'Bridal Pink'
Bicolor Rose
"Roses all the rosy way!
Roses to the rosier west
Where the roses of the day
Cling to night's unrosy breast!"
-George MacDonald
(1824-1905)
(1824-1905)
The bicolor rose 'Bridal Pink' aka 'Jackbri' has a double-center with petals of apple-blossom pink, surrounded by nearly white petals. It grows along a path in one of landscape gardens I've worked on for a friend.
There are not a lot of roses planted in those gardens because deer & elk are uncommonly fond of them, & this one gets a good "natural pruning" just about every year, keeping it a lot less floriferous than it would otherwise be. But it's been attractive even so, & the owner's philosophy so far has been that visits from deer are no cause for distress even if now & then they wreck something. By & large they like to crop the extensive lawns more than they like to chow down on the shrubs, so they've been tolerable, & a delight to observe in the landscape.
'Bridal Pink' flowers from spring until summer & autumn, looking best at the beginning & end of its long seasons of bloom. It has a spicy perfume but not too extravagant or overwhelming.
Although the shrub I've been observing produces very strongly bicolor flowers, I've seen others that were more uniformly pink, so I gather that 'Bridal Pink' variety isn't invariably bicolored. I've also seen 'Bridal Pink' with less than fully double flowers, but this one's very densely packed with petals. Due to the range of appearance, it had not been long released before it threw off a completely white sport, 'Bridal White,' both forms having become very popular standard roses.
The blooms are large, sometimes appearing singly but more often in clusters, with short to medium-length stems. The flowers begin as pointed buds & open very full, being long-lasting for bouquets.
It has a more or less upright stance to three feet or a little higher, & looks like it would spread & spread much wider than it gets tall, if only the deer would stop munching it back. As a munched shrub it remains a compact rugged shrub.
In the wedding industry, 'Bridal Pink' is one of the most often used roses for arrangements & bridal bouquets, often mixed with 'Bridal White.' It also commonly has its pink petals separated & freeze-dried to be strewn along the path of the wedding march & around table arrangements.
Though released in 1967 as a florist hybrid, such as are noted for rapid production in greenhouses under narrowly controlled hydroponic conditions, 'Bridal Pink' happens to be one of the hardiest florist roses. It does perfectly all right in the garden, down to Zone 6, needing full sun & persistent moisture in well-draining soil.
It originated as a cross between seed-grown specimens of the large mid-pink 'Summertime' with the shimmering dark pink 'Spartan.' Though it is reportedly susceptible to mildew, this specimen is uncrowded in a very airy position. Since it gets clipped back so much by the deer, we tend to it very little, yet it remains vigorous & healthy with no special care, & we've never seen mildew on it. So while hybrid roses can be labor-intensive for gardeners, this one has never been the least problem & gets no more attention than any other shrub in the garden.