Ma Perkins, Mme Caroline Testout, Constance Spry, Belle Isis, Dainty Maid, DT Poulson, Mme de Tartas, Lady Fitzwilliam, Mary Rose, Baroness Rothschild, Chaucer and Duchesse de Montebello – all parents, grandparents, aunts or uncles, great aunts or great uncles – or cousins – of LD Braithwaite – who is David Austin’s brother in law!
Confused, you will be: here’s a list of the roses used in some of the early David Austin breeding programmes and the resultant roses. How two non-repeating (and often indifferently fragrant) rose varieties can produce a completely different, beautiful, fragrant and repeat-flowering offspring however, means you will have to dig further back into their family histories and I know that David Austin Roses have a Super Computer to work out their modern crosses – going on to 140,000 a year of them!
Time for a tea-break I think…
David Austin English Roses – early varieties/hybrids and where they came from – their immediate breeding crosses
Abraham Darby Floribunda Yellow Cushion x Modern Climber Aloha (itself bred from New Dawn)
Admired Miranda The Friar x The Friar
Brother Cadfael Charles Austin x seedling
Canterbury (HT Monique x Constance Spry) x Seedling
Charlotte Seedling x Graham Thomas
Charles Austin Chaucer x Aloha
Charles Rennie Mackintosh (Chaucer x Rugosa Conrad Ferdinand Meyer) x Mary Rose
Chaucer Duchesse de Montebello x Constance Spry
Chianti Dusky Maiden x Gallica Tuscany
Constance Spry Gallica Belle Isis x Floribunda Dainty Maid
Cottage Rose Wife of Bath x Mary Rose
Eglantyne Giant Meyer x Mary Rose
Evelyn Graham Thomas x Tamora
Francine Austin Noisette Alistair Stella Gray x Ballerina
Gertrude Jekyll Wife of Bath x Portland Comte de Chambord
Glamis Castle Graham Thomas x Mary Rose
Glastonbury The Knight x seedling
Golden Celebration Charles Austin x Abraham Darby
Graham Thomas Charles Austin x (Floribunda Iceberg x seedling)
Heritage Seedling x (Iceberg x Wife of Bath)
John Clare Wife of Bath x Giant Meyer (possibly a seedling of Conrad Ferdinand Meyer)
Jude the Obscure Abraham Darby x Windrush
LD Braithwaite Mary Rose x The Squire
Leander Charles Austin x seedling
Lilian Austin Modern Climber Aloha x The Yeoman
Mary Rose Wife of Bath x The Miller
Also sporting to become Winchester Cathedral and
Redoute Sport from Mary Rose
Molineux Golden Showers x Seedling
Noble Antony (Lilian Austin x The Squire) x (Fragrant Cloud x Glastonbury)
Pat Austin Graham Thomas x Abraham Darby
Pegasus Graham Thomas x HT Pascali
St. Cecilia Wife of Bath x seedling
St Swithun Mary Rose x (Chaucer x Rugosa Conrad Ferdinand Meyer) (itself a rugosa cross with Gloire de Dijon)
Sharifa Asma Mary Rose x Admired Miranda
Shropshire Lass HT Mme Butterfly x Alba Rose Mme Legras de St Germain
Tamora Chaucer x Rugosa Ferdinand Conrad Meyer
The Alexandra Rose Shropshire Lass x Shopshire Lass x Heritage
The Friar Ivory Fashion (Boerner) x Seedling
The Herbalist Seedling x Bourbon Rose Louise Odier
The Pilgrim Graham Thomas x Yellow Button
The Prince Lilian Austin x The Squire
The Squire The Knight x HT Chateau de Clos Vougeot
The Knight Chianti x Gipsy Boy seedling
Wife of Bath HT Mme Caroline Testout (itself Mme de Tartas’ x ‘Lady Mary Fitzwilliam) x Floribunda Ma Perkins (itself Red Radiance’ x ‘Fashion) x Constance Spry
Windflower Shropshire Lass x seedling
Windrush Canterbury x Golden Wings (itself ‘Soer Thérèse’X Rosa pimpinellifolia altaica) X ‘Ormiston Roy’)
Yellow Button Wife of Bath x Chinatown
In the headline – Mme de Tartas’ x Lady Mary Fitzwilliam create Mme Caroline Testout; DT Poulson is one parent of Dainty Maid.
The parentage of more recent David Austin varieties does not seem to be available – new ‘parents’ and intensive back-crossing will probably make these all very, very complex family trees!
I recommend the book David Austin’s English Roses New Edition with photographs by Clay Perry published in 1996 (ISBN 1 85029 784 3) for much of the information noted here – which does not appear in later publications, at least those I have – and Roger Roses for filling in some of the gaps!
The Teddington Gardener 