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Louis Lens roses

micearguersmicearguers Posts: 646
in Plants
I've been re-reading Louis Lens - De elegantie en de roos. What I took away is that he re-crossed with many species roses, and obtained very healthy hybrids with beautiful flowers. The book is full of pictures of stunning blooms. My head is still spinning from all the different crosses, often using second or third generation crosses before releasing a rose to the public. Browsing the Lens catalogue there are many tempting choices. One that I found by looking for fragrant roses was 'Dentelle de Bruges'. I think that 'strong stems' is also a recurring theme in the book. If you have a Lens rose, I'd be eager to hear your experiences!

Posts

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Sorry, no, but I saw his stand often at plant fairs when I lived in Belgium and they were always very healthy looking roses.  I also have several friends in Belgum who are great fans of his roses and hs nursery.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • micearguersmicearguers Posts: 646
    After more browsing ... Stephanie d'Ursel looks gorgeous:

    And 'Lens Flair' even more so:

    I will definitely be putting some of these on my list; hopefully UK deliveries still happening.


  • peteSpeteS Posts: 966
    They have a sumptuous looking website. I'd like to know if they deliver to the UK, but unfortunately all the relevant info remains untranslated.
  • MarlorenaMarlorena Posts: 8,705
    ...just to say, although the nursery is still called 'Lens Roses'... Louis Lens the younger passed away in 2001, so anything bred since then has been by Anne Velle Boudolf and her husband who took over the nursery, but have kept the name...

    ...so for true Lens family roses, if that's what you would be wanting,  you would have to look at those introduced before 2001...
    East Anglia, England
  • peteSpeteS Posts: 966
    Do you know @Marlorena whether they post to the UK, because they have some beautiful looking roses on their website, some of which would be very tempting if they did.
  • edhelkaedhelka Posts: 2,351
    I have three. Two are hybrid musks and true Lens roses - 'Jacqueline Humery' and 'Claire Jolly' and one is a floribunda bred by Anne Velle Boudolf - 'Empereur Charles IV.'.
    While Marlorena is right about the nursery sale, from what I've heard, Anne Velle Boudolf inherited the breeding program too, including the seedlings and trialled roses in their fields and she has been introducing some roses from crosses done by Louis Lens. A good examples are seedlings from the trier x mutabilis, all bred in 1988 by L. Lens but introduced in different years - 'Plesanterie' in 1996, 'Apricot Bells' in 1999, 'Patricia Beucher' in 2001, 'Souvenir de Louis Lens' in 2011 and then there is the newest 'Lens Flair' which doesn't have the lineage listed but mutabilis is quite visible in it, it has Anne listed as a breeder so maybe it is a seedling of one of the original mutabilis crosses above.

  • edhelkaedhelka Posts: 2,351
    If it isn't obvious, I love his work. He used older hybrid musks (Bentalls and Pembertons) and hybrid multiflora ramblers and crossed them with more multiflora blood (often species) and other modern roses. All hybrid musks are technically hybrid multifloras (the "hybrid musk" term was a marketing thing because of their fragrance) but I feel that Lens musks are more multiflora than previous hybrid musks and I like them that way.
    Some of Lens roses are available from Peter Beales. They are the most popular ones like 'Heavenly Pink' or 'Guirlande d'Amour'.
  • micearguersmicearguers Posts: 646
    @peteS I'm Dutch so can help you. The website only mentions neighbouring countries but gives an e-mail address for enquiries. I'll ask them shortly and will report back. @Marlorena yes you are correct and indeed as @edhelka mentions there is continuity in the stock and breeding programme.

    The book has some lovely passages how famous breeders met each other and sometimes travelled together - Poulsen, Kordes, Harkness I believe, and several others, being both competitors and appreciative of each other. Near the end of his life Louis Lens stated that he needed fifty more years to put his acquired understanding to further breeding. In the beginning of his career his father tried to steer him away from his experiments with 'botanical' roses. It's a riveting read.
  • edhelkaedhelka Posts: 2,351
    Just to add regarding ordering, I bought directly from Lens in November last year, paid 23.30€ for shipping of five roses, 75.40€ total... not bad for five roses.


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