(Sep 2019)  Page(s) 24.  
 
Another Geschwind rose ‘Gruss an Teplitz’ has also been grown all over north India on a large scale. Its appearance in such large numbers from the earliest times is quite surprising.

(Sep 2019)  Page(s) 23-24.  Includes photo(s).
 
Another heritage rose is again widely used for making garlands. We have given it the study name ‘Kakinada Red’, Kakinada being the name of a port town on the Bay of Bengal coast between Calcutta and Madras (now Chennai). This again is a Bourbon with a very sweet fruity fragrance with hints of apple, quite different from the damask fragrance of ‘Rose Edward’. DNA studies done in Canada have shown that this rose is the same as the one called ‘Pacific’ in Bermuda and ‘Maggie’ in the southern United States, and all of these have close links to a rose called ‘Julius Fabianics de Misefa’, which was bred by the Hungarian rose breeder Rudolf Geschwind in the 1890s. If Kakinada Red is actually a Geschwind rose it is indeed surprising that it seems to have reached India almost immediately after being bred. Its occurrence in Bermuda and the U.S. is equally surprising. Professor and rosarian Wang Guoliang however feels this rose came from China where it is known as ‘Baoxing’.

(Sep 2019)  Page(s) 24-25.  Includes photo(s).
 
Our favourite species rose, probably the only tropical species in the world, is Rosa clinophylla, once found in the most exotic locations in India and Bangladesh, particularly the “jheels” or lakes found throughout the Bengal area, as well as on the banks of forest streams of central India, on the isolated mountain of Mount Abu, in the Rajasthan desert of western India, and in southern India too. The discovery of this amazing species was made in the mid 1800s by a Mr. Rose, the aptly-named Superintendent of Post Offices whose jurisdiction was all of Bengal. His means of travel during the flood season was by boat on rivers and lakes, and once, while doing so, he found this rose rising out of the water. Specimens sent to François Crépin, the taxonomist in Belgium, were identified as Rosa involucrata, later renamed Rosa clinophylla. We must mention that, in the 1980s, when we searched for this rose to begin our hybridization program to create warm climate roses, we found only one plant in cultivation in Bengal, a region where in earlier years it was said to flourish, growing wild and in plenty.

(Sep 2019)  Page(s) 21.  Includes photo(s).
 
Coming to the Mughal Empire, from 1500 CE onwards, the first emperor of this dynasty Babur in his autobiography “Baburnama” wrote of introducing the musk rose from Persia (Iran) into India, along with the narcissus. Babur had his roots in central Asia, from where he invaded India, and the musk rose he refers to is Rosa glandulifera, now re-named Rosa moschata nastarana, the Persian form of the musk rose.

(Sep 2019)  Page(s) 24.  Includes photo(s).
 
We come now to an even more mysterious and still unidentified rose, our study name for it being ‘Telengana Pink’ for the place where we first found it in the 1960s—Telengana (which has now become a state) was part of the bigger state of Andhra Pradesh in central peninsular India. This rose is very much a China, with typical habit of growth. bearing light pink flowers with beautiful Hybrid Tea form at bud stage.