Newsletter  (Feb 2020)  Page(s) 17-18.  Includes photo(s).
 
[From "A Raise Eyebrow for Striped Roses", by Darrell g.h. Schramm, pp. 13-18]
In 1909 Bonfiglioli and Son in Italy introduced a Bourbon rose found or bred by Massimiliano Lodi, white with cerise or violet-crimson stripes and mottling, very double, globular and strongly scented, borne mostly solitary on its stems. They named it ‘Variegata di Bologna’. Sometimes a repeat bloom occurs on this prickly, six to ten foot high plant. Though somewhat sprawling, it can be pruned severely. Graham S. Thomas wrote in 1958, “There is nothing else so vivid and striking among roses, and its shape is as good as any of the others, opening flat with a camellia-like array of petals. It is a vigorous plant but usually needs support such as a pillar or wall.” I would disagree with his taste here. Some rosarians declare it a sport of ‘Victor Emmanuel’, a rose named for the first king of a united Italy, but one raises an eyebrow when reading the nursery’s 1909 catalogue which contradicts that declaration. Like ‘Rosa Mundi’, the rose does tend to revert to a solid color.

Article (newspaper)  (Jan 2011)  Page(s) 2.  Includes photo(s).
 
Patricia Routley: One morning I felt like having cold Polony on hot toast for breakfast. Not recommended, but just that once, it was what I really wanted. It was one of the halcyon-like still Autumn days when all the beautiful leaves were gently dropping, putting circular carpets on the ground below each tree. On such a morning, the mind wanders and I wondered about the word Polony. Polony was certainly part of my childhood so it may be an Australian word. The Collins was consulted: Brit. Another name for Bologna Sausage. Look up Bologna Sausage: a large smoked sausage made of seasoned mixed meats. Also called baloney. Which leads me back to Polony - and then leads my thoughts on to a striped rose I have called Variegata di Bologna which also is a bit of a mixture. Peter Beales in England has written: irregular stripes of purple on a creamy-white background, reminding me of the semolina and blackcurrant jam of school dinner days. The rose is certainly luscious, but I don’t know about that semolina.
This particular rose was bred (or was it discovered?) by an Italian, Signor Lodi before 1909. He named it ‘Variegata di Bologna’ to distinguish it from its one-colour parent, but misty time has lost the name of the parent rose. Graham Stuart Thomas found his bush of ‘Variegata di Bologna’ reverting back (or sporting on further?) to a dark crimson-purple rose but could not recognise it. ‘Variegata di Bologna’ is a prickly rose, said to be a bourbon, but I can’t see anything of the original bourbons in it. It only flowers in spring and early summer and then shuts up shop for the rest of the year. Perhaps I should not have given it such a prominent position by the path, but you do have to look closely at a bloom to see those magnificent very double, globular roses with deep violet stripes on a off-white background. For me it grows about 2m high x 1.5m wide and suffers die-back at the end of the canes and gets lots of black spot. Nobody is perfect. While the blooms are considered to be the best of all the striped roses, the bush can look just awful at the end of summer and I prune some of the old canes back to ground level. Hopefully it will push out vigorous new canes which I will bend horizontally and tuck under neighboring roses so that it should flower even more on these horizontal canes. It is a uniquely beautiful bloom, but I will never to able to look at my ‘Variegata di Bologna’ again without translating it in my mind as Variegata di Polony - or perhaps thinking of a tiny old Italian lady I once met at a garden day in Walpole. She took me by the hand to a rose she had seen. The label clearly said: Bourbon. 'Variegata di Bologna'. But the lady thought its name was 'Bourbon', and she couldn't read the bottom words. "Bo log na" tripped heavily off my clumsy tongue, and then when she realised that her beautiful rose had an Italian name, her joy was wonderful to behold. “Mama Mia”, she gasped. “Variegata di Bol-on-ya” so elegantly came out of her mouth and I have never forgotten her.

Newsletter  (2001)  Page(s) 44. Vol 22, No. 2.  
 
Marie Philo:  Variegata di Bologna  This rose was a cutting from the same [1920s] garden. To see a very beautiful, striped, scented flower with leaves so different from a modern hybrid tea was astounding, totally neglected and so different. Variegata needs the best of everything. If not well fed, it will flower poorly and get black spot.

Book  (2000)  Page(s) 610.  Includes photo(s).
 
Variegata di Bologna: Ancien - Bourbon - tons rouges, remontant… Blanc rosé jaspé de rouge pourpré… Il lui arrive de revenir au type (‘Victor Emmanuel’) et de donner des fleurs rouges… Bonfiglioli & Fils, Italie, 1909. Sport de ‘Victor Emmanuel’.

Book  (Apr 1999)  Page(s) 92-93.  Includes photo(s).
 
One of Rayford Reddell's choices for its cut-flowers... the base color of each blossom is creamy white, but petals are madly striped with crimson and purple...

Website/Catalog  (4 Jan 1999)  Page(s) 14.  Includes photo(s).

Website/Catalog  (23 Oct 1998)  Page(s) 36.  Includes photo(s).

Magazine  (1998)  Page(s) 18. No. 16..  
 
Brigid Quest-Ritson. Striped Roses.
Variegata di Bologna (Bonfiglioli, 1909) is a later introduction, white with crimson-purple stripes, the colour of cream streaked with blackcurrant puree. This is a sport of an unidentified rose - possibly the Hybrid Perpetual 'Victor Emmanuel' (Guillot, 1859) - to which it occasionally reverts. Reversions often ensure the reappearance of extinct varieties.....

Book  (1995)  Page(s) 177.  Includes photo(s).

Book  (Nov 1994)  Page(s) 137.  
 
Variegata de Bologna bourbon. Bonfiglioni (Italy) 1909. Description... on good soil it will reach up to 10 feet... on poorer soils it is much less vigorous and subject to black spot... flowers: blush-tinted, almost white, very neatly striped with vivid crimson-purple... This has sported to what was presumably its original, a dark crimson-purple rose, but [Thomas has] not yet found its name...