As we’ve entered ‘the season’ once more (reblooming if you’re SOTE), we’re all relishing the bounty of our care and labours. We’ve all awaited the first signs of awakening…the first buds swelling on the bare canes, tender new leaves bursting forth…and then the buds… And now, we’re revelling in the rainbows of color flowing across our gardens. Particularly one relatively recent color addition to our roses: many have opened to reveal orange or orange blend colours.
Once upon a time, there were no dazzling orange roses, but now, in 2005, as we judges move about Europe evaluating the new varieties, we know that we will see many in each and every rose trial; entered in every category, from groundcovers to tall climbers. The 20th Century was a very busy one for rose breeders. They were seeking novelty, better disease resistance, quality fragrance, and roses that were orange. The earliest crosses that resulted in orange and vermilion roses often had lovely blooms, but the plants were weak. Only after painstaking years of breeding, crossing these weak roses with blooms of interesting shades of orange, with vigorous roses, were better plants finally produced. Soon, a large number of exciting new orange roses became available, ranging in colour from pale apricot orange, through shades of orange pink, into vivid orange-red vermilion.
By 1960, there were many orange-coloured roses on the market, but the real impact came that year when a perfectly-shaped Hybrid Tea rose, with a long, elegant, pointed bud, appropriately called 'Super Star,' was introduced by the German rose breeder Tantau. That rose, 'Super Star' (also known as 'Tropicana': its code name is TANorstar), sent ripples of excitement wherever it was seen because of its intense, uniform, clear orange colour. Overnight, 'Super Star' became a 'must' for every garden as well as for exhibition shows and was THE ROSE that everyone was talking about.
It was indeed well-named. This outstanding superstar won at the National Rose Society (now 'The Royal' National Rose Society) in England. In the USA, it won The 1960 President's National Trophy, and in 1981, it won the prestigious Gold Medal in Portland, Oregon. In 1963, 'Super Star' was the All-American Rose Selection winner, and it went on to win an American Rose Society Gold Medal in 1967. This 'super' rose and has been a 'star' in the rose world since then. Its distant ancestor was another rose 'star', a large, double-flowered yellow rose, R. foetida persiana; introduced into Europe in 1838, joining the European roses and changing what had, up to then, been a white, pink, and red rose world.
The real breakthrough that would change the colours in the rose world, came in 1900, when, after many years of trial crosses, the French rose breeder Joseph Pernet-Ducher introduced his historic rose, 'Soleil d'Or'. It was a yellow-blend with touches of orange and pink. Ten years later, he released another yellow rose, 'Rayon d'Or'. In 1913, he won £1,000 (pounds), an enormous sum of money for that time, offered by the London paper, The Daily Mail, for his orange-blend rose 'Mme. Edouard Herriot.' These roses of Pernet-Ducher, known as pernetiana roses, were the forerunners of the brilliant orange-coloured roses that we have today.
In 1951, Kordes released an orange rose, 'Independence,' which won many Gold Medals. This rose and Tantau's vigorous and popular 1958 orange Hybrid Tea rose, 'Paprika,' can now be considered 20th Century classics, and both these roses from Germany are still available today. Other very important orange roses of this early period include: 'Hawaii' (Boerner 1960, USA); 'San Francisco' (Lammert, USA, 1962); 'Tickled Pink' (Lammert 1963); as well as the orange 'Fire King', a French rose by Meilland, released in 1959.
For a good decade, orange roses were 'in'; planted and admired in rose gardens everywhere around the world. People were captivated and enchanted by these new, strong-coloured orange roses. They were bred in many shapes and sizes: Hybrid Teas, Floribundas, Climbers, Miniatures, Polyanthas and Shrubs. They were popular as cut florist flowers as well as landscaping roses.
Then quickly, as if swept away by a devastating flood, the orange rose passion went out of fashion.
The novelty had worn off! Orange roses were suddenly considered terribly bad taste. No 'respectable rosarian' grew these orange roses - what with their bright, harsh, almost-neon colours - any longer. Many were ruthlessly destroyed to make way for roses of good taste, with more refined colours. Orange rose after orange rose was 'shovel-pruned'. These orange roses were out…or so it seemed. Notwithstanding the stubborn, snobbish attitude of many smug rose connoisseurs, the general public kept on buying orange roses.
'Super Star' may have become a fallen star but there were hundreds of new stars being discovered in the second half of the 20th Century, orange rose galaxy. Rose breeders kept right on introducing new ones in every shade of orange that could be imagined. Many of these hybridizers candidly admitted that they crossed and selected their new roses with the buying public in mind.
After that earlier wave of rejection of the orange-rose mania, only a few of the most bold rosarians dared to admit that they didn't mind orange roses, and a some were courageous enough to say they actually liked them. More and more 'normal' people added orange roses to their gardens. Orange roses slowly became popular for planting in parks and urban landscaping. Gradually, some frowning purists softened their scorn, whispering that ‘yes, they could admit that there were some interesting new orange roses, those so called orange blends, that were not so bad after all…’
In northern Europe, where in a year there are many dark, grey, rainy days, these cheerful bright orange roses were more and more sought after. They bring that bright, happy, modern touch to chilly, dull days. Many of these new orange roses have good 'substance'; with thick, velvety petals that withstand beating winds and heavy rain as well as hot, glaring sunshine. Over the past century, seedlings have been carefully selected for good, clear colour that does not fade under hot and glaring summer sun. To everyone's delight, some of these new orange blend roses are also fragrant.
In truth, though, the solid, pure-orange roses, such as 'Super Star' and 'Paprika,' never completely faded away or disappeared. Today, they are still available, but have now been joined by many orange roses with a greater variation in colour and shades. We see tempered, pale apricot-orange, orange blends with touches of yellow, orange-pink blends, and a great number of new roses that are bright vermilion red-orange. Some oranges are striped, like 'Oranges 'n' Lemons' (1994 McGredy, New Zealand). Others may have two-toned petals with the reverse of a different shade; still others may have an 'eye', or centre of white or pale orange.
Oh yes! In the rose world, we still have those 'purist snobs' who detest orange roses and who consider them eyesores; garish things lacking in charm. They may have their point. However, the strong orange-orange-punch-in-the-eye colours that many detest have been tempered and this new wave of more complex and intricate orange roses which have won a vast public of fans. We note that 'Modern Roses 10' listed 828 orange-blend roses, 897 orange-pink roses, and 875 orange-red roses.
Orange and orange-blend roses, the hybridizing breakthrough of the 20th Century, are beautiful indeed in their own way. W can all admit they have established their rightful place in our Wonderful World of Roses. One thing is certain: they are here to stay!
From: Paul F. Zimmerman
Subject: WFRS Specialized Conservation Committee
Hi there,
I’ve recently put up some posts on a few forums about the WFRS Conservation Committee. The post is below, but the gist of it is Marily Young and I as the U.S. members of the Committee would like to expand our contacts with folks in this country who are involved in similar work. We just would like some input from others into our reports to the Committee regarding what is going on in the US regarding Conservation work and conversely is there perhaps a way the Committee can assist via connections with other gardens, the database that has been put together which cross references many major rose collections all over the world, etc.
I’d like to put together a loose e-mail list of like-minded folks and this is where I need everyone’s help. Who do you know (individuals or groups) who engage in such work in the U.S.? I’m not attempting to put together any kind of organization here. I’d just like to see if we can all stay in touch. If any of you have any ideas or questions please let me know that as well. So, are you interested in joining the e-mail list and who else do you thing might be a good person to contact? I hope to be at the HRF conference in May and that seems like a good place to hook up as well.
Here is the post:
As some of you may know Marily Young and I have been attending meetings of the World Federation of Rose Societies Specialized Conservation Committee for the past three years. Marily was asked to join and then she asked me. The past three years was spent mostly forming ideas, gathering information and getting focus to what the Committee was about. I know some of you have heard of the various work being done to help identify and preserve rare roses all over the world. And to exchange roses with other like minded rosarians all over the world.
Since this is such a large country (and we cannot and do not presume to speak for everyone) we would like for all the various groups and individuals who do conservation work, and who would like to be involved with the Committee’s work to have input. So, we are asking for some help. We know many of the groups in this country involved in preserving roses but certainly not all. What we’d like to do is set up communication with interested groups and parties so that when we attend the meetings we have their input, help and expertise. So, if you fall into this category please shoot me an e-mail so I can begin building an e-mail list for communication purposes. I hope it will also help conservation efforts in this country by keeping all of us in touch with each other in a loose way.
We’ve begun on a small scale already. We are getting input from the Heritage Rose Foundation, Gregg Lowery at Vintage, Mel Hulse at SJHRG, Mike Shoup at ARE and others. Gregg will be sent some cuttings of some 65 roses the Committee preserved from the Fineshi Garden in Italy two years ago for himself and the SJHRG. (They’ve been in quarantine here). We hope this kind of exchange will accelerate in the years to come with roses coming into the US and our rare roses being sent to other countries. The experts mentioned above (and I hope others) will be a huge help in finding, preserving and if needed, positively identifying rare roses. I plan to be at the HRF conference in Berkeley this May to meet many of you in person – particularly the West Coast Folks.
It should also help in cases where certain roses appear to have several different versions. As an example there is some debate over Mme. De Tartas. Phillip and Gregg aren’t sure about the one in this country. Marily Young has one from the Fineschi Garden which is different. We are sending cuttings of the clone Marily has to Phillip for his much valued input. These are the kinds of things we hope will help all of us who love roses.
Just to be clear, this is not in any way an effort to take the place of other groups or individuals who do such work or create a “formal” organization. We just want to help if we can and to help give all of us another conduit to rare roses from all over the world.
Please also add any thoughts, ideas, and concerns to the e-mails or this thread. We hope this will turn into something good for roses that we can all enjoy. Also please spread this post to other forums for us.
Paul F. Zimmerman
Ashdown Roses Ltd.
From: Lakshmi Sridharan
RE: my website: lakshmi-sridharan.com
Dear Fellow Rosarians, If I may, I would like to introduce my brand new website -http://www.lakshmi-sridharan.com to you all. It is an introduction to my book entitled " A Practical Guide to Growing Roses Successfully". You may think that Lakshmi writes articles all the time and why should I buy her book. Well, precisely for that reason, I suggest that you buy this book of mine, which is very different from any other book on roses. In addition to having a huge number of roses, it has a wealth of information on the scientific aspects of growing roses that you will not find anywhere else. I would appreciate mentioning my website in rose newsletters and meetings. Kindly recommend the book to your friends and relatives. Happy Blooms! Thank you.
Lakshmi Sridharan, Ph. D.
from Mel Hulse
For nearly a year, Ed Wilkinson has been too involved with other responsibilities to give the time needed to curate the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden. This essential job consists of managing the garden as an organized botanical collection. This entails making decisions on selecting and siting cultivars to be planted, maintaining the garden detailed database including provenance information, providing input to signage and the catalog and a myriad of other tasks.
Obviously, the person who fills this position must be a dedicated rosarian with broad knowledge of the history, class characteristics and of many individual roses. Along with that comes time to do it and computer skills. Ed has performed this job admirably for over 11 years and deserves all the credit we can give him. But he now wishes to move on. We are very fortunate to have someone in the area who has volunteered the skills to pick up this mantle along with the investment in time the job needs.
I give you the new Curator of the Collection: Jill Perry! Jill lives in Santa Cruz and has been a frequent visitor to the Heritage since it was planted. She has a broad knowledge of heritage roses and is writing a definative book on Tea Roses. Jill has an international reputation as a knowledgeable rosarian and is employed part time as a computer systems administrator. The rose community has greeted this news with congratulatory enthusiasm. There will be a transition period while we rearrange procedures and provide for catalog preparation. Ed will help us with that this year. I solicit all the assistance you can give Jill and add my appreciation for her acceptance of this responsible position.
Regards, Mel Hulse,
Col. USAF (Ret'd)
Silicon Valley Rose Farmer
from Colleen Casanova
Dear TRN,
I am Colleen Casanova, and I own La Loma Roses in Somis, near Camarillo. I have recently put my 43-acre property on the market for sale, which currently has appx. 40,000 mature rose bushes in production. Most are David Austin varieties.
Clair, after receiving your e-mail today, I thought maybe you might know of some rose lover who would appreciate this beautiful, oceanview property, since you are in touch with rosarians of all kinds. I am simply putting this out to you if it is of any interest to anyone you know.
All the best,
Colleen
from Daphne Filiberti
Hello TRN,
You probably already heard that Rosa Gallica will be publishing an English newsletter starting in spring 2005. The first issue will have the many interesting articles like "Bourbon Rose: Its introduction into France", "André Du Pont: Postal Worker and Great Amateur Rosarian", "Alexandre Hardy and the Luxembourg Palace Rose Gardens", "French Missionaries' Roses" and "The Onset of Rose Breeding in Lyon". They are updating their site to include material in English. I am the acting as U.S. correspondent.
Can you please pass the word along to anyone you know who might be interested? There is more information at rosegathering.com/rgallica.html Membership is 10 Euro per year and also includes free entry to the garden at Cour de Commer during the month of June. I also put a registration form online, which can be printed and sent in: rosegathering.com/registration1.pdf
BYE FOR NOW,
DAPHNE
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