Article (newspaper)  (Dec 2011)  Page(s) 2.  Includes photo(s).
 
Patricia Routley: The spring flowering Albertine is one of the aristocrats of the climbers. It was bred in 1921 by one of the Barbier brothers in France from R. wichuraiana x ‘Mrs. Arthur Robert Waddell’, an old 1908 HT. He named his new rose after Marcel Proust’s heroine Albertine Simonet in the novel Remembrance of Times Past. Barbier differed from other breeders of ramblers who used hybrid perpetual on wichuraiana to produce roses like ‘Excelsa’. He used tea, hybrid tea and even pernetiana, but there seems to be little evidence of any black-spot-carrying pernetiana in ‘Albertine’ and it is a very healthy rose. The buds are a sure fire way to identify this one. Each cluster contains about six potential blooms and the first bud to come out will be a pure dark reddish salmon. Early in the season, the others will be a solid green before the sepals part to reveal the dark salmon colour. One by one, they bloom in their own time and join the throng. These buds are ‘Albertine’s signature. Each cluster of flowers is a bouquet studded with the dark salmon buds. The flowers are a light salmon or pastel pink, deeper on the reverse, a rather muddled bloom with about 20 petals & ten petaloids. Later the bloom dies most ungracefully and hangs on to its dead petals. Not in a spreading way, but losing all oomph in the petal and just collapsing to hang like a wet dishcloth in the middle of the pretty cluster. Then it is a really pleasant thing to quickly snap them off with a thumbnail and make the whole bush look beautifully pristine again. You can’t keep that up, of course, but early in the season it is a nice thing to do. The flowers are slightly fragrant. Albertine is a triploid and sets no hips and so it can put all its energy into producing many more blooms than the usual climbers and it makes an unforgettable massed display. Both of its parents have substantial prickles that ‘Albertine’ has inherited on its reddish canes. I am pleased to have both parents in this garden so I can see where it was coming from. One writer in a 1993 book has suggested it makes an ideal weeping standard. For gawsake – in Iceland it might, but here in warm Australia, it is a big grower reaching up to six metres. Pat and Trevor Halliday planted one years ago and Pat adores it. I get the impression Trevor is not too fond of its prickles. This is a massively growing rose in our area and when one or both owners are working, then sometimes you just have to walk past at pruning time. Eventually their rose grew to a size when it was going to smother the house, and Trevor decided enough was enough. He cut the trunk and took part of the fence down, reversed the truck in, tied a rope to both truck and rose, and revved. The debris apparently measured 3m x 3m plus. The rose thought its new haircut was wonderful and has sprung up again to once more grace the Halliday house veranda. Shifting the house is now being considered.

Book  (Feb 2009)  Page(s) 186.  Includes photo(s).
 
‘Albertine’: Hybride Wichurana. Obtenteur: Barbier 1921. Un rosier unanimement apprécié, donnant de bons résultats sous des climats et des sols divers… larges pétales ondulés, au pourtour irrégulier, …rosettes lâches, aspect à peine chiffonné mais opulent… sensible à l’oïdium. L’arbuste, quoique vigoureux, demande au départ une plantation soignée et une assistance vigilante pour s’installer…

Book  (2000)  Page(s) 70.  Includes photo(s).
 
‘Albertine’: Moderne - grimpant à grandes fleurs. Barbier, France, 1921. RHS Award of Garden Merit, 1921. …feuillage émeraude, elle étend ses rameaux pourprés, si souples qu’il faut les palisser à mesure de la croissance…

Book  (Dec 1998)  Page(s) 70.  Includes photo(s).
 
Albertine Large-flowered Climber. Barbier 1821. Description... deep pink to salmon with hints of copper...

Book  (Oct 1996)  Page(s) 9, 25, 88.  Includes photo(s).
 
Page 9: [PHOTO]
Page 25: [PHOTO]
Page 88: Albertine (1921) Rambler... loosely double, fragrant coppery pink blooms... The plant has one long midsummer flowering and is strong growing but not rampant

Book  (1996)  Page(s) 55.  Includes photo(s).
 
Albertine Rambler. This is the sort of variety that comes to mind when we picture the ideal cottage garden... best used where space allows it to grow naturally, with unproductive wood removed every third year or so. It is often planted inadvisedly against walls, where mildew may be troublesome.

Book  (1995)  Page(s) 188.  Includes photo(s).

Book  (Nov 1994)  Page(s) 238.  
 
Albertine... This is a shrubby climber or a lax bush, for while it is usually made to climb or ramble, it creates such a thicket of stems that it is far nobler when allowed to do as it likes among shrubs. Glossy leaves. Coppery pink... too well known to need description... Creating an unforgettable midsummer display...

Book  (Mar 1994)  Page(s) 100-101.  Includes photo(s).
 
Albertine Wichuraiana hybrid. Barbier 1921. Description and vital statistics... pastel apricot pink, not for harsh conditions...

Book  (Nov 1993)  Page(s) 48.  Includes photo(s).
 
A Wichuraiana Rambler