LA FRANCE—Thue_ First Hysrip TEA 
Kazanlik. R.Damascena. (Ancient.) This is the famed perfume rose of 
the Balkans, grown there for generations in the production of attar of roses. 
Flowers are semi-double, in clusters mostly three to five, about 2% inches across, 
rosy pink. Plant is bushy, spreading, about four feet tall, well shaped and ‘‘with 
a bright and happy look.”’ 
Rated special mention in Roy Shepherd’s excellent article on Old Roses in 
the September, 1951, edition of ‘‘Flower Grower,’’ which we commend to your 
reading. 1.50 
Lady Penzance. H. Sweetbrier. (1894.) Similar to Eglantine in its 
apple-scented foliage but perhaps more graceful and moderate in growth-habit. 
The single flowers are a metallic coppery shade, in great spring profusion. 
3 for 4.00 each 1.50 
La France. H. Tea. (1867.) This is the first Hybrid Tea variety, which 
alone, should justify a place of honor in every rose garden. But La France needs 
no historical interest to merit that honor—the large, very double, silvery pink 
blooms, delightfully fragrant, are reason enough. We quote again from Mrs. 
Keays in ‘Old Roses’’—"‘With pleasure we relate the ancestry of this lovely forerunner 
of a great class, arose which ‘has staying powers which in horses and athletes win the race,’ 
says Dean Hole. From various sources we gather the story that Mme. Bravy, a Tea rose of 
1848, cream white, large and full, symmetrical and fragrant, beautiful and much admired, 
was pollenized with Mme. Victor Verdier, a Hybrid Perpetual of 1863, carmine-crimson, 
large and full, fragrant and of globular shape, considered outstanding in that class of 
superb roses. The result was La France.’’ This fine old rose is especially beautiful in 
climbing form. 
From the “‘Heart of a Garden,’’ by Rosamund Marriott Watson, we quote— 
“Brave in bright rose and silver, and scented like the gardens of Hesperides, that favored 
plot which contains my many bushes of La France is a place whereby to linger and give 
thanks. There are moments when I stay, loitering in the late blue twilight, to wonder 
whether there is any one of the pink roses quite so well-worth growing.” 2.00 
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