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In the neighboring small town of Nannup, 90 minutes drive from me, there used to grow two massive old tea roses. I believe they were ‘Mme. Lambard’ and ‘Lady Roberts’ (or is it ‘Anna Olivier’) and they were growing on the road side just north of a bridge on a rather steep embankment. They were very well known and every rosarian used to stop there and walk back along the road to see the roses from a closer angle. Cruising past slowly just wasn’t an option on the curved approach to the bridge, so we all used to stop and walk back. I loved those big teas so much that in 2000 I was inspired to write to the Nannup Shire Council to ask them to preserve the two old teas by the Nannup Bridge. I received a polite but non-committal reply.
I took cuttings and the ‘Mme. Lambard’ was so successful in 1997 that I now have three of them (as well as the two that came in disguised, and from other locations). The ‘Lady Roberts’ was more difficult. In those days I took winter cuttings and my failures are now understandable. Eventually I asked Natalee Kuser, a nurserywoman in Bridgetown, to bud me this rose. Unfortunately it is not doing half as well as my teas on their own roots.
Some background on these two roses. This information was given to me in August, 2000 by Mr. Twiss who had a bookshop in the ‘Old Templemore’ building mentioned below. “James Kearney came out in 1869 from McCroom in County Cork, Ireland as a political prisoner and was housed in the Warder’s House at Nannup. Later, James married Kathryn and they lived in and re-named the Warder’s House, McCroom. Their son, Thomas, was born there in 1879. James Kearney was a cobbler who used to service the south west on horseback. McCroom was mostly washed away with the floods of 1955. James’ son, Thomas, later built ‘Old Templemore’ on the other side of the river. The remnants of the old building ‘McCroom’ are still there and the roses next to the road are possibly part of Kathryn’s garden”.
Unfortunately, the roses are only just inside the fence of a private property and during the last five years, the ‘Mme. Lambard’ was severely sprayed to control the blue creeper that was out of control. It did not survive. The ‘Lady Roberts’ did and is still doing very well indeed for such an old rose. In April, 2007 Margaret Furness, Billy West and I made a detour to go over to Nannup and see this remaining rose. It was a beautiful sight, and even the deadly blue creeper threading its way through and flowering at the same time was forgiven, temporarily! To top it off, there were white blooms in amongst the yellow. I had never seen the white before and we all thought perhaps it was the weather, or some passing poo-er had given it some new nutrient.
Last October 25, I travelled over to a Heritage Roses in Australia regional meeting in Nannup, and again detoured to the rose to take cuttings from “a vigorous ‘Lady Roberts’ please” for a friend. There were the white flowers again. I took the yellow for the friend and took one cutting of the white for me. Using my new plastic glass method of taking cuttings, I was able to see roots on this one cutting on November 23, and it is now producing its first flower. And yes!! The flower is white.
It seems to be developing a basal colouring of yellow, much the same as ‘Lady Roberts’ has in coppery apricot. Temporarily I have put a name of "Blanche Roberts" on it, but I am wondering if it could be G. Paul’s 1889 sport of ‘Anna Olivier’, the lemon yellow ‘Mrs. Stephen Treseder’ resurfacing again. Then, in passing, I notice the Helpmefind listing of the lemon yellow “Bermuda’s Anna Olivier”.
The dates are interesting: ‘Anna Olivier’ 1872; ‘Mrs. Stephen Treseder 1889; and ‘Lady Roberts 1902.
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