From a ‘big box store’ here in Australia I purchased a bare rooted Gertrude Jekyll. (It came with the AUSbord David Austin tag). Its first flower is not quite what I was expecting (not lolly pink, full, delicate) from any images I have seen of this rose. Although the colour is difficult to capture and few images do show a faint darkening deeper into the petals or slightly lighter reverse, mine in no way has the appearance of GT blooms, across the board:
crimson with pinkish edging
highly contrasting, paler reverse
very firm/meaty petals
fragrant but not as sumptuous as anticipated
disappointing petal count
white petal bases
“Deane Ross” has GT as a seed parent but (my inexperienced eye) couldn’t see anything usefull in Hyde’s dark heart.
Do I have an imposter or am I expecting too much this early in Gertie’s career?
Can another Australian indicate whether my first rose purchase was a bit misguided or whether Bunnings is a reliable source of Austin roses?
Does the ‘heart’ look good for anything?
If it is not a Jekyll, who is hiding in there, please?
There is no universe in which that is Gertrude Jekyll. I’m not sure what it is, but maybe more photos as the flowers open would help someone propose potential IDs.
The pistils appear to be well developed. While there are more factors involved in fertility, and viability as a parent, you could certainly try pollinating it and see what happens.
Thank you Stefan! I know from from a lot of reading around the site that your opinion is one to value so I really appreciate it that you took the time to reply. I will definitely follow up with more blown stages of the blooms. Some might consider it to have quite exceptional qualities however none of them are what I was looking to breed for. It is flowering at the early end of the spectrum (which is a Gertie trait…) so nothing, in my yard, to brush it with at this point except itself. A later flowering (?) may provide more opportunities - I will certainly make some attempts, out of curiosity.
I would love to have some feedback from other Australians too, in particular regarding Bunnings as a source.
most definitely not Gertie, as mentioned.
Also, there is no mistaking her exceptionally powerful old rose fragrance.
I am not aware of any English Rose having that color effect on the edges of the petals. Perhaps it was simply mislabeled? Can you check their site to see what other roses are offered, maybe you can find it there?
Duane
Thank you for your input Duane. I checked online but being late in the season for purchasing, all remaining stock seems to have been potted up and selling as generic “assorted” PBR roses. Locally, instore, there have been no remaining candidates anyway. ‘Hyde’ certainly doesn’t have the kind of scent that makes you want to cup the bloom in both hands, close your eyes and bury your face in it…
A strong contender! Of the half dozen images in HMF a couple of the blooms of Maxim (Tantau 2016, not 1961 or 1993) have strong similarities. Some petals are more heart shaped though, whereas Hyde’s has a tendancy to points. HMF make no mention of the BSpot that Hyde looks prone to…(The modern Tantaus would be breeding this out I imagine?)
Definitely, of the scents detected (on the savoury side, shall we say, overall…), tea is present (also not a fave.) Mine is a young plant but even so I would not say it is a “small clusters bloom form” but rather an individual stem form. Therefore a hybrid tea would seem to be on the right track. Thank you Marshall.
Hi @pavlovais
Rather than having to guess on all of HMF, just check the Bunnings catalog. It’s probably another one of their other roses, possibly with a name beginning in that region of the alphabet.
However, Bunnings appears to be a hardware store, so they must purchase their roses from an outside supplier. So a likely possibility is that the mix-up happened at their supplier. In that case try to ask Bunnings for their supplier’s catalog to scan for potential candidates.
I thought it might be a simple search of all available David Austin Australia roses…but it appears that they utilize many licensed nurseries for that supply, unlike the UK where they are all grown in Shropshire.
If you could find the nursery that supplies GJ, that would definitely help.
I remembered to do what any 13 year old would have told me to do in the first place… Do a google image search .
And look what I found on the Kansas City Rose Society site!
Opening that image in its own new tab reveals the name of the rose embedded in the image’s filename–Take It Easy–but from HelpMeFind, it seems like that one doesn’t always express the subtle color gradient seen in that image, or yours. That could be the case for any other ID contenders, too.
Thank you again Stefan, I did eventually find a way into the details of that image. I really can’t see ‘Hyde’ in the Take it Easy images (except for one on Alamy…) TiE is described as red, already my two blooms are larger than 3" and the plump, shiny buds of TiE just don’t look right.
After a few days ‘Hyde’ blooms still hold their shape (flatish cup? very little curling of petals) and colour. I will update pictures of blooms ageing further as you suggested.
Another passing contender was Flaming Peace / Kronenbourg but those blooms are huge and, besides, there is no hint of yellowish tones in the reverse of ‘Hyde’s’ petals.
Hello Marshall, One of the buds actually is developing a second bud so I have to update my comment. ‘Hyde’ is shaping up to be a small cluster bloom form.
I would love it to be right Marshall but Cherry Bomb has teeny weeny little blooms - “Hyde’s” are over 3" already. However I did notice today that 3 to 7 leaflets is a charachter shared by them both. Thank you for continuing to search and make suggestions.
The kindly folk at Kansas City Rose Society did indeed respond (and patiently negotiated my doubts…) And, as indicated by Stefan, “Take it Easy” was proferred as the identity. Following the initial, two toned blooms, the next crop of blooms did indeed develop into the colouring of Take it Easy. Not Gertrude Jekyll…
Might be worth trying as a seed parent if you’re interested. I pulled some immature hips off Take It Easy from a local hardware store and it had just over 100 developing seeds across 6 hips
A very welcome tip thank you vadr! My disappointent at missing out on Gertie is great but I can see opportunities with the present colour (& fertility!) of Take it Easy.
If it’s any additional consolation, Gertrude Jekyll has been a downright lousy seed parent for me (I haven’t tried it enough as a pollen parent, so I can’t really comment on it from that standpoint–that would be the only worthwhile direction to take after my experiences with it). Most seeds from my crosses on it haven’t germinated at all. Recently, three finally did after almost a year in stratification, all in a two-week period. I was excited at first, but all three now appear to be stunted mutants of one variety or another. It will set hips filled with seeds, but they’re fool’s gold as far as I can tell.
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