Website/Catalog  (31 Jan 2014)  
 
Name: 'Ruatara'
ARS Approved Exhibition Name: Ruatara
LCl, dp, Nobbs. Introductions: 1995

Book  (2012)  Page(s) 107.  Includes photo(s).
 
'Ruatara'. a rambler released in 1990, 'Ruatara' has flat blooms approximately 6 centimetres in diameter, and with about 36 blooms per cluster. It has a pronounced fragrance with lavender-pink blooms. The rambler is of medium vigour with mid-green leaves. I saw it for the first time in December 2011 in the garden at Kauri Creek where Ken Nobbs records it as being grown. Its seed parents are unknown, but probably include R. eglanteria. Ken notes in his writings that Eglanteria (aka 'Sweet Briar' and Rosa rubiginosa) was planted at Oihi sometime between 1815 and 1820, and there is "solid evidence" for that claim. He records that Rev. Richard Taylor wrote in 1841 when he visited Oihi, "A few sweet briar bushes are tokens of it having been the abode of civilised man, it was abandoned on account of its inconvenient position, being on the side of a steep hill".