Metaphorically ‘blue blood’ does not run freely in the veins of roses, but this has not deterred rose breeders over the years from seeking out the elusive blue gene, in the quest to provide us with a blue rose. Why I really do not know, for personally I have no great desire for a sky-blue […]

Much ink and many words have gone into defining the term “repeat-flowering”. For my purpose I take it to cover any rose that can be depended on in a normal season to bear blooms in summer and in autumn. Today we take such behaviour in a rose for granted, but in terms of rose history […]

The true heralds of the age of repeat-flowering roses are the Chinas. And by now the story has moved well into their era. Indeed, as early as 1529 what, according to Graham Thomas, appears to be a pink China rose was depicted by the Florentine painter Angelo Bronzino, but as far as anyone knows it […]