| Rose Books
Online |
| The Complete Flower Paintings and Drawings of Graham Stuart Thomas by Graham Stuart Thomas, 1987, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. / Sagapress, Inc., New York Rose drawings, paintings, and text from pages 104-149 |
'Climbing Mrs. Herbert Stevens' and 'Climbing Lady Hillingdon' pages 146,147 |
These two bush roses were raised it 1910. The climbing sports occurred later and are seldom out of flower from midsumuner till autumn. Representing fragrance eludes us, but both are truly tea-scented. In fact ‘Lady Hillngdon’ is descended from two noted old Tea roses, ‘Papa Gontier’ and ‘Madame Hosts’. On the other hand, ‘Mrs. Herbert Stevens’ combines the delicate, perpetual-flowering Tea ‘Niphetos’ with the vigour of the scentless Hybrid Tea ‘Frau Karl Druschki’; both of these are white. The yellow tint of ‘Lady Hillingdon’ was derived from early crosses made between Rosa moschata, the ancient European Musk rose, with ‘Parson’s Pink China’, a rose treasured in China for a thousand or more years. Records indicate that this hybrid China rose reached England at the end of the eighteenth century and was probebly first seen in flower at Kew in 1795. Though we do not know when it was raised, ‘Parson’s Pink’ is considered to be a cross between R. chinensis and R. gigantea, owing its repeat-flowering habit to the latter. It also had in its make-up the propensity to produce hybrids with long, large petals and pale yellow colouring; to these characters R. gigantea added vigour, but tendemess. It is recognised today that the early hybrids with both ‘Parsons’s Pink China’ and ‘Parks’s Yellow Tea-scented China’, the Tea-Noitettes, were not only the first yellow or yellowish climbing roses but are still among the most recurrent, witness ‘Desprez à flenr jaune’ (1830), ‘Célite Forestier’ (1842) and ‘Gloire de Dijon’ (w853). Some of the earliest hybrids owe their vigour, late-flowering habit, and intense fragrance to R. moschata. These warm or delicate yellows were raised long before the bright yellows derived from R. foetida and its forms, which did not see light until after 1900. It is unfortunate that the brilliance of the hybrids of this century has won the battle for popularity, for though the Tea Noisettes and Tea roses are not imperturbably hardy they have many other excellent attributes, their unique scent being one of them. I have on many occasion been asked what is this “scent of tea.” I can only say that a sniff of a good flower reveals the same aroma as a fresh packet of China tea. This scent it inherited from R. gigantea itself, the species that transformed the old European roses with their short, numerous petals into the long gracious flowers which we associate with today’s best Hybrid Teas. There are times in the day when the fragrance of ’Lady Hlllingdon’ gives a delicious whiff of tea; at others it resembles apricots. This is a strange fact because no other early-twentieth-century variety had its remarkable apricot-yellow colouring and few have been raised with it since; one of the nearest is the repeat-flowering new English rose raised by David Austin and kindly named after myself. To this marvellous colour, as rare today as it was it 1910, the rich mahogany cite of ’Lady Hillingdon’s young foliage presents a wonderful complement. The original bush forms of these roses are seldom seen today, for the reason, presumably, that they are inclined to nod their blooms. This defect in a bush rose it transformed into an asset on a climber when one can so readily appreciate a flower looking down upon one. On a sunny wall it an equable climate they can ascend to fifteen feet or more; they should be pruned at the end of winter, removing weak small growth. |
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last modified September 29,
2002