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It was a great pleasure to hear from a member of such an esteemed rose breeding family! Over the years, I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to grow a number of Verschuren roses, including Apricot Queen Elizaneth, Rosa Verschuren, Poker and White Swan, in addition to Hortulanus Budde.
At the peak of my rose growing activities, I maintained a garden of about 5,000 roses in addition to operating the EuroDesert Rose Nursery, which was dedicated to importing rare roses from Europe, holding the plants in quarantine as required by law and then propagating and selling hundreds of varieties that I had imported from Europe.
Sadly, the timing of opening the nursery was poor, as the economic downturn of 2008 occurred just as I was getting underway. After pouring personal funds into the nursery for several years, I was forced to close EuroDesert Roses and all plants in the garden were made available to those interested. The winding down period lasted for over a year.
I have searched through my records and foud that my plant of Hortulanus Budde was donated to the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden in 2011. I have sent an email message to Jill Perry at the 'Heritage' and asked her if the plant is still alive and whether she might have anything to contribute to your efforts. I also saw that my good friend, Ingrid Wapelhorst, has photos of this variety posted on HelpMeFind and I have also contacted her to see if she might have something to contribute.
Unfortunately, my original rose photos are stored on a large number of storage disks and at this point it is virtually impossibe for me to locate photos of any particular rose. You are most welcome to use any photos I have posted on HelpMeFind, if they would be helpful, and you couod take these from the HelpMeFind site or I could do this for you and send them to you by email.
For the past 13 years, I have lived in the California low desert, where the summer heat has become more brutal with each passing year. This summer we hit a new record of 127F, which is the equivalent of 52.7C, and I have changed my focus from roses, which did not fare at all well in the desert summer heat, to plumeria, which tend to survive out summers far better.
I will be in touch again when I receive responses from Jill and/or Ingrid.
With best regards,
Cliff Orent
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