Please forgive me for indulging in sharing my thoughts with you about a rose that did particularly well in our garden this spring, Rosa harisonii, R. x harisonii or Harison’s Yellow. As you can see some consider it to be a species - but many people think of it as a distinct variety or cultivar. Regardless, this rose has endured the century and is still grown widely throughout the United States. In the 1860’s, Harison’s Yellow traveled with our early settlers across the young United States and can still be found blooming in abandoned shacks and settlements of these long past courageous people. This rose is sometimes known as the Yellow Rose of Texas and through this name demonstrates its’ tremendous hardiness and geographic range that it can be successfully grown.

Harison’s Yellow was introduced in 1830 from the garden of George F. Harison from the city of New York. There is much question and debate as to the parentage or origin of Harison’s Yellow. Certainly, Rosa spinosissima, the Scotch Rose, is one of the parents of this rose. You can see the Scotch Rose in Harison’s Yellow, with its’ purple black hips, fine foliage and thorns. The source of the deep yellow color is unknown. Perhaps as Roy Shepherd outlines in his book, The History of the Rose, this rose is an improved form of the species without any other species contributing the genes for its deep yellow color. The species, Rosa spinosissima, has several forms or botanical varieties with yellow flowers, such as: R. spinosissima hispida, R. spinosissima lutea and R. spinosissima luteola. Modern Rose 10 recognizes that R. spinosissima may have flowers or cream, but white, pink, purple and yellow blooms occur in garden forms. Others, such as George Thomas, believe that Rosa foetida, the Austrian Briar, was combined with Rosa spinosissima to produce Harison’s Yellow. Thomas points out that Harison’s Yellow has the scent and bright sulfur- yellow flowers of R. foetida.

Harison’s Yellow is a delightful and easy rose to grow. Extremely cold hardy and heat resistant - this rose can be found growing from Texas to Alaska and from coast to coast. Once blooming, these medium sized (2-3"), sulfur-yellow blossoms appear in early spring. The fragrant flowers are semi-double and cupped. The upright and arching plants (5-6 feet) are vigorous, well thorned and free-flowering. Dark purple hips are produced as are root suckers.

Recorded hybrids of Harison’s Yellow follow:

‘Agnes Emily Carman’ - (R. rugosa x Harison’s Yellow) Shrub 1898 Large, double bright crimson red blooms. Foliage is large, green and typically rugose. Vigorous (5’) with some repeat bloom.

‘Buisson d’Or’ - (Mme. Edouard Herriot x Harison’s Yellow) Hybrid Foetida 1928 Double, canary-yellow blossoms are fragrant. Vigorous 3-5 feet tall. Good seasonal bloom (once blooming?).

‘Golden Altai’ - (R. spinosissima altaica x Harison’s Yellow) Shrub 1943 Single, cream to yellow blossoms. Once blooming and very hardy.

‘Grace’ - (R. rugosa x Harison’s Yellow) Shrub 1923 Very double, fragrant amber apricot blossoms. 5-6 feet tall. This hybrid was produced by Dr. W. Saunders of the Central Experiment Farm in Ottawa,

Ontario, Canada. Dr. Saunders made a similar cross using Rosa rugosa and R. foetida persiana (Persian Yellow Rose) to produce ‘Agnes’. ‘Agnes’ is a infamous as being one of our few yellow-ish colored rugosa shrubs.

‘Harison Lemon’ - (Harison’s Yellow seedling) 1929 Light lemon yellow, non-recurrent bloom.

‘Harison Salmon’ - (Harison’s Yellow seedling) 1929 Salmon colored, non-recurrent bloom.

‘Harison’s Hardy’ - (R. spinosissima altaica x Harison’s Yellow) 1943 Cream and yellow tinted blooms, non-recurrent and very hardy.

‘Harriet Neese’ - (‘Ophelia’ (HT) x Harison’s Yellow) Shrub 1928 Coral and yellow blend colored blooms, semi-double, slight fragrance, bushy and abundant, but non-recurrent bloom. 4’ tall.

‘Hillcrest Pillar’ - (Harison’s Yellow seedling) Shrub 1930Semi-double bright yellow blooms, pillar to 6’.

‘Lord Penzance’ - (Rosa eglanteria x Harison’s Yellow) Eglanteria hybrid / Shrub 1894 Single blooms of soft yellow and rose pink appear in clusters on bushy plants. Sweetly fragrant flowers and apple scented foliage. Vigorous. Summer bloom.

‘Lorelei’ - (‘Joanna Hill’ x Harison’s Yellow) Shrub 1947 Peach-pink blossoms with yellow centers that are semi-double and very fragrant. Vigorous, upright growing and once blooming.

‘Millicent’ - (Rosa glauca x Harison’s Yellow) Shrub 1928 Central Experiment Farm in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Single(?) blooms of light coral red that fade to a flesh-pink color with a yellowish reverse. Foliage is dark green with red-brown veins. Hips are flattened, globe shaped and light red. Medium tall growth with non-recurrent bloom. Hardy.

‘Orinda’ - (Harison’s Yellow x seedling) Shrub 1922 Deep cream to light amber double blooms, bushy, with profuse non-recurrent bloom early in the spring. 5 feet.

‘Poliarchus’ - (seedling x Harison’s Yellow) Shrub Central Experiment Farm in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Blooms of cream flushed salmon that quickly fade. Shrub to 4’ and once blooming.

‘Rustica’ - (‘Mme. Edouard Herriot’ (HT) x Harison’s Yellow) Shrub 1929 Double, coral tinted salmon-yellow blooms. Flowers appear in spring on long arching branches. 4’ x 4’

‘Sabaudia’ - (R. foetida hybrid x Harison’s Yellow) HT 1934 Double, cupped pink blossoms with gold and chrome-yellow. Fragrant. Glossy foliage on a vigorous and bushy plant.

‘Sonnenlicht’ - (‘Lady Mary Fitzwilliam’ x Harison’s Yellow) Shrub 1910 Double canary yellow blooms appear on long arching branches. More like Harison’s Yellow in appearance. Spring blooming.

‘Sylvander’ - (An open pollinated seedling of Harison’s Yellow) Shrub Central Experiment Farm, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Single blooms are clear yellow and large. Compact plant to 2-3 feet tall.

As you can see from the preceding crosses that Harison’s Yellow is fertile. It is a tetraploid rose with 28 chromosomes. Pollen can be used from it or crosses can be made on to it successfully. In most cases, pollen is commonly used. Perhaps that is because germination of seed from R. spinosissima and its’ hybrids can be difficult. Several hybrids of Harison’s Yellow exist with a variety of garden roses and species. It appears that the correct combination of parents still hasn’t been found to pass all the great virtues of this deep yellow rose on to succeeding generations. Self pollinated seedlings rarely possess as deep of yellow flowers as its’ parent. And hybrids between other roses may be sterile.

I would encourage you to use fertile roses that germinate it’s seedlings well to cross on to with the pollen of Harison’s Yellow. To obtain repeat blooming in your seedlings would require you to make two generations of crosses. For example, the cross of Hybrid Tea x Harison’s Yellow would yield a high percentage of once blooming seedlings. By selecting the best of these seedlings and crossing these with repeat blooming roses again, you would obtain a greater percentage with repeat bloom. Otherwise you could cross some of your most outstanding Hybrid Tea x Harison’ Yellow seedlings with one another. You would end up with a smaller percentage of repeat bloomers, but would retain more of the characteristics of Harison’s Yellow in the offspring.

Some fun crosses you might want to try:

‘Golden Angel’ x Harison’s Yellow
‘June Laver’ x Harison’s Yellow
‘Sexy Rexy’ x Harison’s Yellow
‘Silver Jubilee’ x Harison’s Yellow
‘Queen Elizabeth’ x Harison’s Yellow
Harison’s Yellow x ‘New Dawn’
‘Westerland’ x Harison’s Yellow
‘Graham Thomas’ x Harison’s Yellow
‘Dornroschen’ x Harison’s Yellow
‘Jan’s Wedding’ x Harison’s Yellow
‘Playboy’ x Harison’s Yellow

Try some of your own ideas too and best of luck!