Happy Child – David Austin, 1994. Shrub, medium yellow, very double. ARS 8.0 rating. Very disease resistant in my garden. Sets some seed. Have to dig for pollen. 4 ft X 4 ft bush.
Irene Watts, China (Old Garden Rose). Guillot 1896. Soft pink. Repeat bloomer. Purchased from Heirloom Nursery in 1990’s as Irene Watts, a China rose. Lots of pollen. Sets some seeds. 4 ft X 4 ft bush. Good disease resistance.
You have to dig the pollen out because each anther is wrapped around by the petals. I have used its pollen, but I don’t have any results yet to publish about that. It has set some seeds, but I haven’t kept track of it.
There is no fading at all of the flower in bright sunlight. The last 7-8 years there has been no disease on it. It does get to be a good sized bush, unless you prune it back.
You don’t want to prune the blooming wood off. Holds up good under rain too. It’s just bursting out this week, then it will repeat throughout the summer.
You might want to change the tag on your “Irene Watts”, John. There is no evidence that anything sold in the US in the past half century-plus is anything other than Pink Gruss an Aachen. The story of that mix up is documented on Help Me Find.
Hi Kim, I think I will have to change the name from Irene Watts to Pink Gruss an Aachen. I’ve been aware that there was a controversy. The ARS handbook says Irene Watts should be Pink Gruss an Aachen.
You probably made out better that it is Pink Gruss an Aachen, John. It is significantly more cold hardy and mildew resistant than any pink “China” I’ve ever grown!
The Heirloom Roses catalogs listed my rose as Irene Watts from 1992 to the 2002. Here’s what Louise Clements said in their catalog: “IRENE WATTS: One of the most beautiful of the China roses. Actually it resembles the English Roses in form. Fully double old-fashioned blooms of flesh-pink produced in good numbers on a compact bush that is good for patio, pot or garden. Peter Beales says: “This is a very lovely little rose” and I agree.” I just looked Irene Watts up in HelpMeFind and it lists Irene Watts with the same description that Louse Clements gave: China Rose, Guillot (1896). One of HelpMeFind’s photos of Irene Watts’ bloom looks just like my plant.
Louis Clements made many trips to Germany and England and met with Peter Beales. No matter what its name, my rose has been a great success and is very cold hardy and has good disease resistance.
I have no doubt Mr. Beales and Mrs. Clements found it as they described it. However, what we have in the US as Irene Watts was sent by Mr. Beales to Mike Lowe of Lowe’s Own Root Roses in Nashua, NH. He gave it to The Huntington where I propagated it and began distributing it to nurseries and selling it at the Huntington Plant Sales. Unfortunately, Mr. Beales sent Pink Gruss an Aachen. At a spring Rose Festival, we were cutting flowers from all over the garden for David Ruston to use in his presentation. “Irene Watts” that I rooted from Mike’s cuttings seemed much too similar to the Pink Gruss an Aachen which had been commercial stock planted in the gardens decades before. I cut matching material from both and showed it to all the “experts” in attendance, including David Ruston. The verdict was unanimous, they were the same rose. Mr. Beales was informed of that and he maintained until his death he had the “real” Irene Watts, though he never provided photographs of that plant to differentiate it from what he had identified as the “real” one and exported here, which IS Pink Gruss an Aachen. If the Clements ever imported the real Irene, they never advertised the fact. They did, however, purchase several hundred, one gallon, own root roses from the Huntington Symposium in 1996. “Irene Watts” being one of them. I helped John select what he wanted.
Hi Kim, Thanks for your exhaustive report. Both bushes, Gruss an Aachen and the rose in question, are in full bloom side by side now. They both look identical except for color - branches, blooms, and size.
