Magazine  (2000)  Page(s) 6. Vol 22, No. 2.  
 
Margaret Willison: Dear editors, I met a lady at a patchwork meeting who mentioned she’d been to France on a Heritage Rose Tour. I told her about my interest in the Rossi family and she said you might be interested. I had written to Peter Cox when I bought his book and he said that he didn’t have any information on Rossi although Rose Marsh of Jam Valley in Western Australia grows his rose ‘Firefly’. I wonder who would best be asked to grow cuttings of ‘Firefly’ so it doesn’t get lost? When I showed Brigadier Keith Rossi (the grandson) the photo Peter sent me, he said that it was thornless and his grandfather always said the Americans bred from it.

Magazine  (2000)  Page(s) 10. Vol 22, No. 3.  
 
Patricia Routley: Dear Editors, Margaret Willison has forwarded me copies of photographs and articles relating to B.V. Rossi which I have found of most interest.
There are one or two sentences within this information which leads me to question the breeding date of 'Firefly' of 1912 as suggested by Peter Cox in his book 'Australian Roses'.
In a newspaper clipping from the 'Ivanhoe News', Victoria, of December 12, 1930, a journalist writes: Mr Rossi, senior, however, did not discard his harness, as for the past seven years until physical disabilities prevented, he, in his private garden, devoted his time to the raising of rose seedlings by artificial cross-pollination.
In an article that Margaret has sent me (I don't know where this is from but she has written on the top of the page 'Heidelberg Hist. Society since 1836'), there is a picture of the Rosanna district about 1914 and a heading of 'Ivanhoe Horticultural Society'. The page number is 71. One paragraph reads:
... Mr Rossi's book Modern Roses in Australasia, published in 1930, was acclaimed throughout the world as a masterpiece in its field. Amongst the new roses he developed at Ivanhoe was his Firefly in 1933.
In B.V. Rossi's 1953 book Roses on page 28 he writes:
Since my retirement from active business I have devoted much time to the raising of seedling roses in the open ground.
And so I have gone to my typewriter and inserted in italics any references, and Rossi's age in bold type, into the articles and advertisements from the 'Australian Rose Annual'. I am still none the wiser, but I do favour the 1933 date rather than 1912 as he bought land for a new nursery in 1913 and that surely is not 'retirement'. Perhaps Margaret Willison could help further here.

The Editors: Patricia has provided us with a goldmine of information concerning B. V. Rossi, as well as copies of correspondence exchanged with Rose Marsh, Peter Cox and Margaret Willison regarding 'Firefly' - too lengthy to reprint in full but of considerable interest, nevertheless.
Dr A.S. Thomas wrote of Rossi that “his English was never good” claiming that his friend, journalist and rose exhibitor, S.E. Frederick. 'ghosted’ his books and articles for him; and yet another friend of Rossi, R. T. Hamilton, wrote: “He was a cultured man ... I visited him in 1948 when he produced a much thumbed copy of Dante’s Inferno with many marginal notes in pencil. He was not happy with some of the translations into English, and the marginal notes were, he claimed, improvements which he hoped to publish!”
And of Mr Rossi’s formula for a liquid manure of “one pint animal liquid, one shovelful of gypsum, one wineglassful wood soot, one shovelful of wood ash, one tablespoon nitrate of potash to forty gallons of water ...”, Patricia makes the comment that she feels for Mrs. Rossi wondering where her pint measure, her wine glasses and her tablespoons keep disappearing to!

Book  (1999)  Page(s) 38.  
 
Fire Fly – 1912. Large Flowered Bush rose. no longer available.

Magazine  (1999)  Page(s) 24. Vol 21, No. 4.  
 
Rose Marsh: Several years ago a dear friend gave me a potted rose with the following words. "This rose was grown from a cutting I had grown from a piece given me by my late step-father from his mothers garden, I am sure he called it Firefly.” Every rose book I possessed was searched for Firefly without success. It was not until reading Peter Cox's excellent book, Australian Roses, I spied on page 38 the following:
"Firefly large flowering bush. 1912. No longer available." I wrote to Peter and another rose enthusiast Patricia Routley and have enclosed their replies. I have heeded Peter's advice and next season Firefly should be available from Eildon Rose Garden, RMB 419 Kendenup, Western Australia 6323. I would like to say thank you to my dear friend Pat Schinzig for allowing her treasured Firefly to be shared and available once again. Yours sincerely, Rose Marsh

Following is an extract from Peter Cox’s letter to Rose, in reply to her letter:
Dear Rose, I received a letter from Margaret Willison of Rosanna in Victoria to whom I recently sent a copy of your photo of Firefly. She had shown the photo to Keith Ross who lives in her grandfather's house at Eaglemont and he said it is the rose Firefly. His grandfather did not think that it was a "terribly good rose" but had hoped that the Americans would use it as a parent plant as the rose is thornless .... It looks as though you have a treasure in your garden. Bred in the same year as Alister Clark's Lady Medallist 1912 it is jointly the second oldest Australian Hybrid rose still around. Penelope, bred by John Williams in 1906 being the oldest. I am wondering if you or one of your local nurseryman would be able to propagate the rose, it can then be re-introduced to general cultivation ....

Following is an extract from Patricia Routley’s letter to Rose, in reply to her letter:
Dear Peter and Rose, “B. V. Rossi’s....1953 reprint page 249....Firefly was a sport discovered by me on Rosomane Narcisse Thomas. Brent C. Dickerson has listed in the Teas supplement on page 87, Rosomane Narcisse Thomas.....

Book  (1953)  Page(s) 249.  
 
Firefly was a sport discovered by me on Rosemane Narcisse Thomas.

Article (newspaper)  (30 Oct 1936)  Page(s) 4.  
 
Thornless Rose Was Trick Of Nature
For 20 years Mr B. V. Rossi had experimented with a rose to try to obtain a new coloring. He got it, but he also got something he did not expect — a thornless rose which he has named Firefly. Mr Rossi exhibited it at the National Rose Society's Show. Until moves in the United States are completed he does not intend to attempt to commercialise the rose in Australia. He has sent blooms to the Hill Floral Product Company in America, which is interested in the possibility of the Firefly being the first of a new race of roses. Today, at his home in Ivanhoe, Mr Rossi told the story of his painstaking development of the Firefiy. "It is more than 20 years," he said, "since I noticed on an old tea rose now
out of cultivation — a peculiar bloom with flame colorings. They were streaks of red and yellow. "I budded eyes from its stem onto specially prepared stalks. Only an occasional bloom was true to the original. Many others did not retain the markings. "The problem was to fix the variety that would remain true. It was a process of constant bud selections. Season by season I drew nearer to the goal, until a couple of years ago the variety was fixed. "I then exhibited It at the Malvern show. This was its first appearance and it was awarded certificates of high commendation. The Firefly is a new departure in roses, and is positively thornless. Mr Rossi said that the new variety was also immune from rose wilt, a disease through which thousands of plants are lost every year. It was named Firefly because it suggested the flame appearance of the flower. The blooms are of medium size, but full, and are specially suitable for decoration.

Article (newspaper)  (28 Oct 1936)  Page(s) 3.  
 
THORNLESS ROSE AT SHOW
FIREFLY, a thornless rose with rich-hued flame-colored petals streaked in gold, is one of the star exhibits of the National Rose Society's Spring Show at the Melbourne Town Hall. Grown by Mr B. V. Rossi, of Ivanhoe, the noted Rosarlan, this rose has taken 20 years to evolve. A number of specimens appear in a decorated table class. Firefly is not yet on the market in Australia. Small, but full-bodied in form, it has, when in bud, streaky markings reminiscent of a variegated tulip.