Madame Boll – historic pink Portland rose propagation material
With its compact, upright habit and richly petalled rosette blooms, Madame Boll offers historic charm in a manageable shrub frame that suits premium container and specialty routes. The very double, mid‑pink flowers, remontant with an abundant second flush, deliver colour continuity and an intense, far‑scented damask fragrance valued in thematic and collection plantings. On own roots, this cultivar builds long‑term structural stability for nursery beds and 5–7 L grow‑on, supporting predictable renewal and low replacement over time. Moderate disease and winter hardiness to around ‑26 °C (H7, USDA 5b) provides climatic reliability that remains robust even in colder, wind‑exposed northern schemes. Dense, mid‑green, slightly glossy foliage underlines its ornamental impact as a specimen or park subject, while the rarity and historical Portland background create clear differentiation for curatorial and collection‑driven ranges. In professional cycles this typically means roots consolidating in year one, framework and shoot volume in year two, and full ornamental expression by year three, aligning well with planned release for thematic rose gardens and specialist wholesale channels that value curated historic assortments.
Usage options
Finished-product ideas
- Premium 7 L historic Portland shrub – Bush‑trained Madame Boll in 7 L containers for fragrance‑ and story‑led historic shrub benches, leveraging its compact habit and remontant, very double blooms – target: retail/collector and themed rose garden supply.
- Curated Portland collection trio – Multi‑SKU set featuring Madame Boll as the mid‑pink historic component, grown from own‑root NEONATAL batches into uniform 5–7 L containers for collection beds – target: nurseries building private‑label historic assortments.
- Fragrance‑focus park specimen line – Selected, well‑branched plants grown on for robust, bush‑trained structure and intense damask scent, suitable for premium park and estate schemes – target: public‑realm suppliers and landscape contractors.
- Historic cut‑and‑garden shrub – Nursery‑finished plants promoted for dual use as ornamental shrubs and short‑stem scented cut suppliers, capitalising on large, very double blooms – target: estates, hospitality projects and specialist retailers.
- Cold‑tolerant heritage border unit – Own‑root plants finished for schemes where winter resilience and compact form are critical, facilitating repeat orders for matched beds – target: northern nurseries and municipal procurement channels.
Technical cultivar profile
| Parameter |
Data |
| Name and registration |
Historic Portland shrub rose known commercially as Madame Boll, also referenced as Boll; an unregistered variety with American Rose Society exhibition name Madame Boll used in specialist and collection contexts. |
| Origin and breeding |
Bred by Daniel Boll in the United States around 1858, introduced by Joseph Boyau in France in 1859; parentage recorded as ‘Baronne Prévost’ × ‘Portlandica’, aligning it with the Portland, Hybrid Perpetual rose group. |
| Growth and structural characteristics |
Compact, upright shrub typically 85–125 cm high and 75–115 cm wide, with dense, mid‑green, slightly glossy foliage and moderate prickliness, forming a coherent, well‑filled framework suitable for container and bed use. |
| Flower morphology |
Large, very double, rosette‑shaped blooms with 40+ petals, usually borne singly; it is remontant with an abundant second flush, producing substantial flower mass where spent blooms are manually removed due to weak self‑cleaning. |
| Colour data and phenology |
Flowers open mid‑pink with a slight salmon sheen, ARS code MP and RHS 55C–55D; colour lightens gradually to pale pink with a creamy undertone and silvery petal bases, more vivid in cooler conditions and softer in strong sun. |
| Fragrance and aroma |
Very strong, far‑scented damask fragrance character, providing a classic historic rose aroma; the densely double flowers emphasise scent over pollinator access, making it primarily an ornamental and sensory feature cultivar. |
| Hip characteristics |
Due to the strongly double, repeat‑flowering habit, hip set is limited; when present, it forms occasional egg‑shaped, orange‑red hips around 12–18 mm in diameter, with modest visual impact in comparison to the flowering display. |
| Resistance and winter hardiness |
Rated to approximately ‑26 to ‑23 °C, with RHS H7, Swedish Zone 4 and USDA 5b; disease resistance is moderate to powdery mildew, black spot and rust, requiring medium‑level plant protection in professional production systems. |
| Horticultural recommendations |
Suited to flower beds, parks, specimen roles and cut use; recommended as a bush‑trained plant with discreet support, ideally finished as a premium container or specialty product, with medium maintenance and occasional plant protection inputs. |
Madame Boll offers compact historic shrub character, strong fragrance and repeat flowering on predictable, regenerative own‑root stock, providing a stable, long‑term basis for premium historic ranges; we would welcome discussing volumes, timelines and integration into your programmes.
