My paper on Hume's Blush Tea-Scented China

Ian, it could be in her/their book, the article I mean.

Balinbear wrote:Thanks Bruce.

Our "Hume Blush" does not break any records so far as growth goes and only really interested to see if Agnes Smith is the same rose.

I had a look at HMF last night and the nodding flowers etc look exactly the same so I suspect that it is. I still have no idea where we purchased ours from originally as we got the original one probably 10-15 years ago.

Gary

Hi Gary,

Agnes Smith grows like a weed here on the Darling Downs. Mine are still in pots and I always seem to be cutting them back as the branches end up 6 foot high. Mind you we've had several cooler than average summers and cold, cloudy winters. Who knows what might happen if ever we get an extended heatwave one summer. I do think it would grow strongly in the garden. I recommend growing it on its own roots, not grafted, and give it some space. It may not like being too close to other roses and plants. The flowers have the very best fragrance of any rose I reckon, and it flowers freely, though in bursts.

Maybe we should swap cuttings to see how your "Hume's Blush" compares with my "Agnes Smith". By the way, where did you source your "Hume's Blush" and did you buy it under that name?

Incidentally, Ross Roses maintain that they did have the actual repeat-flowering "Hume's Blush" in the past, but despite searches in recent years they must have either misplaced or lost it. I wonder if this rose may have ended up as the "Irene Watts NOT" and it could even be the source of "Agnes Smith" and "Blakiston Tea". However the presumption does seem to be that the Rookwood and Blakiston Cemetery roses could have even pre-dated the introduction by the Ross family. This part of the story is a mystery. At least the current photo of "Irene Watts" on their web page looks identical to "Agnes Smith"!

Ian

roseman wrote:Ian, it could be in her/their book, the article I mean.

Seems likely. I recall once before someone told me about an "article", but it turned out to actually be a preface in a book.

Any help or hindrance from Rustons on how "those" roses came into our gardens.

Ian

I have planted a cutting from a plant which we have called "Irene Watts" (the original plant died soon after so we were lucky we did a cutting) next to one from our "Hume's Blush" to see what they looked like.

I asked Lee where she thought we got the 'Hume's Blush" from and she though maybe Hilltop Nursery in Victoria (they don't see roses anymore) or possibly a Heritage Rose Nursery that was up this way about 10-15 years ago. The one we have is a cutting from the original plant that was never really healthy (it was a budded plant) so you may be right about growing it from a cutting.

Very strange needing to cite something that you have not used in an article. Maybe acknowledge that someone else had done some similar work on this but it was not available but citing it seems very strange.

Having grown Blakiston Tea and Agnes Smith together both in pots and in the garden for some years, I am now convinced they are not the same. They are however very similar.

Blakiston Tea is much more robust and upright wherever I have seen it, whereas Agnes Smith tends to be smaller and more bushy/twiggy. I also suspect Blakiston Tea is more thorny as it is always grabbing me whenever I go near it. Blakiston grows faster and the stems put on more thickness and length than Agnes Smith.

Hi Ian, good to see you are still around. How is the the paper for the journal going, did you get over the "citing" part of "Tea Ladies" book ?

I haven't had a chance to put pen to paper unfortunately.