Article (newspaper)  (Jul 2010)  Page(s) 2.  Includes photo(s).
 
Patricia Routley: Those of us who travel up to Bunbury know of the large sign at Newlands pointing the way to the Mostly Roses Nursery. What a trap that was for unsuspecting husbands who had to wait and wait while wifey wandered the rows unable to tear herself away without at least one rose. A few years back a man called Ray Somethingorother brought some budwood of his favourite rose to Mostly Roses. He had grown this rose in Kings Park since the 1950’s and Mostly Roses came to love it too. For the want of a name, they temporarily called it “Ray’s Rose” and they pressed a plant on me in 2000. It was budded on to Fortuneana rootstock and was a deep salmon colour – a floribunda, said the nursery. I planted it in an appropriate spot for a smallish flori in the Wee Garden in a well dug hole and it thrived - one of the rare successes here (oh hoo-ray!) The rose flowers both singly and in clusters and has many petals and changes colour with the seasons to either rich salmon pink in spring, and in autumn a few less petals and salmon orange. In both seasons it holds its colour well and there is no fading. The leaf colour has a bluish tint that is a perfect background foil for the flowers and it was the leaf that helped me eventually identify this rose. It has a curious habit of rolling its edges under. Years later I visited the Pinjarra Heritage Rose Garden and next door, in front of the old Museum, was a small plant with the same leaves, and, oh joy, there was a faded but legible label - Spartan, 1955. It usually isn’t that easy, so when I visited the Mecca for rosarians, David Ruston’s garden in Renmark, I asked him to show me his ‘Spartan’. It was the same rose with the same leaves, but again, a much smaller bush. My plant eventually grew, an upright and bushy plant, unpruned for nine years, to about seven feet high. It stuck out like a sore thumb in the middle of The Wee Garden and I can’t help sometimes thinking I may have the climber instead of the bush, but the breeder himself talked in 1959 of ‘Spartan’ growing to “a great height”. ‘Spartan’ was quite a famous rose. Bred in 1947 by E. S. (Gene) Boerner, and introduced by Jackson and Perkins, USA in 1955, its photo graced the front cover of the American Rose Annual in 1950. The seed parent was ‘Geranium Red’, a floribunda introduced in 1947; and the pollen parent was the exquisite floribunda which Boerner also bred, ‘Fashion’, also introduced in 1947. Both ‘Fashion’ and ‘Spartan’ were awarded gold medals when they were introduced. I have never been able to find ‘Fashion’ but ‘Geranium Red’ resides in our garden and it is interesting to see both the parent and child rose and the similarities between the two.

Book  (Apr 1993)  Page(s) 570.  
 
Floribunda, orange-red, 1955, ('Aparte'); 'Geranium Red' x 'Fashion'; Boerner; J&P. Bud pointed; flowers orange-red to reddish coral, double (30 petals), high-centered, large (3-3 1/2 in.) blooms borne singly and in clusters; very fragrant; foliage dark, leathery, glossy; vigorous, bushy growth.

Book  (1978)  Page(s) 125.  
 
'Spartan' Medium   + - Coral  pink Remontant     P3  H3 
'Spartan' had a fine, rounded habit, and flowers above normal size for its time. It proved a  valuable parent; and transmitted its quality of varying its colour from summer to autumn. It was more  pink in summer, more orange in autumn. The habit of growth was also an advance, in covering the sides as well as the top with double flowers. It was bred from 'Geranium Red' x 'Fashion', raised by Eugene Boerner, and introduced by J &  P in 1955.

Website/Catalog  (1978)  Page(s) 22.  
 
Rosiers Pleureurs Hauteur : 180/200 cm - Sujets à isoler sur pelouses ...Spartan

Website/Catalog  (1973)  Page(s) 8.  
 
Rouge orange...Spartan ...50/60

Book  (1971)  Page(s) 32.  
 
Spartan [McGredy is talking about using this rose in hybridizing] will usually produce progeny with small flowers of good form and fragrance...

Website/Catalog  (1970)  Page(s) 10.  Includes photo(s).
 
SPARTAN. — ...... Fleurs doubles et de forme ravissante, d'un chaud coloris rouge orangé clair adouci de corail et de saumon. 70 à 80 cm.

[no longer listed in 1979]

Book  (1968)  Page(s) 60.  
 
Mrs. Heather Rumsey.  The Best Of The Floribundas.   
Coming down to a slightly more salmon orange we have Spartan, and this is probably the greatest of them all with a flower of orange shadings. 'Spartan' will, I expect, be known to all of you; it has a well shaped double flower which does not burn, and it seems to be able to cover itself in bloom continually. Although by no means new, I cannot see this variety bowing out for any contender in the near future. Incidentally, this variety is the parent of quite a few of the best of the more recent Floribundas.

Magazine  (Nov 1965)  Page(s) 4. trimester, p. 9.  Includes photo(s).
 
Spartan

Website/Catalog  (1964)  Page(s) 29.  Includes photo(s).
 
SPARTAN (Jackson et Perkins 1955). Fleurs bien doubles orange intense de très bonne forme, coloris très frais. + [conseillées pour fleurs coupées de plein air].