Article (newspaper)  (May 2015)  Page(s) 2.  Includes photo(s).
 
Patricia Routley: In 1995 I was still under the impression that roses had to be grafted on to a rootstock. It took a few years for me to grow out of that misconception. In our heavy loam, most own-root roses grow, not well, but OK, though they do take a little more time to make a respectable bush. I was buying the odd plant from the Digger’s Garden Club at that time and they had a deal going with Treloar Roses. A rose I purchased in 1995 from Diggers/Treloar was Penelope. This is a 1924 hybrid musk rose bred by the Reverend J. H. Pemberton in Havering, Essex, UK. How I wish the next door town, Pemberton, had run with my 2002 proposal of growing Pemberton’s hybrid musk roses all through their town, for Hybrid Musk roses are informal cluster-flowering, repeat-blooming shrubs of great beauty. Yes, I know the local Pemberton man was a different person altogether, but the climate is similar to the town where many of the hybrid musk roses were bred. News is now coming through that the Hospice in the town of Havering U.K., is seeking as many of Pemberton’s roses as they can find, to grow as a tribute to their famous rose breeder. As a child, the Rev. Pemberton loved his grandmother’s roses. Later, while his peers were struggling to breed the new hybrid teas, he was reaching back into his childhood and trying to recreate lovely informal clustering roses that would out-bloom even his grandmother’s roses. He certainly succeeded. My original bush of ‘Penelope’ on multiflora rootstock is still struggling along under a tree these days, but a cutting I took of it in 1998 has prospered in the Wee Garden. It would repeat with more generous flowering if I deadheaded it, but I just never get around to that sort of thing and so it sets a massive crop of coral coloured round hips. In their own way these hips are quite decorative and it seems every bloom sets a hip and in this garden they stay there until they fall off naturally. The bush has made a low spreading shrub of 1m high x 2m wide. It will make long canes and these are topped with the short-jointed, brown and thornless lateral canes zig-zagging about to make a dense cover. It is the most elegant of all the hybrid musks. The flowers are larger than the usual hybrid musk roses and are borne on the lateral canes. Peach-pink buds open to 20-25 wavy petals and the 8cm semi-double flowers are pale pink with creamy shading and they are borne in large clusters of open blooms which show off a glowing center of prominent stamens. Cool weather brings out the pink tones and if picked in bud, every bloom opens. They are set amongst dark blue-green leaves. It is sweetly fragrant and this rose is a lovely confection. It hates being pruned, and that’s OK with me.
The parentage was said to be ‘Ophelia’ x 'Trier' , but someone has thought that 'William Allen Richardson' was involved somewhere and I haven’t been able to solve that one.

Article (magazine)  (2010)  Page(s) 1781.  
 
Penelope, Earth-Kind Brigade, Hybrid musk, 1924, Joseph Pemberton, Ploidy 3x ....

Book  (Feb 2009)  Page(s) 218.  Includes photo(s).
 
‘Pénélope’: Arbustes à fleurs doubles. Parents: ‘Ophelia’ x semis de ‘William Allen Richardson’ ou de ‘Trier’? Obtenteur: Pemberton 1924. Description.

Article (magazine)  (2002)  Page(s) 409.  
 
Pénélope  Chromosome number 28  [Provenance: Guillot]

Book  (2001)  Page(s) 444.  
 
Plant Introductions in the period 1900-2000
1924 Rosa 'Penelope' Garden origin. Bred by Revd Joseph Pemberton, past President National Rose Society.

Book  (Apr 1999)  Page(s) 368.  
 
Penelope Hybrid Musk. Pemberton 1924. Parentage: 'Ophelia' x seedling. The author cites information from different sources... Shell-pink shaded saffron, borne in clusters...

Website/Catalog  (24 Oct 1998)  Page(s) 33.  Includes photo(s).

Website/Catalog  (23 Oct 1998)  Page(s) 36.  Includes photo(s).

Website/Catalog  (Jun 1998)  Page(s) 41.  Includes photo(s).

Book  (Apr 1998)  Page(s) 29.  
 
[The hybrid musks] do exceptionally well at Wisley Gardens… They are easy to cultivate and maintain, are usually free from disease. If they are pruned hard after the first flowering [there is]l often see a second flowering in the Autumn.