Aaron's Personal Training

You might have heard the term heirloom when it comes to a piece of silver that grandma passed down to you. It might also stick to a picture or clock or other treasure that is in your attic or belonged to your family for generations. But when you hear the word heirloom attached to roses, what does it mean? Obviously a rose can’t live for that many decades…can it?

In essence, no. A rose only lasts a few days or even weeks before it wilts and dies. An heirloom rose is a rose breed that was created before 1867. The seeds from those original rose bushes and descendants of those old fashioned rose bushes are called heirlooms.

An heirloom rose bush isn’t altered in any way. Today, some of the most popular types of roses are hybrids. A hybrid is a genetically engineered rose. It may have been altered to make it disease resistant, produce a certain fragrance or even to have a multi-colored look. Hybrid roses are taking the genes from one set of roses and adding them to another to get a cross mix, or hybrid, style rose.

To be called an heirloom, a rose must not have ever been altered. The bush, color and fragrance are all original to how they were grown in the 1800s and even before that. Heirloom roses can be in the climbing variety, bushes and large bushes.

To keep the line of heirloom roses going, the rosehips are collected and the seeds are stored for future generations. Clippings from the roses are also cultured so they will grow in to rosebushes, remaining unaltered or bred with other rose types.

Heirloom roses aren’t any different to look at than today’s roses. They might not be available in such a range of colors, but the ones they do have are spectacular.