Roses of the Postwar World 
Forty years ago, Mrs. Brownell 
and J, at our summer home at Little 
Compton, R. I., with a knowledge of 
rose culture limited to the admira- 
tion of catalog pictures, started a 
rose garden. Hybrid teas were plant- 
ed because they were expected to 
bloom all summer long. 
L. C. Bobbink, not long before, 
had imported into this country the 
first of the hybrid teas. Mrs. Harriet 
Foote had not then told American 
gardeners how to spray or dust and 
winter them. Among the early va- 
rieties in that new garden were La 
France, Lady Hillingdon, Mme. 
Caroline Testout, Columbia, Bon Si- 
lene, Lady Ursula, Maman Cochet, 
Red-Letter Day, Kitchener of Kar- 
toum, the first General MacArthur 
and many others. 
We also planted a dozen or more 
of the Rosa wichuraiana hybrid 
climbers, including Dorothy Perkins, 
several by Walsh and later the large- 
flowered ~arieties produced by Dr. 
Walter Van Fleet. Of those climb- 
ers, except a few that have been 
removed, nearly all are there today, 
performing as well as ever. But not 
the hybrid teas. Few, if any, were 
alive in the following spring. 
Forty years ago, then and there, 
came this question to us: Why can 
the hybrid wichuraiana climbers live 
in health and vigor without protec- 
tion or controls, and the everbloom- 
ing garden forms, under the same 
culture, fail so quickly? Had we 
known the problems involved, we 
should undoubtedly have let the mat- 
ter rest. But being young and hope- 
ful, we decided to do something 
about it. 
Less than five years before, Men- 
del’s paper had been rediscovered, 
and the science of genetics was in 
its beginnings. A couple of years of 
botany under Professor Bailey laid a 
shaky foundation for a postgraduate 
study with the patient Professor 
Walter, whose textbook on genetics 
is used in over 500 colleges. Later 
some of the leading cytologists and 
biological chemists kindly sought to 
help us. So we have fumbled through 
the task of taking from the climbers 
their sturdiness and putting it into 

Excerpts from talk given by Walter D. 
Brownell, of Brownell Rose Research Gar- 
dens, Little Compton, R. I, at the an- 
nual meeting of the New England Nurs- 
erymen’s Association. 
By Walter D, Brownell 
hybrid teas, through inheritance, by 
hybridizing. 
Today, after spending those long 
years in the work, and much money 
supplied by other rose friends, we 
realize there are many things we do 
not know about Rosa wichuraiana 
hybrid teas, There have been some 
theories formulated, and there are a 
few things that we have learned. 
Why was Rosa wichuraiana chosen 
to produce these hybrid teas? Be- 
cause Rosa wichuraiana hybrid 
climbers have lived for forty years 




Wichuraiana Hybrid Tea Rose, 
Shades of Autumn. 
and more, with flowering omitted 
only following winters of some 15 
degrees below zero, temperatures 
that kill the wood to the ground 
level. Because those climbers require 
no spraying or dusting; because they 
are vigorous; because their floresence 
is intense. As compared with that 
performance, the average amateur 
gardener has had to replace his hy- 
brid teas time and again, with a dis- 
couragement that has caused many 
to give them up. We all know that 
the rank and file of hybrid teas are 
not so sturdy as the hardy climbers. 
The species Rosa wichuraiana itself 
has foliage free from premature de- 
foliation on account of black spot. 
It is vigorous and resistant unpro- 
tected to the low temperature of 
about 15 degrees below zero. These 
characteristics have, by inheritance, 
been extensively incorporated into 
climbing hybrids. They can be in- 
corporated into hybrid teas, with the 
dwarf everblooming habit substituted 
for the climbing habit. 
Why has this not been done by 
rose breeders? There are _ several 
viewpoints from which this question 
may be answered. From the nurs- 
eryman’s angle, it is because rose 
breeders have not bred hybrid teas 
for sturdiness, winter resistance and 
longevity. 
From a certain horticultural stand- 
point it seems to have been a com- 
mon belief that in the crossing of hy- 
brid teas with wichuraiana climb- 
ers the resultant dwarfs were no 
hardier than the tender hybrid tea 
parents; in other words, that the 
sturdiness and resistance of Rosa 
wichuraiana could be bred into the 
climber by inheritance, but that it 
stopped there and could not be car- 
ried on into hybrid teas. 
From the scientific angle of the 
geneticist, the reason that the hybrid 
teas have not become so sturdy as 
the wichuraiana climbers, as resistant 
to black spot, as winter resistant, as 
cumulative in growth, with a longev- 
ity of forty years and more, is only 
that breeding for these garden 
rose betterments and genetics have 
never become sufficiently intimate. 
That is to say, the breeders have 
never sufficiently extended their 
breedings along these lines in a scien- 
tific, genetic manner. Jackson Daw- 
son, Walsh, Horvath, Van Fleet and 
Captain Thomas all produced from 
crosses of hybrid teas with wich- 
uraiana climbers resultant hybrid tea 
dwarfs. But genetics then had not 
sufficiently progressed to tell them 
that all the desired characters could 
be combined in the hybrid tea bush 
form, to produce flowers of merit 
equal to the best of the hybrid teas. 
The Brownells have by no means 
progressed so far as that. They have 
only made a beginning; they have 
produced some such varieties, and 
this thesis has been proved. Some of 
the selected varieties so hybridized 
have all of these things. Many va- 
rieties in being come close to this 
ideal. 
Selected varieties from a few more 
generations will produce breeders 
that will in a few succeeding years 
possess the characters that, com- 
bined, will give a variety of bloom 
on hybrid tea plants with this com- 
plete collection of desired characters. 
Or, to put it casually, this is a new 
race of roses, with everything of 
merit that the hybrid tea has to of- 
fer and also with the sturdiness of 
