ABOUT THIS ROSE
BRINDABELLA
GARDENS, home of Australia’s BLACKSPOT BUSTER roses, announce
the upcoming release in Australia of the first in the unique EYEOPENER
SERIES TM roses. This release flags a generational change in roses.
EYEOPENER roses have eyes! Decades of breeding, using the very
rare Hulthemia persica (syn Rosa persica) have resulted in fixing
an EYE at the base of each rose flower, reminiscent of oriental
poppies, tree peonies and dianthus.
In
1974, English rose breeder Jack Harkness, began a quest to incorporate
the eye at the base of Rosa persica flowers into modern roses.
Unfortunately, persica offspring were very weak and prone to terrible
bouts of disease. They were very ill thrifty and mostly sterile.
Rosa persica was in fact not a rose at all it was later determined
by botanists and reclassified as a separate sub-genus Hulthemia.
Incredibly though, Harkness managed to raise 1 fertile seedling
and named it “Tigris”.
In
the early 1980’s another English rose breeder, Chris Warner
became enchanted by the “eye” and while still an amateur,
managed to buy a plant of “Tigris”. By a stroke of
genius, Warner made crosses with an erstwhile unheard of rose
called “Baby Love”. This rose was later in the 1990’s
to become the breakthrough parent used by rose breeders all over
the world, to overcome blackspot and mildew. It is a parent of
“Brindabella Bouquet” released in Australia some 5
years ago, which remains completely resistant to blackspot and
mildew.
From
his early crosses, Warner produced 6 seedlings in 1986 naming
them Tag, Tog, Tug, Tingle, Tang and Tiggle. The healthiest was
Tiggle but after years of crossings with it, nothing worthwhile
was produced. In another stroke of good fortune, Chris’
friend Peter James crossed a seedling of Tingle with his Blackspot
Buster rose “Blue For You” , producing a strongly
perfumed, free flowering floribunda named “Eyes For You”.
The flowers have 2 rows of petals that start out cream in the
bud and open to pale mauve/white with a large royal purple eye
in the centre. Stamens are golden yellow which show up beautifully
against the purple eye. The perfume is strong and classed as fruity
damask style.
Chris
and Peter have produced a number of other coloured Eyeopener roses
from these crosses which will be released in due course .
This
is a fairytale story where hard work and good judgement have melded
to produce a truly wonderful new rose plant for gardeners everywhere.
The flowers
are reminiscent of poppies and peonies, and are well perfumed.
Repeat flowering is good. This rose is a Brindabella Blackspot
Buster™ and
so is wonderfully easy to grow*. Bushy growth 1.2m X 1m.
*EYEOPENER and
BLACKSPOT BUSTER ARE TRADEMARKS OF BRINDABELLA COUNTRY GARDENS
AND MAY NOT BE USED WITHOUT PERMISSION.
