Halo Sunrise Ancestors 1

What’s still green: Arborvitae, juniper and other evergreens, Apache plume, a few roses, cholla, prickly pear, yuccas, red hot poker, grape hyacinth, hollyhock, winecup, large-leaved globemallow, oriental poppy, St. John’s wort, vinca, white sweet clover, alfalfa, sweet pea, flax, beardtongue, snapdragon, coral bells, rock rose, sea pink, large-leaved soapwort, columbine, pink and yellow evening primroses, perky Sue, Shasta daisy, tansy, anthemis, protected Mexican hat, coreopsis, purple aster, cheat grass, bases of needle and June grasses.

What’s grey, blue-grey or grey-green: Piñon, pinks, snow-in-summer, yellow alyssum, winterfat.

What’s blooming inside: Christmas cactus, aptenia, asparagus fern; .rochea and Christmas cactus leaves tinged with red.

Animal sightings: Coyote out Wednesday morning when I was leaving for work.

Weather: Snow Monday afternoon, followed by rain early Tuesday that left ice in shady places; 8:27 hours of daylight today.

Weekly update: Whenever I flip through books about roses and see ancestry notes like ‘Anytime’ x ‘Angel Face,’ I wonder what would happen if I followed every line back until it faded into an unknown. Last week I did it for Ralph Moore’s Halo Sunrise, and now know I’d find the names of 184 hybrids, 14 species, and many dead ends.

The most recent generations are dominated by floribundas, the polyantha-tea crosses first introduced by Dorus Theus Poulsen in Denmark in 1912 with Rödhätte. As soon as Henri Louis Correvon released Roulettii in 1922, men began trying to introduce the miniaturizing gene from Rosa chinensis into other roses. Poulsen’s compact bushes with their many stems of small rose clusters were the most likely ones to provide aesthetically pleasing small plants.

Polyanthas themselves resulted from an attempt to combine the virtues of tea roses with the rambling habit and multiple flower head of Rosa multiflora. Jean-Baptiste André fils introduced the first, Pâquerett, from unknown parents in France in 1873.

However, the path to creating a successful floribunda-miniature cross was not simple, and apparently included the use of more species. In the fourth generation back, Jan de Vink crossed a polyantha in some intermediate generations with a rugosa hybrid, an unknown climber and an unknown hybrid tea to make the pollen for the first commercially successful miniature, Tom Thumb.

Moore combined Tom Thumb with one of his own polyantha-floribunda crosses to produce the parents of Zee, his miniature stock. He next combined Zee with a wichurana to create the plant that Sam McGreedy combined with a floribunda to produce the parent of the Halo roses.

The first five generations of Halo Sunrise, back to Tom Thumb, follow.

Gen 1
Halo Sunrise - 1997 - Ralph Moore - miniature
(Anytime x Gold Badge) x Angel Face
Gen 2
Angel Face - 1968 - Swim - floribunda
(Circus x Lavender Pinocchio) x Sterling Silver
Anytime - 1973 - Sam McGredy IV - miniature
New Penny x Elizabeth of Glamis
Gold Badge - 1978 – Paolino - floribunda
Poppy Flash x (Charleston x Allgold)
Gen 3
Allgold - 1956 – Le Grice - floribunda
Goldilocks x Ellinor Le Grice
Charleston - 1963 - Meilland International - floribunda
Masquerade x (Radar x Caprice)
Circus - 1956 - Swim - floribunda
Fandango x Pinocchio
Elizabeth of Glamis - 1963 - floribunda
Spartan x Highlight
Lavender Pinocchio - 1948 - Gene Boerner - floribunda
Pinocchio x Grey Pearl
New Penny - 1962 - Ralph Moore - miniature
(Rosa wichuraiana x Floradora) x seedling of Zee
Poppy Flash - 1973 - Meilland - floribunda
(Dany Robin x Fire King) x (Alain x Mutabilis)
Sterling Silver - 1957 - Fisher - hybrid tea
Seedling x Peace
Gen 4
Alain - 1948 - Meilland - floribunda
(Guinée x Skyrocket) x Orange Triumph
Caprice - 1948 - Meilland International - hybrid tea
Peace x Fantastique
Dany Robin - 1958 - Meilland International - floribunda
Goldilocks x Fashion
Ellinor Le Grice - 1949 - E. B. Le Grice - hybrid tea
Mrs. Beatty x Yellowcrest (or)
Lilian x Golden Dawn
Fandango - 1950 - Swim - hybrid tea
Charlotte Armstrong x seedling
Fire King - 1959 - Meilland International - floribunda
Moulin Rouge x Fashion
Floradora - 1944 - Mathias Tantou - floribunda
Baby Château x Rosa roxburghii
Goldilocks - 1945 - Gene Boerner - floribunda
Seedling x Doubloons
Grey Pearl - 1945 - Samuel Davidson McGredy III - hybrid tea
(Mrs. Charles Lamplough x seedling)
x (Sir David Davis x Southport)
Highlight - 1957 - Herbert Robinson - floribunda
Seedling x Independence
Masquerade - 1949 - Gene Boerner - floribunda
Goldilocks x Holiday
Mutabilis - 1934 - Henri Correvon - tea
Rosa chinensis x Rosa odorata gigantea
Found on La Réunion for Vitaliano Borremeo, 1870's
Gilberto Borromeo display in Geneva, 1894
Peace - 1942 - Meilland - hybrid tea
(George Dickson x Souvenir de Claudius Pernet)
x (Joanna Hill x Charles P. Kilham)
x Margaret McGredy
Pinocchio - 1940 - Kordes (2x) - floribunda
Golden Rapture x Eva
Radar - 1953 - Meilland International - hybrid tea
Charles Mallerin x Independence
Rosa wichurana - species
China, Japan
M. E. Wichur send to botanical gardens in Munich and
Brussels, 1861
Spartan - 1955 - Gene Boerner - floribunda
Geranium Red x Fashion
Zee - 1940 - Ralph Moore - miniature
Carolyn Dean x Tom Thumb
Gen 5
Baby Château - 1936 - Wilhelm J. H. Kordes II - floribunda
Aroma x (Eva x Ami Quinard)
Carolyn Dean - 1941 - Ralph Moore - climber
Seedling, Etoile Luisante x Sierra Snowstorm
Charles Mallerin - 1951 - Meilland International - hybrid tea
(Rome Glory x Congo) x Tassin
Charles P. Kilham - 1926 - Samuel Davidson McGredy III -
hybrid tea
Unknown
Charlotte Armstrong -1940 - Lammerts - hybrid tea
Soeur Thérèse x Crimson Glory
Doubloons - 1934 - Michael Henry Horvath - species hybrid
Rosa setigera x hybrid of Rosa foetida bicolor
Eva - 1933 - Kordes - shrub
Robin Hood x J. C. Thornton
Kordes say Ophelia strain
Fantastique - 1943 - Francis Meilland - hybrid tea
Ampère x (Charles P. Kilham x ( x Capucine Chambard))
Fashion - 1949 - Gene Boerner (3x) - floribunda
Pinocchio x Crimson Glory
George Dickson - 1912 - Dickson - hybrid tea
Unknown
Geranium Red - 1947 - Gene Boerner - floribunda
Crimson Glory x seedling
Golden Dawn - 1929 - Patrick Grant - hybrid tea
Élégante x Ethel Somerset
Golden Rapture - 1933 - Kordes - hybrid tea
Rapture x Julien Potin
Goldilocks - gen 4 (2x) - floribunda
Guinée - 1938 - Mallexrin - climber
Souvenir de Claudius Denoyle x Ami Quinard
Holiday - 1948 - Gene Boerner - floribunda
McGredy's Pillar x Pinocchio
Independence - 1951 - Wilhelm J. H. Kordes II (2x) - floribunda
Baby Château x Crimson Glory
Joanna Hill - 1928 - H. H. Hill Co - hybrid tea
Madame Butterfly x Miss Amelia Gude
Lilian - 1931 - Benjamin R. Cant & Sons - hybrid tea
Unknown
Margaret McGredy - 1927 - Samuel Davidson McGredy III -
hybrid tea
Queen Alexandra Rose
Mrs. Beatty - 1926 - Benjamin R. Cant & Sons - hybrid tea
Unknown
Mrs. Charles Lamplough - 1920 - Samuel McGredy II -
hybrid tea
Frau Karl Druschki x seedling
Moulin Rouge - 1952 - Francis Meilland - floribunda
Alain x Orange Triumph
Orange Triumph - 1937 – Kordes - polyantha
Eva x Solarium
Peace - gen 4 - hybrid tea
Rosa chinensis - species
Nikolaus von Jacquin’s name for hypothetical species
Closest plant in nature is subspecies spontanea
Guizhou, Hubei, and Sichuan
Found in Yichang by Augustine Henry, 1885
Rosa odorata - species
Hypothetical species
Possibly Rosa chinensis x Rosa odorata gigantea
Found in Yunnan
Rosa odorata gigantea
NE India, N Myanmar, Yunnan, N Thailand, N Vietnam
Collett send to Europe from upper Myanmar, 1888
Rosa roxburghii - species
China, Japan
Introduced to England through Calcutta by East India Co.
Sold by Colville’s Nursery, 1825
Sir David Davis - before 1926 - Samuel McGredy II - hybrid tea
Unknown
Skyrocket - 1934 - Wilhelm J. H. Kordes II - hybrid musk
Robin Hood x J.C. Thornton
Southport - 1930 - Samuel Davidson McGredy III - hybrid tea
(George Dickson x Crimson Queen)
x Souvenir de George Beckwith
Souvenir de Claudius Pernet - 1920 - Joseph Pernet-Ducher -
hybrid tea
Constance x seedling
Tom Thumb -1935 - Jan de Vink - miniature
Roulettii x Gloria Mundi
Roulettii x (Gloria Mundi, unnamed seedling climber,
F. J. Grootendorst and/or yellow hybrid tea) (patent)
Yellowcrest - 1935 - Le Grice - hybrid tea
Unknown

Notes: Ancestries mostly drawn from the Helpbefind.com website and Botanica’s Roses, 2000.

Photograph: Dead flowers of Angel Face, father of Halo Sunrise. It’s a hipless and conventionally thorny floribunda hardy enough to survive this past week’s cold; 12 December 2009.