Magazine  (2023)  Page(s) 51. Vol 45, No. 2.  Includes photo(s).
 
Margaret Furness.  Update on the Miniature Red China
In the mid-1990s, Pat Toolan found a red China rose with very small leaves compared to the flower size, on graves in two cemeteries in the Barossa Valley, and named them “Ebenezer Cemetery Mini-China" and “Habermann Cemetery Mini-China".  They are the same rose. The graves were dated from 1886 to 1905. The district was settled by Wends and Sorbs, (descendants of Slavic tribes) from 1842 onwards; some came from Prussian Silesia.   I later found two plants of what we now think is the same rose again in the former midwife’s garden in Hahndorf, 88 km further south as the crow flies, and gave it the study name “Hahndorf Midwife’s Mini-China”. The area was settled in 1839, also by religious refugees from Silesia; they were a tight-knit community for a long time, but communicated with other German-speaking settlements.....The flowers are semi-double to double, and can be quilled. They have a white eye which disappears as the flower darkens with age. Pat describes the scent as raspberry lifesavers. The Miniature China sets small hips, and is seed-fertile. It has few prickles. The original plants are about 1m high. The plant strikes readily from cuttings, but can be hard to establish. Discussions on HelpMeFind have suggested it is the same as “Oakington Ruby”, found in a cottage garden near Cambridge in 1933; this rose was said to have come from the grounds of Ely Cathedral c. 1873. It was taken to America where Ralph Moore used it as one of the three roses for the basis of his Miniature breeding-program. It has 14 chromosomes. A plant in the US in a semi-open greenhouse is 2.5 m high, but we know that Chinas will climb if need be, to reach the light. It has been suggested that the Miniature China is La Gloire des Laurencias, bred by Miellez before 1829, as a seedling of Miss Lawrance’s Rose.

Magazine  (2021)  Page(s) 22. Vol 43, No. 4.  
 
Margaret Furness.  Random Notes About Chinas. 
It’s likely they were shared around in Australia in the 19th century by seed as well as by cuttings. The many found Chinas show minor differences - Rookwood “J. Datson” is sweetly scented - but most of them (apart from the “Hahndorf Mini-China”) aren’t distinct enough to warrant individual write-ups. Rookwood “Jane Vaughan” is a single red with a white eye; it may be a local seedling, as Chinas do tend to throw singles.

Magazine  (2013)  Page(s) 39. Vol 35, No. 1.  
 
Pat Toolan.  Preloved Roses Become Today's Favourites.
....Back to the Barossa Valley roses with "Ebenezer Cemetery Miniature China" on the grave of Oswald Arthur Hampel who died in 1905 aged 11 months.  This miniature China has been found in in one other early Barossa Valley German cemetery as well as in Hahndorf in an old garden.  Several pots of this rose were available at the conference to purchase.  It is recommended that they stay in pots for a few years to help them get established. 

Book  (2011)  Page(s) 118.  Includes photo(s).
 
Photo. "Hahndorf Midwife's Rose".