Book  (1978)  
 
.....'Floradora'.....and we may strongly suspect that Tantau' s breeding records might link it with 'Super Star'.

Book  (1978)  Page(s) 106.  
 
'Super Star'  Medium  +   Coral  orange  Remontant   P2     H2 *
Most people would agree that this was the finest rose introduced in the 1960s. Its colour was  a revelation, a vermilion kind of coral inside the petals, the outside similar, but touched with salmon pink. It introduces to us a remarkable German, Matthias Tantau, whose successes in the 1960s were almost as overwhelming to his competitors as had been Pernet-Ducher' s fifty years previously…… 
The origin of 'Super Star' is not exactly clear. Mathias Tantau does not publish all the parents of his roses. He has said that the strain which led to 'Super Star' began in 1937 from experiments with R. multibracteata. If so, it has caught that rose's habit of flowering late, for it is noticeable that 'Super Star' is one of the last Hybrid Teas to show a flower. Another statement from  Tantau, made verbally I believe, was that 'Super Star' was ten generations away from the first admission of R. multibracteata. The parentage given is (Seedling x 'Peace') x (Seedling x 'Alpine Glow'), and that leaves out all the interesting bits about R. multibracteata. However, it starts a surprising line of thought, which one would  have thought even more  worthy  of mention, for 'Alpine Glow' is supposed to have been born of three roses, all of which had R. roxburghii as pollen parent.  Obviously that cannot be so; the parentage quoted is either wrong, or else given in the form of a short cut. So even as with 'Peace', we are in doubt as to the origin of this, its great successor.  
'Super Star' was introduced in 1960 in Britain, and in 1962 in the United States. Harry Wheatcroft  made  a great job of it in London. The first time it was shown, the name had  not been agreed, and he exhibited it under the label 'The Great Unnamed Seedling'. It looked great, and everyone wanted it. But they did not all get it, the demand  was  beyond fulfilling. My nursery reduced its order to a thousand eyes for propagation, in order to relieve the pressure on the Wheatcrofts. We were not so pleased to receive them weeks after propagation was finished, and in such quality as to yield a poor quarter of the plants we had expected. British rose nurseries then turned to the cut flower markets, for 'Super Star' was being grown on the Continent for that purpose; and they stocked up with all the 'Super Star' they wanted by buying bunches of roses from Covent Garden….. 
In the United States, the Jackson & Perkins Company decided to change the rose's name to `Tropicana'.  I am told that this was in consideration of the fact that one of their main rivals, the Conard-Pyle Company, traded their plants as 'Star Roses'; and it seemed over-generous  to present them with 'Super Star'. Maybe they foresaw an argument  about proprietorial rights in the name……
A variety may start life healthy and attract a disease later.  ‘Super Star’ itself is an example of this, for after several years of growing to the general wonder and delight, it has now become susceptible to mildew.
 

Website/Catalog  (1978)  Page(s) 9.  Includes photo(s).
 
Super Star ® Tango (NIRP 1960)  Qui n'a pas vu fleurir Super Star ne peut imaginer une rose pi us parfaite. Rosier-très vigoureux et florifère orné.d'un feuillage élégant vert foncé. La rose d'un coloris saumon orangé peu commun se déploit toujours gracieusement.- Avec Super Star vous aurez toujours des massifs flamboyants et des vases bien garnis. Hauteur de végétation : 75/85 cm.

Website/Catalog  (1976)  Page(s) 24.  Includes photo(s).
 
SUPER STAR (Allemagne Tantau Tanorstar) : la rose la plus couronnée de ces dernières années, formidable floribondité.

Magazine  (Aug 1971)  Page(s) 3. trimester, p. 23.  
 
QUELQUES VARIETES RECOMMANDEES POUR NOS REGIONS ENSOLEILLEES [Mediterranean]
HYBRIDES DE THE
American heritage, jaune canari clair / Antigone, jaune orangé / Belle Strasbourgeoise, rose saumoné / Clio, rouge / Donatella, rouge capucine et revers jaune citron / Firmament, rouge / Gold Time, ambre jaune / Jamaica, rouge cerise / Kronenbourg, rouge et jaune orangé / Mariléne, rose / Mignonne, rose nacré / Merci, rose saumon / Mystère, rose clair / Red lion, rouge cerise / Rose Gaujard, rouge et argent / Shannon, rose foncé / Sissi, lilas pastel / Super Star, orange saumoné / Tanagra, rouge orangé / Wizo, orange saumoné.

Website/Catalog  (1971)  Page(s) 5.  Includes photo(s).
 
SUPER-STAR (Tantau) TANgo 381 FD. La Rose aux 24 Prix Internationaux. Coloris très pur et lumineux orange mandarine. Très parfumée. Convient aussi bien pour massifs que pour fleur coupée. Succès sensationnel.

Book  (8 Mar 1970)  Page(s) 125.  
 
Super Star [One of Harry Wheatcroft's selections of the Best Hybrid Teas.] Description... intense light-bright vermilion... flowering as freely off side-shoots as off basal stems... Bagatelle Gold Medal 1960...

Book  (8 Mar 1970)  Page(s) 23-24.  
 
The big four [roses of Harry Wheatcroft's] time: 'Peace', 'Queen Elizabeth', 'Fragrant Cloud' and 'Super Star'... sparkling salmon-vermilion... [Mathias Tantau told Wheatcroft:] "My father began this particular cross twenty years ago. Over the years, we have raised 100,000 seedlings carrying this strain -- and had to discard them all. Now we have just these three..." [seven years later, Wheatcroft exhibited 'Super Star' to the world at his stand at the Royal Horticultural Show at Chelsea.]... Mathias wanted to call it 'Ilse Tantau', after his wife... [Wheatcroft suggested the name 'Super Star'.]

Book  (1970)  Page(s) 153.  
 
Mr. J. Henshaw, Heidelberg, Victoria.  The New Ones. 
'Zorina'.....flowers of a 'Super Star' shade but the overall colour is softer. 

Website/Catalog  (1970)  Page(s) 5.  Includes photo(s).
 
SUPER-STAR (Tantau) - TANgo 381 FD. ..... La rose aux 24 Prix Internationaux et au succès sensationnel. Coloris pur et lumineux orange saumoné, très parfumée. Variété qui convient aussi bien pour groupes et massifs, que pour fleurs coupées. Vigoureuse et extrêmement florifère.