Newsletter  (Aug 2020)  Page(s) 12-13.  Includes photo(s).
 
[From "A Sweet Briar Trio plus One", by Darrell g.h. Schramm, pp. 9-14]
In the Central Garden at Mottisfont, I observed the beautiful ‘Janet’s Pride’. This rose presents itself as a pink bloom with white streaks and mottling, generally semi-double with nine to sixteen petals, dressing up a 5’ x 4’ shrub. Like R. rubiginosa, the plant produces scented foliage, but its leaves show some sheen, appear more rounded and deeply serrated. It does not object to shade. The rose apparently backtracks to about 1810 when the famous Descemet released it as ‘Clementine’. Sometime during the next eighty years or so, the rose was thought to have vanished. Its discovery is the source of two stories, both which concern a clergyman.
Story One: As a seedling, this rose was found growing in the early 1890s in the garden of a Mr. Whitwell and his wife Janet of Darlington, Durham County, England. It was found either by the Whitwells or by the Rev. H. D’Ombrain who was visiting them. D’Ombrain, instrumental in forming the National Rose Society, acknowledged it as a new rose and promptly named it for Mrs. Whitwell. Shortly thereafter, he presented a few plants of it to nurseryman George Paul (brother of William mentioned above) who reintroduced the rose in 1892. Another source simply claims, without any details, it was discovered in a rectory garden, somewhat substantiating but also confusing the above story.
Story Two: “On the authority of the Rev. C. Woolley Dod,” according to Ellen Willmott, ‘Janet’s Pride’ was found in a Cheshire country lane. Cheshire is located in the somewhat northwest, in the Liverpool area; Darlington in the northeast. Certainly when Ellen Willmott asked Alfred Parsons to paint the rose as an illustration for her tome The Genus Rosa, he did travel to Cheshire where it still grew in the wild. That additional fact would suggest the rose was indeed discovered in the northeast. A clergyman in each story. Could both stories be correct? Or facets of each one be true? Was the rose discovered in a garden as well as along a country lane? I have twice discovered a mystery seedling in my garden. And rose rustlers and others have found mystery roses in out-of-the-way places. But only one story allows for the name of the rose, that of Janet Whitwell. Why would George Paul have sold the rose as ‘Janet’s Pride’ if the Rev. D’Ombrain hadn’t given him a slip or two of the rose with its new name of someone he knew? And we do have records of two Janet Whitwells of Darlington around this time. It’s a puzzlement.

Newsletter  (Feb 2020)  Page(s) 9.  Includes photo(s).
 
Apparently the original name for 'Janet's Pride' was Clementine, a rose bred by JacquesLouis Descemet before 1815. It was re-introduced by George Paul in 1892, having been found in England along a Cheshire lane by the Rev. C. Wolley Dod (for whom a rose was also named). It is an eglantine, i.e., a Rosa rubiginosa. When Ellen Willmott wished this rose to be painted by Alfred Parsons for her voluminous book The Genus Rosa, he was obliged to travel to the north of England to locate it, which he did. Our cover shows his masterful watercolor. This rose, pink and white, semi-double, proves to be shade tolerant.

Book  (2005)  Page(s) 92.  
 
location G:203/2, Janet's Pride, Paul re-introduced 1892, hybrid rubiginosa, carmine-pink, center white, medium size, semi-double, tall

Book  (19 Apr 2000)  Page(s) 256.  
 
'JANET'S PRIDE', hybrid eglanteria, pb, 1892; (Clementine); flowers white, edged carmine-rose, semi-dbl., non-recurrent; vigorous growth; Paul; Paul

Book  (1997)  Page(s) 192.  
 
Janet's Pride ('Clementine') Sweet Briar. W. Paul 1892. Description... semi-double flowers, white with bright pink markings at petal edges...

Book  (Apr 1993)  Page(s) 99.  
 
Clementine Eglanteria (Old Garden Rose), Prior to 1838. Flowers rosy blush. This rose is apparently not in cultivation. Its name has been used erroneously as a synonym of 'Janet's Pride'.

Website/Catalog  (1986)  Page(s) 22.  
 

Janet’s Pride*. (hybrid Sweetbriar) ‘Clementine’. Semi-double flowers of creamy white bordered with pink.  Scented,  Foliage also well scented.  Vigorous and leafy.  1892.  P. F. Shade tolerant  W. H. (S) 6 x 4’.

Book  (1980)  Page(s) 213.  
 
R. D. Squires: At Jodrell Bank where a new arboretum has been planted, applicably our collection includes 'Janet's Pride', the Sweet Briar originally found growing wild in a Cheshire hedgerow.

Book  (1958)  Page(s) 288.  
 
PAUL. Paul & Son (George Paul)....Janet's Pride...

Book  (1958)  Page(s) 61.  
 
Clementine Hybrid eglanteria. (Found in a hedgerow in Cheshire, England.) Probably a natural hybrid of R. eglanteria X R. damascena. Semi-dbl., white edged carmine-rose. Vig.; non-recurrent bloom. Re-int. by Paul, 1892, as Janet's Pride. (42)