Title: Roses in the Fire of Spring: Better Roses for a Warming World and other Garden Adventures
Authors: M.S. Viraraghavan and Girija Viraraghavan
Starting to read our book you may well ask, why the title, why ‘Roses in the Fire of Spring’? The name is derived, in part, from Omar Khayyam’s lines in the Rubaiyat:
Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring, Your Winter garment of Repentance fling: The Bird of Time has but a little way To fly – and lo! The Bird is on the Wing.
The words of Omar Khayyam have a special meaning in the climate of the tropical mountain on which we have lived for the past forty years. On our mountain, the Palni Hills, at an elevation of over 2,000m, the monsoon rains are prolonged, and go on from September till almost the end of December. Nature, in our garden, produces a special effect in the last week of December. The Rosa gigantea plants climbing our many trees – cypress, callistemon and native magnolia – burst into spectacular bloom, in clouds of cream and white, an alternative White Christmas. There is an incredible surprise in store when suddenly the rains stop, and the sun comes out with the intense, rich brightness characteristic of mountain sunlight. At our altitude, the air is thin, pollution free, and the power of the sun in spring is stunning, the effect of the light further accentuated by ultra-violet rays. But the wind remains cold, like ice, the sun is like fire, and the result, if you are a drinker, is akin to whisky on ice. No wonder you are in a mood to discard the winter garment of repentance. The roses feel the same way, and there is a burst of bloom with a profusion of flowers much brighter in colour than on the plains. This same spring flowering of roses is, we are sure, a feature of the table-lands of Iran, at Nishapur, so romantically located by the side of the famed Silk Road where Omar Khayyam wrote his verses. There can be little doubt that he would have marvelled, as we do, at the spring sunlight. This same effect can be seen, to a lesser extent, in the rose areas of the Indo-Gangetic plain, where roses are in full bloom in February, and perhaps slightly earlier in the rose gardens of the Deccan Plateau of southern peninsular India.
It is not as though this spring flowering of roses ignited our lifelong search for better roses for the warmer parts of India, and, for that matter, the warmer parts of the world, so far denied the intoxication of beautiful, easily grown roses. We had always been impressed by the words of India’s pioneering rose breeder, B.S. Bhatcharji, who, nearly a hundred years ago, stressed the need for a separate line of breeding for warm climates. Our rose-growing experiences, particularly in the difficult growing climate of southern coastal peninsular India, convinced us that Bhatcharji was right. These areas have their share of passionate rose growers but they get by with great effort, growing the roses of temperate climates with weekly sprays of powerful pesticides, hazardous to themselves, and a threat to the environment. In this background we come to the thesis of this book – creating better roses for a warming world, and the search for other plants to complement the roses.
(From the Preface, Roses in the Fire of Spring, by M.S. Viraraghavan and Girija Viraraghavan, Running Head, 2023)
About the Book
Roses in the Fire of Spring records the epic journey, spanning more than half a century, of world- renowned rose hybridizers, M.S. ‘Viru’ Viraraghavan and his feisty partner-in-grime, Girija Viraraghavan, in their efforts to create roses better suited for a rapidly warming world. This account of their literally groundbreaking work is also part-travelogue and memoir. The Viraraghavans’ intrepid rose travels take them, and the reader, from continent to continent, up mountains, through forests, across oceans and rivers, from Uruguay to Japan, and from Germany to Australia. Join them on their journey as they plant-hunt, meet celebrated rosarians and plant enthusiasts, view some of the world’s most famous gardens, and trek indefatigably through a life rich with colour and fragrance. Replete with horticultural insight, engaging sidelights from their life, and photographs, this book, boasting an international cast of gardening luminaries, at once informs and entertains. It also presents a country-wise list of future possibilities in rose breeding in places as diverse as China, subtropical Asia, Africa and the Middle East. A must-have book for hobbyists, garden enthusiasts and professional plant hybridizers alike – for that matter, anyone concerned about the fragile environment of our planet.
About the Authors
M.S. ‘Viru’ Viraraghavan and Girija Viraraghavan are gardening enthusiasts.
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