Nuits de Young

Syn:  Old Black

 ARS Rating:  7.3

 Class:   Moss

 Date:  1845

 Breeder:  Laffay, France

 Blooms:  Very double, though smallish in size.  Petals reflex back.

Bloom Frequency:  Once blooming in spring or mid-summer, depending upon zone.  For me, it blooms at the end of April into early May.

Color:  Dark red or murry-purple.  The velvety flowers fade to a mixture of purple and mauve shades.  Golden stamens.

 Fragrance:  Fragrant

 Thorns and Mossing:  Fairly thorny with a mixture of prickles.  Sparse moss.

 Approximate Height:  4’ by 3’

History:  Thought to be named after Night Thoughts by the eighteenth-century English poet, Edward Young.  This is one of the most famous of the Mosses because of its distinct habit, foliage and the size and coloring of its flowers.

 Description and Care:  Compact, wiry shrub with small, dark-green foliage burnished with metallic tones.  Forms a graceful shrub.  Flexible canes, very well suited to pegging or growing on a very short pillar.  Needs some form of support.  My rose has formed suckers, so I assume others will find it will grow suckers if grown on its own roots.

 I have never sprayed this rose and it never has any disease problems.  It does not pruning.  If you must prune it, do so right after flowering, although it stays short and should only need dead canes removed.

 Comments:  This is an extremely easy rose to grow and well suited to organic gardening methods.