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'American Pillar' rose Reviews & Comments
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Pearson's Encyclopedia of Roses (1956), pg. 171.
American Pillar (Wichuraiana Rambler)
([R. wichuraiana X R. Stigera] X red Hybrid Perpetual)
Carmine-pink with a white eye. Of tremendous vigour and should be allowed plenty of room. Though the colour is not everyone's choice, this variety is very showy and flourishes on the thinnest of soils.
(Van Fleet, 1902.)
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V. Sackville-West's Garden Book, 1974 edition. Published by Book Club Associates by arrangement with Michael Joseph.
February, p34.
The hedge is made of American Pillar, a rose which, together with Dorothy Perkins, should be forever abolished from our gardens. I know this attack on two popular roses will infuriate many people; but if one writes gardening articles one must have the courage of one's opinion. I hate, hate, hate American Pillar and her sweetly pink companion Perkins. What would I have planted instead?...
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Oh, the silly sausage! I love, love, love 'American Pillar' and 'Dorothy Perkins'. Down here where it is truly not the rose's spiritual home, both of these roses work. 'American Pillar' planted in the thirties has outlasted the cottages which have long gone and the rose itself has become cottage size blooming alone for decades in the bush.
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Both mildewy but survivors and have their value. But I see as equally silly the garden writer (her name hasn't stuck in my brain) who claimed that American Pillar was the world's favourite rose. And she wasn't writing in the peak days of ramblers.
Edit: have found the reference (on hmf of course). Judith McKeon: "the most popular climbing rose of all time."
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I think they were rather ubiquitous at one time. Even today almost every cottage garden seems to have one or other of these roses. If the garden becomes neglected they are often the last cultivated plants to survive. I grow 'American pillar' up into a tree. However I have to side with Graham Stuart Thomas and agree with him that 'Débutante' is a far nicer plant than 'Dorothy Perkins'.
Last year I pruned a massive 'Dorothy Perkins' for a neighbour in the village, 8 metres long and 2 metres high. I took a full six hours but by the time I had finished all the new growths were tied in parallel to each other covering a fence, of the fifty or so branches not one over lapped another. There was no wood older than two years left on the rose. I do not wear gloves when I'm pruning roses.
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I would like to see a photo of that rose and one of your hands Andrew!
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Climbing Roses old & New by Graham Stuart Thomas, 1965. Published by Phoenix House, London.
p 62.
This little survey has been written so that the roses described in the following pages may be sorted out, but I want to stress again the overriding importance of the dark purple colouring of the few multiflora ramblers. If R. multiflora had contributed nothing else but these, it would have earned our undying gratitude. 'Dorothy Perkins' and its clan are included to complete the historical picture, although to see an arbour or pergola covered entirely with roses of this popular class is to realize that even these soulless, scentless roses must be given their due, and can look right in the right surroundings.
... Why have I omitted 'Chaplin's Pink Climber' and 'American Pillar' from the following list? Because they are blatant, almost scentless, and would not be included in my own garden, however large, mainly owing to their growth and size of flower.
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#6 of 6 posted
9 JAN 18 by
 sam w
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I have also read that Monet loved American Pillar so much that he would root cuttings to give as gifts to friends. Apparently, his own garden had many specimens of A.P.
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The Garden Magazine 18(3): 90 (Oct. 1918)
American Pillar Rose
THIS splendid single climber is winning international favor. It is spoken of in the foreign press as one of the best of all climbing Roses and leads the correspondent in a recent number of the (English) Gardeners' Chronicle to speak of it as an interesting straight hybrid between two species, it may be well to note what Dr. W. VanFleet, now with the United States Department of Agriculture and who originated this Rose, in his experimental gardens at Little Silver, N. J., says in a recent letter to me, as to its origin:
"The American Pillar Rose was raised by me in 1898 from seed of a Wichuraiana-setigera cross pollinated with a bright red Remontant Rose seedling, that had a touch of Polyantha or rather Rosa multiflora in its make-up. It thus contains the blood of four Rose species, but I regard it as essentially a Wichuraiana-setigera hybrid. This variety appears to succeed under very diverse conditions."—L. B.
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Added. Thank you Karl.
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The description says: Average diameter 2.25". Large, single (4-8 petals) bloom form...
Should it be at least medium (or even small) instead of large?
In the references The Ultimate Rose Book states: "big clusters of small, single flowers" and Favourite Roses: 150 Garden Classics says: "when its arching stems are a mass of little five-petalled flowers"
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Bigger flowers than Hiawatha, which is a useful distinguishing feature here, where both are fairly common survivors on roadsides.
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Here's me having a hand in it again. Index fingertip to little fingertip measures 2.50".
The words "small, medium and large" have all been used in the references. When we have a measured average diameter, it may be better to go with that. We'll delete the word "large".
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#3 of 3 posted
24 JUN 14 by
Jay-Jay
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