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Noisettes

From Brent Dickerson:
"Just after 1800, John Champneys of Charleston, South Carolina, crossed a pink China (traditionally supposed to be 'Parsons' Pink') with the Musk Rose R. moschata, and obtained a large-growing shrub with clusters of lightly fragrant pink blossoms, `Champneys' Pink Cluster'. A neighbor there, Philippe Noisette, planted its seeds and grew a plant which was similar but dwarfer, and which had larger clusters of doubler flowers, `Blush Noisette'. Philippe Noisette's brother happened to be a major French nurseryman in Paris, and it was through this latter that the rose found commercial release around 1815.

The industrious French breeders soon went to work, and within ten years, there were more than a hundred Noisettes in the catalogs in colors from white to crimson-purple. The new yellow Tea showing up about that time, it was crossed with the Noisettes, with a result which fundamentlaly changed the Noisette group; the blossoms became larger, the clusters smaller, and the plants more Tea-like, with an inclination towards "climbing." The group reached its apogee or indeed apotheosis in 1853 with the release of one of the most beloved roses of all, the climber `Gloire de Dijon'.

Further climbing Noisettes, mostly in shades of yellow or pinkish yellow, were released through the turn of the century when newer, hardier climbers of different background took the fore. The seemingly final stage of Noisettes, returning them much to their original concept of multi-flowered shrubs, was coming with the development of the Hybrid Musks (comprising crosses between Noisettes and Hybrid Teas, etc.) in the 1910's, 1920's, and beyond."

Original photographs and site content © Paul Barden 1996-2003