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'Mrs. Herbert Stevens' rose Reviews & Comments
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Initial post
9 JUN 13 by
 goncmg
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I cannot class this one, I have had it 4 years now, and how Frau Karl figures into this escapes me. Everything about this one says "tea" as in the Dad, Niphetos...........got it own root from Rogue, quickly blew up into a "full size" but does not behave at all like a Hybrid Tea for me. Bushy and fat but small and fey, blooms itself silly, I cannot feed it enough, blooms are small, foliage is matte and small, after 3 years letting it be a "tea" this spring I cut it back hard, like an HT, thought this might make it behave like one.................oh no. It is LESS vigorous now, sort of angry with me, whispier than ever, blooming FAR less and this is really odd because all my other HT and GR were also pruned back HARD and given fish emulsion and manure to "invigorate" them and in all other cases this worked a dream................I do not let mine overwinter outside in 6a so I cannot say if the Mother comes though in hardiness, all I can say is that this one is a TEA for me................it is also, oddly EXTREMELY blackspot resistant but EXTREMELY mildew prone..............Safrano LOVED my greenhouse room this winter, never missed a beat, bloomed all winter, threw basals in January...............this winter I will see if this one here will do the same................intrigued by this one, could take it or leave it at the bottom line, quite a personality. And in my opinion, a TEA.....................
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As a rule teas do not like a hard cut-back but this one can sometimes take it. I got my climber from some local farmers who thought it was a bush and used to prune it with a chain saw. When they saw it here unpruned and up a pecan tree, they asked "What have you done to it?"
The references show that many people have seen 'Mrs. Herbert Stevens' as being more tea than HT. The parentage was not purely 'Frau Karl Druschki' x 'Niphetos' but a dilution of (see 1922 reference).
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#2 of 8 posted
10 JUN 13 by
goncmg
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Good info, Patricia and it gives me confidence that I "read" this one correctly................I sort of KNEW the hard pruning I gave it---and I MEAN HARD as in all the twiggy OUT, down to 3 canes with 3 eye each----was going to tell the tale................I do have a few in the ground behind a rock wall, 2 seedlings from Mme. Isaac which threw back to single gallica-ish, 2 ramblers I cannot identify but I got as "gifts with purchase" from Rogue, Sunny South, and Iceberg (really a Hybrid Musk I think) and after all the years in the pot and in my main line-up, this one is going behind the "wall"..............it will be a much better fit there.............if only I had pictures of the past years and now! It is sooooooo mad at me! I am sort of laughing and I tell he to "get over it" when I water her......................Sunny South, btw, is really hardy! It got down to 0-F here in 6a a few nights and many days on end the high did not reach freezing (32F) and it is always, ALWAYS a cold wind here in Ohio in the winter...........it stayed green to the very tips...............this I did not expect as it is a Clark.................and I am laughing over the fight with the climber! I purchased Mrs. Sam McGredy the BUSH but got the clilmber. For 3 years I fought that poor thing, cut off the long arms, tried to revert it. She kept on keeping on! She BLOOMED! But last year I relented and let her grow out and in the winter I literally tied up 4 12 foot long canes and dollied her into the garage with the rest of them...............the spring bloom is incredible..............she wins............:-)
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The one trait 'Frau Karl Druschki' and 'Mrs Herbert Stevens' share in my conditions (hot and dry summers and mild winters) is their tendency to show chlorosis of the foliage at the first suggestion of hunger.
I use them as warning plants. When they start to yellow, it's time to feed the roses.
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Well, it all depends upon which type of classification method you're using. Strictly speaking, Mrs. Stevens IS HT. She is a combination of HP and Tea, making her an HT. But, if you subscribe to the "if it quacks like a duck..." method, she is definitely as much "Tea" as many of her contemporaries. It took several decades to produce the type of plant we now consider "Hybrid Tea" from these Tea hybrids. Most either followed the traditional HP, or Tea mold.
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#4 of 8 posted
10 JUN 13 by
goncmg
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And with THAT, Kim, LOL, we will not even get STARTED into the producer or the releaser (?) deciding the class upon patent application, the GR class in general, Arthur Bell/Uncle Walter/Folklore/Cherry-Vanilla/Pinata/Gay Princess/Orange Honey/Rougemoss and endless more in specifics..................:-).................I bought Stevens because I had that Botanica book from 2000 and 4 years ago I THOUGHT I was NOT going to create a small yet quite noteworthy (IMHO) collection.............I just wanted "old" HT's and somehow I found Rogue on the day I saw that pic in the Botanica book...................now I am stuck with this one.............lol lol lol................I have no more space. What once was 1950-1990 is soon going to become 1960-1985.....................many have surprised me and I WILL say they should still be around on traits. Just as many have proven to be not much more than some memory/mental construct I had which was based in no sort of merit per the variety....................Mme. Chaing Kai-Shek, "out of commerce" back when I was 6 and reading the annuals, oh she was so esoteric...............well, she is also a "not great and not noteworthy in any sense" rose. Lucky Lady, AARS my birth year, same. Mint Julep is healthy but actually a freak which should have been culled in the seed bed...............but little Hawaiian Delight is really good and looks a lot like Charisma which somehow won AARS yet is sickly! Antigua is a lusty, good, happy plant! Pres Hoover STOMPS anything from 1930----it is fragrant, strong, and "modern" in texture and form...............Bronze Masterpiece should really never have been released, nor should have been Azure Sea......................Portrait is a better rose than people give it credit for and just like its parents..................I can go on forever......................:-)
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Yup, we both could go on forever! LOL! But, remember, we're looking at these "antique, museum pieces" through Twenty-first Century eyes". For their times, most really WERE the better roses on the market. Scary, huh?
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#6 of 8 posted
10 JUN 13 by
goncmg
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Which, Kim, is why I LOVE them. I love---as I have stated endlessly---the sociology of roses. They came into their "own" in the post-war suburbia boom and just a few years prior were really the folly of the wealthier..............now we have "crap" like Knock Out stomping it all in good and bad ways: people NOW KNOW roses..............they also think KNOCK OUT is a species.......................even for 1943 I think Chiang Kai-Shek is worthless! But Curie, same year, oh yes................great form, better plant.................some got lost in the shuffle, some were released too late to make the marks they could have or should have.................some ARE great but maybe something SIMILAR was BETTER but that "slot" was taken: where is EVENING STAR? Yet I can get JFK and Pascali in a waxed bag??? And so on...............Kim, in me is a book about all of this............................how WERE Sunsong and Mint Julep ever released??? LOL! Why is Perfume Delight somehow having some insane resurection yet Friendship is basically GONE? And the hey day is LONG over, Ilgenfriitz, Wyant, etc..............I just want to make the public "meet in the middle"..................a woman I work with likes fragrance and a big bloom..................she was all "everyone is telling me KNOCK OUT" but I do not like them! I gave her a list of things she can find (and did) at the "better" garden center here: she got Granada, Double Delight, Barbra Streisand and Oklahoma.........................................and she is thrilled................and I did my job...............:-)
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The difference for it here in Oregon is that it grows very well here. Teas don't make it here. They hate the wet soil. Absolutely hate it. Some chinas are okay. But teas. You don't see teas here for a reason. But you will see this rose growing in abandoned old estates.
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I find it interesting that the 1913 reference that Virginia has added yesterday, says “faint pink”.
The 1911 (chamois and peach), and 1914 (pale red and peach) references also hint at colour.
I have only ever seen white in my foundling ‘Mrs. Herbert Stevens Cl.’.
(You are doing great work by the way, Virginia. In just six months you have made a fine contribution to HelpMeFind’s wealth of references.)
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I second Patricia's comments, Virginia. Thank you! I wonder how much climate affected the reported color variations the rose showed? I grew Mark Sullivan for years and never saw the old gold and red veining the old reports provided, until one particularly cold, wet spring when suddenly the real colors shown through. They either didn't form or were bleached out too quickly for me to observe in the usual conditions where that garden grew.
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Available from - Kurinda Rose Nursery
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