Choosing a rose for the garden can be a daunting task, as the growers’ catalogues tempt us with an ever expanding range of new and fashionable varieties.  But some roses from the past have qualities that, even now, are hard to match, and are well worth growing.

Described by rose experts Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix as ‘some of the very best of all garden roses’ hybrid musk roses are a small group of repeat flowering shrub roses, developed in the early 20^th century by the Reverend Joseph Hardwick Pemberton (1852 – 1926).  Characterised by generous clusters of loosely double flowers in subtle shades of pink, apricot, white and pale yellow, they lend a romantic atmosphere to garden borders.

A fascination with roses seems to have run deep in the Pemberton family.  Joseph Pemberton’s grandmother grew roses, as did his father, who regularly attended rose shows in search of new varieties for the family’s garden at the Round House at Havering-atte-Bower, close to Romford in Essex.

As a child, Pemberton would regularly accompany his father to rose shows held at Crystal Palace, and following his father’s death in 1874, began entering rose competitions.  He enjoyed some success, firstly with help from the family’s gardener and then from various rose specialists he encountered at the shows. Later, with a reputation as one of England’s finest amateur rose exhibitors, Pemberton would travel to rose shows across the country accompanied by his sister Florence, also a rose enthusiast, with their prize-winning blooms.

The stars of the rose shows in the 1870s were hybrid perpetual roses like ‘La Reine’, ‘Générale Jacqueminot’ and ‘Madame Edouard Ory’.  With their enormous double flowers these repeat flowering roses were some of the most popular in the Victorian garden.

Pemberton grew hybrid perpetual and hybrid tea roses like these for competitions, but he was nostalgic for the ‘old’ roses he remembered from his grandmother’s garden and regretted there was no appropriate category to display these roses at the shows.  In the introduction to his book, Roses: Their History, Development and Cultivation (1908) Pemberton remarks that ‘the old-fashioned roses – like Cinderella were left at home’.

The ‘old’ roses Pemberton was referring to included varieties like ‘Maiden’s Blush, Aimée Vibert, Rosa Mundi, Red Provence, and Lucida’.  Once, he took a box of these roses to a National Rose Society show in Kensington and ‘staged them, not for competition, labelled ” Grand- mother’s Roses’.  The roses attracted ‘considerable attention’ from visitors who enjoyed re-discovering these ‘forgotten favourites’.  One of the reasons ‘old’ roses had declined in popularity was that they flowered only once, finishing in July.

As well as showing roses, Pemberton had a keen interest in hybridisation, believing that amateur growers could make a significant contribution to raising new garden worthy varieties.  By the late 1890s thousands of rose seedlings were produced annually by Pemberton using the garden and glasshouses at the Round House, with his sister Florence, gardener John Bentall and his wife Ann Bentall all involved in the project.  Around the time of his retirement as an Anglican minister, he set up a business with Florence offering roses for sale to the public.

Most of the roses introduced by Pemberton that we know today were the result of a systematic programme of hybridisation using Rosa ‘Trier’, a hybrid multiflora rose introduced by Peter Lambert in 1904, crossed with various hybrid tea roses.  ‘Trier’ shared some of the qualities possessed by the ‘old’ roses Pemberton admired, including large trusses of semi-double flowers and a good scent.  Crucially, Trier was repeat flowering, giving Pemberton the best chance of producing roses with a similar form to the older varieties he loved, but that would repeat throughout the season.

His hybrids using ‘Trier’ produced some highly successful results.  ‘Danae’ and ‘Daphne’ (1913) were some of the first of Pemberton’s hybrid musk roses to be introduced, followed by Rosa ‘Pax’ in 1918, named to celebrate the end of the first World War, and winner of a gold medal.  ‘Cornelia’, ‘Penelope’ and ‘Felicia’ were introduced in the early 1920s and new roses were released after Pemberton’s death in 1926.

John and Ann Bentall who continued to manage the rose fields at Havering-atte-Bower, also kept up Pemberton’s hybridisation work and introduced ‘Autumn Delight’, ‘Buff Beauty’ and ‘Ballerina’ in the 1930s.  It is thought their son Jack continued the rose nursery until the 1970s.

Pemberton’s hybrid musk roses have qualities that make them ideal for contemporary gardens.  For naturalistic planting schemes, the open structure of the flowers attracts pollinators, and both their form and subtle range of colours make them easy to associate with other plants, including wild flowers.  Their long flowering season is an advantage for those of us with small gardens, and most will tolerate some shade.  Although some varieties are now scarce, many such as ‘Felicia’ and ‘Cornelia’ have remained popular and are widely available.

Collections of Pemberton’s hybrid musk roses can be seen at Dutton Hall in Lancashire and (by appointment) at the St Francis Hospice, Havering-atte-Bower, based at Pemberton’s former home and gardens.  Rose breeders have continued the development of new hybrid musk roses, in particular Kordes in Germany, and Lens in Belgium.

Here follow some photographs of some of Pemberton’s hybrid musk roses and links to further reading below.  Most of these images are supplied by visitors to rose gardens who have uploaded their work to Wikimedia Commons.  Many thanks to them for their generosity in sharing their work.

Further reading:

Rev Joseph Hardwick Pemberton Wikipedia here

Essex Gardens Trust Rev J H Pemberton here

Plant Heritage National Collection Pemberton and Bentall’s Hybrid Musk Roses here

Pemberton Rose Garden at the St Francis Hospice here

The Ultimate Guide to Roses (Macmillan 2004) Roger Phillips & Martyn Rix

Rose suppliers:  Trevor White Roses, Peter Beales Roses, David Austin Roses

If someone asks me what my favourite plant is, my response will always be influenced by whatever’s in season at that moment.  Daffodil buds in March, or hawthorn in May have such powerful immediacy they overwhelm my memory of other flowers blooming at other times of the year.

But if I were to consider the question in terms of building a garden, the answer would have to be roses.  As well as providing summer flowers, their many forms and sizes from shrubs to climbers give structure to a garden, and also inform its character.  At Sissinghurst dozens of varieties, many with historic connections create a sense of abundance with their large, double flowers, whereas at Beth Chatto’s garden the smaller mostly single blooms harmonise with her naturalistic planting style.

Roses also have the ability to transport us back in time.  As a volunteer at the Geffrye Museum in 2016, I recorded these roses in the period gardens, all chosen as popular examples of roses typically grown in English gardens from the 17th to the 20th centuries.

Major expansion works are currently underway at the Geffrye and until the gardens re-open again in 2020, this is a reminder of those extraordinary roses, with some notes about their names, and origins.

I should mention my bible for this research was the Ultimate Guide to Roses by Roger Phillips and Martin Rix (2004).  I also consulted John Gerard’s Herball or General Historie of Plantes (1597) available at the Biodiversity Heritage Library (link below).

‘The white rose hath very long stalkes of a woodie substance, set or armed with divers sharpe prickles’, says John Gerard in his Herball or General Historie of Plantes (1597)  He describes the leaves as ‘somewhat snipt about the edges, somewhat rough, and of an overworne greene colour.’

Named after the French painter Henri Fantin-Latour around 1900.  With its large, pink, fragrant flowers it has the look of the well known centifolia roses that feature in 17th century flower paintings.

This rose is not Shakespeare’s eglantine – but a modern hybrid from the English rose breeder David Austin

A rambling rose.  ‘Small, neat, fully double flowers in large clusters and a fetching name make this a favorite rose.  It has a good musk scent, and is a sister seedling of ‘Adelaide d’Orleans’, raised by Antoine  Jacques in 1827, and named after his daughters.’ from The Ultimate Guide to Roses Roger Phillips and Martin Rix 2004

This rose with it’s sweet fragrance and splashed petals seems to epitomise the spirit of the 17th century garden.

This rose, thought to be the red rose of Lancaster is also known as the apothecary’s rose in recognition of its supposed medicinal qualities.  In his Herball or General Historie of Plantes of 1597 John Gerard describes roses as ‘the most glorious floures of the world’, dedicating an entire chapter to them.   His recipe for conserve of roses, to be taken twice a day, is said to strengthen the heart and ‘take away the shaking and trembling thereof’.

Moss roses were hugely popular in the Georgian and Victorian periods.  The flower stalks and sepals (covering the flower buds) are covered in slightly spiny green hairs which resemble moss.  These roses are strongly scented.

A minature moss rose.

‘Raised by Guillot in Lyon, France in 1895, with well shaped, fully double flowers throughout the season ..  The colour varies from salmon to pale pink or white tinged with pink.’   The Ultimate Guide to Roses Roger Phillips and Martin Rix 2004

‘A China-Bourbon hybrid.  The flowers are cupped, plain lilac-pink, fully double, with firm petals, with a delicate scent.  The stems have few thorns, and he smooth leaflets are bluish beneath.  Raised by Marcheseau in France in 1834, probably  from ‘Parson’s Pink China’ crossed with ‘Mme Desprez’, a pink Bourbon.’  The Ultimate Guide to Roses Roger Phillips and Martin Rix 2004

This rose is a short climber only flowering once – but such flowers!  They are followed by large orange hips.

Another rambling rose from the 20th century garden – still popular today.  ‘This lovely rose, a cross between  R. luciae and the Tea ‘Shirley Hibberd’ was raised by Rene Barbier in Orleans, France in 1900.  The flowers are pale yellow in bud, opening white and very double, on reddish stalks; the leaves have shining, widely spaced leaflets.’  The Ultimate Guide to Roses Roger Phillips and Martin Rix 2004.

Further reading:

The Herball, or, Generall Historie of Plantes

The Ultimate Guide to Roses (2004) by Roger Phillips & Martyn Rix
copies still available from Abe Books https://bit.ly/2RgmAVa

Children’s books from the 18th and 19th centuries are endlessly fascinating – not least for what they reveal about adult attitudes towards children.  Today’s child-centered stories are very different to children’s literature from two hundred years ago, where the child reader is often assumed to be a miniature adult, with an adult’s outlook and sensibilities.

On the surface, Bilderbuch für Kinder or the Picture book for Children, published in Germany in 1802, might be seen as a classic example of this ‘mini adult’ genre.  The vast range of topics discussed in this encyclopedia including animals, butterflies, birds, ships, national costumes, Roman ruins and volcanoes are serious adult subjects certainly, but here are presented for children in a way that represents the best in educational literature.  Somehow the book levels with the reader, addressing children in straightforward language they can understand, and never patronising them.  There’s an assumption everything will be of equal interest to both boys and girls, and the scope of the subjects discussed shows genuine ambition for readers to understand and take delight in the world around them.

Bilderbuch für Kinder was published by Friedrich Justin Bertuch (1747 – 1822) who, as well as being a publisher and translator, also had a business making artificial flowers.  His picture book was published in monthly installments (like a magazine) from 1790 to 1830 and there are twelve volumes in all.  Bertuch’s personal interest in natural history is evident, with dozens of beautiful illustrations of insects, minerals, plants and animals with information about them.  It’s interesting to see that each subject commentary appears in German, French, English and Italian.  Perhaps this was partly to maximize sales across the four countries, but it also seems appropriate to a project discussing European knowledge and culture in its broadest sense.

The entries about roses may well be an example of adults projecting their own interests onto children, but are fascinating today for anyone interested in the development of the garden rose over the centuries.  At this point, a limited number of roses were available, although this was all about to change later in the 19th century as breeding new varieties became fashionable.

I hope you’ll get a sense of the extraordinary quality of the Bilderbuch für Kinder from the illustrations of the roses below.  With two roses featured in each plate, the character of each rose is expertly conveyed, from the buds, to the texture of the leaves and especially in the velvety tones of the darker blooms.  Unfortunately, I cannot discover who the artist was (there might be a signature at the bottom of some of plates, but too small to make out).  I’ve included the English descriptions of the individual roses where I have managed to find them, for their clarity and detail of description.

There are links to some digital versions of Bilderbuch für Kinder I’ve found at the bottom of the post – do have a look for yourselves.

Further reading:
The Internet Archive has two digitised collections of rose illustrations (and some text) from the fourth and fifth editions of Bilderbuch für Kinder.  I’ve also included links to digitised versions of the longer versions of Bilderbuch für Kinder as they are a delight and well worth dipping into.

Rosenbilder Vierter Band
Rose pictures with text in German and French (1802)

Rosenbilder Funfter Band
Rose pictures with text in German (1805)

Bilderbuch fur Kinder
This version at archive.org has the text about some of the roses in four languages – but no pictures of them.

Bilderbuch fur Kinder
This version is at the University of Heidelberg

Bilderbuch fur Kinder
Another version from the Hertzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek

Friedrich Justin Bertuch