(1997)  Page(s) 147.  
 
But it was Nancy Lindsay's roses that we particularly went to see. We had had lists of her roses with lengthy descriptions, and were enthralled by her enthusiasm. The thought-provoking names poured from her. For some years i was frustrated by these names because I could not find them in any of the old French books in my possession, nor in the Lindley Library. At length the reason dawned on me. Finding an unknown rose in an old garden without a name she let her fancy run free and coined a name for it. Thus did the following names appear in commerce (in her own catalogue): 'La Tour d'Auvergne' which proved to be the Damask Oeillet Parfait

(1997)  Page(s) 143.  
 
Prior to the war Nancy Lindsay had been on a plant collecting expedition to Iran (Persia), concentrating mainly on the Caspian province to the north of the Elburz Mountains. She brought back a number of plants to Kew, new to cultivation: ..... and several roses. These were numbered and named by her: N.L. 292 'Ispahan' and....

(1997)  Page(s) 147.  
 
But it was Nancy Lindsay's roses that we particularly went to see. We had had lists of her roses with lengthy descriptions, and were enthralled by her enthusiasm. The thought-provoking names poured from her. For some years i was frustrated by these names because I could not find them in any of the old French books in my possession, nor in the Lindley Library. At length the reason dawned on me. Finding an unknown rose in an old garden without a name she let her fancy run free and coined a name for it. Thus did the following names appear in commerce (in her own catalogue): La Belle Gitara Exquisite almond-green bushes, spangled with glittering camelias of amaranthine-fuchsia ripening to a lucullian cardinal-purple.

(1997)  Page(s) 143.  
 
Graham Thomas: Prior to the war Nancy Lindsay had been on a plant collecting expedition to Iran (Persia), concentrating mainly on the Caspian province to the north of the Elburz Mountains. She brought back a number of plants to Kew.... N.L. 849 Rose de Resht, which is probably an Autumn Damask or even perhaps the 'Rose du Roi' - at all events, James Russell tells me it was growing at Castle Howard, Yorkshire, before the Second World War and also in France.

P147. Miss Lindsay's catalogue was a masterpiece of embroidery and exaggeration coupled with spelling mistakes and a more unbridled use of adjectives and adverbs than it has ever been my fortune to find excelled. Here are a few examples:
Rose de Resht N.L. 849. A curious rose of a similtude to the 19th century European breed of Hybrid Perpetuals but happened on in an old Persian garden in ancient Resht and owning its origin to the tea-caravans plodding Persia-wards over the Central Asian Steppes. Sturdy yard-high bushes of a glazed lizard-green, perpetually emblazoned with full camelia-flowers of pigeons-blood ruby irised with royal purple haloed with dragon-sepals like the painted blooms on oriental faience.

(1997)  Page(s) 146.  
 
But it was Nancy Lindsay's roses that we particularly went to see. We had had lists of her roses with lengthy descriptions, and were enthralled by her enthusiasm. The thought-provoking names poured from her. For some years i was frustrated by these names because I could not find them in any of the old French books in my possession, nor in the Lindley Library. At length the reason dawned on me. Finding an unknown rose in an old garden without a name she let her fancy run free and coined a name for it. Thus did the following names appear in commerce (in her own catalogue): Rose des Maures, another name without foundation, a rose now known as Sissinghurst Castle, commemorating the garden where it has so long been grown.

(1997)  Page(s) 144.  
 
But it was Nancy Lindsay's roses that we particularly went to see. We had had lists of her roses with lengthy descriptions, and were enthralled by her enthusiasm. The thought-provoking names poured from her. For some years i was frustrated by these names because I could not find them in any of the old French books in my possession, nor in the Lindley Library. At length the reason dawned on me. Finding an unknown rose in an old garden without a name she let her fancy run free and coined a name for it. Thus did the following names appear in commerce (in her own catalogue): N.L. 1409 Rose d'Hivers, a possible R. alba hybrid whose dainty white or palest blush flowers remain in bud formation for some days and are picked and dried for winter decoration.

The Curator at Kew kindly let me have budding eyes of these and other roses for my growing collection. A few years later I met Miss Lindsay and we exchanged visits. It was then that I was told that her roses and other plants had been lodged at Kew for safe keeping, as she had no garden to accommodate them, and that they should not have been given to anyone without her permission. I received a tirade by post a day or two later, of which I give the gist:
"I was stunned when I saw my precious 'Rose d'Hivers', N.L. 1409, in your nursery! I risked my life in the wilds of the Guilan Mountains to get that rose!................."
This little rose grows at Mottisfont, together with 'Gloire de Guilan' and 'Rose de Resht', but has never been shown or officially named.

(1997)  Page(s) 147.  
 
'Souvenir de la Bataille de Marengo' which turned out to be 'Russeliana' or ' Scarlet Grevillea', a R. multiflora hybrid.

(1997)  Page(s) 144.  
 
Prior to the war Nancy Lindsay had been on a plant collecting expedition to Iran (Persia), concentrating mainly on the Caspian province to the north of the Elburz Mountains. She brought back a number of plants to Kew, new to cultivation: ..... and several roses. These were numbered and named by her: N.L. 465 Sharastanek, which I have lost and should like to acquire again.

(1997)  Page(s) 146.  
 
But it was Nancy Lindsay's roses that we particularly went to see. We had had lists of her roses with lengthy descriptions, and were enthralled by her enthusiasm. The thought-provoking names poured from her. For some years i was frustrated by these names because I could not find them in any of the old French books in my possession, nor in the Lindley Library. At length the reason dawned on me. Finding an unknown rose in an old garden without a name she let her fancy run free and coined a name for it. Thus did the following names appear in commerce (in her own catalogue): 'Souvenir de la Princesse de Lamballe' which proved to be Bourbon Queen