August 2024
A year ago, I promised to write about the ‘Camino de Santiago’ rose that I’d been given for the garden, once I found out a bit more about it. Mine is still very small, but I now have my chance – and the first thing I have to say is that I was mistaken about its name. There is already a very handsome rose called ‘Camino de Santiago’, a coral-coloured hybrid-T, as anyone curious about it can see online. The rose delivered here is quite different. Its official name is ‘Castell d’Alaquàs’, a floribunda, but it has come to be known as the Rosa peregrina, (‘Pilgrim Rose’) on the Camino, and brings with it an interesting story (greatly condensed here, but see the article, in English, for June 18, 2023, at www.fundacionjacobea.org).
The man behind it is Norman Sinclair, a retired doctor, veteran pilgrim, flower-shop owner and rose afficionado, who lives near Munster in Germany. Years ago, after walking various Caminos, he happened to visit a rose nursery near Valencia belonging to Mathilde Ferrer, the president of the Spanish Rose Growers’ Association. There he spotted the Castell D’Alaquàs rose, and was utterly charmed by it. He liked its bright carmine colour and golden stamens, but was even more admiring when he learned that it was hardy, resistant to disease, and bred to flower repeatedly in the dry climatic conditions of the Valencia region.
Back home in Germany, Norman Sinclair mulled over how he might express his gratitude for his experiences as a pilgrim. Recalling the rose, the idea came to him of planting it in significant places along the Caminos, but first he tested its resilience by marking parts of a Santiago route and the European Peace Path near his home with roses from the Ferrer nursery. Seeing them flourish, despite comparative neglect, was a green light. He planted two examples of the Castell d’Alaquàs rose in O Cebreiro, next to the monument to Elias Valiña, then 100 more in towns all the way to Monte del Gozo and Santiago. Later expeditions have seen the rose planted at the pilgrim towns across the meseta and through the Bierzo. Future ones will extend its presence to the Caminos del Norte, the Via Kunig and the Camino de Liebana in Cantabria. Norman’s dream is to plant them at all the monasteries on the pilgrim roads, and then to link the routes in Spain with those back in Germany. Thanks to his ever-increasing group of friends and helpers, this rose ‘travels’, slowly but surely, towards Compostela – and so deserves its ‘unofficial’ name of ‘Rosa peregrina’.