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'Bloomfield Abundance' rose References
Magazine  (Dec 2021)  Page(s) 15. Vol 43, No. 4.  
 
Ed: some updates.
 3. A rose discovered in the USA in 2012 by Judy Dean has been identified by Fred Boutin as the true Bloomfield Abundance, Thomas 1920. Although it has been described as ‘Cécile Brunner-like’, it is [cold-] hardier with larger flowers of a darker pink and distinctive glossy foliage.
Magazine  (2019)  Page(s) 51. Vol 41, No. 1.  
 
Margaret Furness.  Tea, Noisette and China Mislabels in Australia.
Poly-Teas and Chinas
The rose I grew up with as Bloomfield Abundance is incorrect, and is now called Spray Cécile Brünner. DNA testing indicates that it is a sport of Mlle Cécile Brünner.
Book  (2000)  Page(s) 120.  Includes photo(s).
Book  (2000)  Page(s) 121.  
 
‘Bloomfield Abundance’/’Spray Cécile Brunner’ = Polyantha… longs sépales qui pendent en étoile sous ses petites rosettes doubles, rose carné pâle… minuscule bouton de rose thé à leur corolle corolle nacré, un peu floue… parfum léger… grand rosier à port arqué, aux minces rameaux brunâtres un peu chichement garni de petites feuilles luisantes. Une certaine confusion règne entre ce rosier et un autre, ‘Spray Cécile Brunner’ (1941), sport de ‘Cécile Brunner’ qui parfois usurpe sa place… Thomas, US 1920. Sylvia x Dorothy Page-Roberts ou sport de Cécile Brunner’.
Magazine  (1997)  Page(s) 24-25. Vol 19, No. 1.  
 
Hillary Merrifield. the Many Faces of Mlle. Cecile Brunner.
....Just when the name Bloomfield Abundance was wrongly applied to the above rose is uncertain, though I have previously expressed the opinion that it did not come into general usage until the 1960s ( HRA Journal, Vol 18, No 4, p 32). The original Bloomfield Abundance was a 1920 Hybrid Tea, now presumed lost.
Magazine  (Dec 1996)  Page(s) 31-33. Vol 18, No. 4.  
 
Hillary Merrifield. The Real Bloomfield Abundance Stands Up.

(Following on from Peter Cox's article in HRA Journal 1996. Vol 18, No 3, pp. 37-39)

Yes - there really was a pink Hybrid Tea called Bloomfield Abundance, which was bred in the United States by George C Thomas and introduced in 1920. Its parents were Sylvia, (Paul, 1912), a dwarf Wichuraiana with pale yellow flowers, and Dorothy Page Roberts, (Dickson, 1906), a coppery pink Hybrid Tea. (Dickerson, 1992; Cox, 1996). However, its name has been usurped by another widely grown shrub rose which is very like Cecile Brunner in appearance, though there are obvious growth habit differences. The original Bloomfield Abundance was illustrated in the American Rose Annuals of 1920 and 1926, as well as in J. Horace McFarland's ‘Roses of the World in Colour’, 1937, p.24. The photograph in the latter book shows a rose whose typical Hybrid Tea growth habit is clearly unlike what we have been calling Bloomfield Abundance. The bush is densely foliaged with large, dark-green, very glossy leaves. The medium-sized double flowers are salmon pink and are borne singly or in small sprays. The sepals are short. McFarland says that Bloomfield Abundance was on the way to Thomas’ aim of producing an "ever blooming type of unusually strong growth." In 1920 George Thomas himself wrote of Bloomfield Abundance "A low hedge rose, or, if not cut back, a five to six foot (c 1.75 - 2m) pillar rose... blooms in sprays... A dainty little rose." (Dickerson, 1992.) The last mention that I can find among my books to the Hybrid Tea Bloomfield Abundance is in T.C. Mansfield’s ‘Roses’, published in England in 1943. The description reads:
"Bloomfield Abundance (HT) bears a decided resemblance to Cecile Brunner, in both colour and shape, but is larger in its flowers. The attractive flowers are double salmon-pink, with an orange base, and are freely produced both singly and in clusters upon exceptionally vigorous plants with varnished, dark-green foliage." (It was said to be moderately fragrant and hardy). Cecile Brunner is listed as a Polyantha Pompon in the same book. The likeness of the buds and flowers to those of Cecile Brunner, which was also noted in 1924 American Rose Annual, p.94, is the probable cause of later confusion. Possibly Bloomfield Abundance was another casualty of the reduction in commercial rose-growing during the Second World War and died out at that time. I do not know if it was ever introduced into Australia
The first reference I can find to the name Bloomfield Abundance being applied to a rose which sounds like Cecile Brunner with giant sprays of flowers, is in Fairbrother (1965) and G. S.Thomas (1967), both of which were originally written in the late 1950s. The changeover could have occurred some time between 1943 and the late 1950s, possibly at the time when rose breeding and distribution started up again after World War Two. Records, labels and stock may have been lost and, as we all know, memory is not the most reliable guide in naming roses. However, Peter Beales (1992) says that he grew the so-called Bloomfield Abundance when working in E. B. Le Grice's Norfolk nursery in the early 1950s and that Le Grice had grown this rose under the Bloomfield Abundance name in the 1930s. Yet if Mansfield is correct, the original Bloomfield Abundance was still alive and well in England in the 1930s. Is it just possible that Le Grice was one of the sources of the name change, either in the 1930s, or more likely, after the war when he began to rebuild his nursery which is known to have suffered badly during the war years. (Raban, 1971). So - given that the name Bloomfield Abundance belonged to a Hybrid Tea, what is the rose which bears its name today? In another article I intend to look at the Cecile Brunner group and its various forms, and to give cultivation and genetic reasons why I think that the rose in question is a shrub form of Cecile Brunner.
Book  (Nov 1994)  Page(s) 151.  
 
Bloomfield Abundance Poly-pom. Description... The original plant was raised by George C. Thomas in the United States in 1920, a hybrid between 'Sylvia' and 'Dorothy Page Roberts'. It was an undoubted Hybrid Tea, with normal large flowers. Since that date an imposter -- though a very beautiful one -- has intervened, with a close resemblance to 'Mlle. Cécile Brunner' in its miniature flowers... some claim it is a sport from 'Mlle. Cécile Brunner'... ('Spray Cécile Brunner???)... Huge bushes of 'Mlle. Cécile Brunner' described by enthusiastic cultivators always turn out to be "Bloomfield Abundance".
Book  (Apr 1993)  Page(s) 55.  
 
Bloomfield Abundance Floribunda, light salmon-pink, 1920, 'Sylvia' (probably R.) x 'Dorothy Page-Roberts'; Thomas. Description.
Book  (1992)  Page(s) 17.  
 
China shrub; light pink; bears big sprays of many small double blooms, with whiskery sepals; growth upright, arching, 6 x 4 ft (1.8 x 1.2 m); leaf small, shiny, sparse, stems brownish; light scent. Claimed to be 'Sylvia' x 'Dorothy page-Roberts' from Thomas 1920; but it is thought likely the rose we see under this name is a 'Cécile Brunner' sport akin to 'Spray Cécile Brunne' from Howard 1941. OGR
Book  (1991)  Page(s) 243.  
 
Bloomfield Abundance Polyantha. G.C. Thomas, 1920. Parentage: 'Sylvia' x 'Dorothy Page-Roberts'. [Author cites information from different sources.]
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