantic frame of mind. In total, there are around 150 cultivars of rose represented here. On the frames built to support rambling and climbing-roses, clematis are also planted. Clematis and roses actually complement each other well and, together with the 8,000 daffodil bulbs planted in The Rose Garden, ensure an extended flowering season in this part of the garden.
