Article (newspaper)  (Apr 2010)  Page(s) 2.  Includes photo(s).
 
Patricia Routley: A friend, Julie Lack in Queensland, wrote to me in 2007 talking about Borderer and I had to reply “Sorry, Julie, I don't grow the rose so don't know it”. She came back with “You really should grow it, I rate it as one of the top 5 roses in my garden, very easy from cutting. The colour is very variable depending on the weather and time of year, but it is always a very full little bloom with a button eye.” Well, after that recommendation, I had to ask around for wood and on February 10, 2009 (mid summer you will note), another friend sent me down cuttings and by March 7, I had two little plants with good healthy roots. By November they were flowering and they haven’t really stopped all summer. I recall I decided not to get it years ago when I was making two gardens – one pink and one yellow. The description of ‘Borderer’ was basically pink and yellow and I thought it would not be right for either garden. How wrong I was and I therefore stupidly missed out on years of pleasure from this sweet little rose. Alister Clark (1864-1949), the famous Australian rose breeder bred it in 1918. He disclosed the seed parent as ‘Jersey Beauty’, a wichuraiana rambler which had a yellow tea rose in its parentage. We don’t know the pollen parent of ‘Borderer’ and perhaps only a wayward bee once knew that. The actual colour was often described as pink, copper (or salmon) and amber (or buff or fawn) and all those colours seem about right, although it was also said to have a different shade at different seasons. The reverse is paler and the autumn colours do seem to be darker than those of summer. The 6cm blooms are double and the 50 petals are pleated down the center and seem to nestle into each other. Sometimes the blooms have a button eye and are quilled. It is an unusual shape, but so dainty. ‘Borderer’ is dwarf growing, exactly suiting its name and I intend to grow many cuttings and put them in the front of the beds about a metre apart. I gather the height is going to be about 40cm. Alister himself said “I rejoice to find scent in many of our Australian roses, particularly ‘Borderer’. Apparently some people can smell apple or musk in it, but because it is low and I can no longer get down there, I will take their word for it. After 92 years ‘Borderer’ is still a superb garden plant and this is why it never really got itself lost over the decades. Susan Irvine did much to bring it back into its rightful place again – at the front of the bed. Why do they bother producing the modern ground-cover roses when this charming and quite beautiful little rose from 1918 will out-perform them all.

Book  (20 Mar 2010)  
 
‘Borderer’ Pol, pb, 1918, Clark, A.; flowers salmon, fawn and pink, semi-dbl., slight fragrance; dwarf, spreading growth. [Jersey Beauty × unknown]. Introductions: NRS Victoria

Magazine  (2005)  Page(s) Vol 27, No. 4.  Includes photo(s).
 
Back cover photo. Alister Clark Roses in the Araluen Botanic Park, Perth. 'Borderer' is in the foreground.

Book  (2 Nov 2003)  Page(s) 20.  
 
Barbara May and Jane Zammit.  Rookwood Cemetery Roses.  
Identified Rookwood Roses. Australia Felix, Borderer, Mrs. Herbert Stevens (climbing) and Mrs. R. M. Finch now only remain in the Long Garden, the original site plants having been lost. 

Book  (2000)  Page(s) 127.  Includes photo(s).
 
‘Borderer’ = Polyantha. See ref Botanica's Roses.

Book  (1999)  Page(s) 8.  Includes photo(s).
 
Borderer - 1918. Jersey Beauty cross. Polyantha Bush rose. Double, slightly fragrant, salmon, fawn and pink flowers opening flat, fully recurrent. Grey-green foliage. Spreading growth. Few prickles. A good rose for the edge of a rose border. Flower: 50 petals, 60 mm, 4 to 17. Low bush: 0.5m x 1m.

Book  (1999)  Page(s) 16.  
 
Borderer. Clark, Australia, 1918. Polyantha. Pink. (Available from): Cottage, Evans, Golden Vale, Gretchen, Hedgerow, Hilltop, Lyn Park, Melville, Mistydown, Roses Galore, Rose Arbour, Ross, Showtime, Spring Park, Thomas, Wagner.

Book  (Dec 1998)  Page(s) 127.  Includes photo(s).
 
p127 Borderer. Modern Polyantha. Pink blend. Repeat-flowering. This was one of Alister Clark’s earliest releases. The lightly formed flowers are cupped, and open to reveal attractive stamens among the mid-pink petals. The blooms continue throughout the season and it is rarely without flowers. The growth is small and thin, creating a tightly growing bush that makes a good hedge plant. It is also ideal for informal edging of a rose bed. Clark’s aim when breeding was to produce plants which were healthy and strong and that flowered continuously throughout the year in warmer climates. ‘Borderer’ was a pioneer in this style. Zones 5-9 Clark, Australia, 1918. ‘Jersey Beauty’ x seedling.

Book  (1997)  Includes photo(s).
 
p95 You would look a long way to find better border roses than ‘Borderer’ and ‘Suitor’.

p107 There were memorable gardens visited in search of Alister Clark’s roses. We went to the lovely garden at Delatite near Mansfield, home of the Ritchie family, one winter’s day. In the rose garden – a formal rose garden with box hedges and gravel paths – was a little rose growing, not more than 30 cm tall. Sylvia Ritchie did not know its name. It had been in the garden for a very long time. It was a soft salmon-pink, she said, had a very unusual petal shape and bloomed continuously. I took cuttings and promised to let her know if, when I saw the flower, I was able to identify it. The cuttings all took and when the first little pink blooms appeared I was delighted with it, but had never seen it before.
Then one day in spring I was invited to tea by Mrs. Florence Brooke, a legendary old lady of well over eighty who lives in a dark, rambling old mansion set in one of Victoria’s truly historic gardens outside Daylesford – a garden famous for its fine and rare trees planted well over a century ago by Mrs. Brooke’s grandfather. …….. It is a wonderful garden – undoubtedly one of the finest in victoria. Giant trees form the basis of it. A tapestry hedge surrounds the circular drive with a towering oak in the centre. Aquilegias had naturalised under the trees. There were few flowers – this was not a garden for flowers – but we found the bed of …… and I took cuttings. Then, with the rain still tumbling down, we visited the Kitchen Garden. And there was my little pink rose from Delatite in full flower. “It’s Alister Clark’s ‘Borderer’.” Said Mrs. Brooke. “I’ve grown it for years’. …….. We planted ‘Borderer’ in the Alister Clark Garden as a border round a circular bed …..

p215 I visited Banongill at the end of the season when little was in flower. But ‘Borderer’ was still putting on a good display…….

p226 Picture No. 5

p247 Borderer – Good for edging a bed. Small, double, scented salmon-pink blooms throughout the season.

p250 List 1 (a list of those AC’s which have been identified with as great a certainty as we can hope for).
Borderer – Polyantha. 1918. ‘Jersey Beauty’ seedling. Semi-double to double salmon-pink. Very low-growing. Excellent border rose. Found at Delatite and at Wombat Park, Daylesford.

Book  (1996)  Page(s) 67.  
 
Mr. Kelvin Trimper, Salisbury Heights, SA: Borderer. 1918. Alister Clark, Polyantha. Double pale pink and apricot blooms are a feature of this low-growing bush. Growing only ½ metre high and spreading to cover a metre square, this free-flowering plant makes an eye-catching border, as its name suggests.